Do you think rumors and half-truths create the average Webmaster's SEO knowledge, or is SEO a 'science' which can be studied and mastered? How do you know?
Yes and Yes. Yes, rumors and half-truths create the average Webmaster's SEO knowledge. Yes, SEO is a 'science' which can be studied and mastered
I think that it's just a game of many factors. I don't believe on the SEO "holy grail", Google said at 2006 that there are at least 200 factors that determine the ratings.
You can do SEO science by studying #1 positioned sites, and checking which rumors and half-truth factors (keywords, backlinks, internal linking, PR, domain age...) they have applied.
Verbie is correct, constantly test and try things and prove what is right or wrong and how effective things are. I've spent $100's on domains alone just to sacrifice for SEO testing. Its quite annoying seeing so much false junk being posted and written each day about the way SEO works. But hey i shouldnt complain it keeps my inbox full every day from people wanting SEO because they use these incorrect methods and fail.