Traffic and Adsense

Google SEO Mythbusters - what is proven and what is guesswork?: "There are lots of ideas that float around the SEO world. Some are true - either tested (best) or established by authoritative communication from Google spokespersons (second best). For some there is good suggestive evidence, but not 100% proof. Other SEO ideas may be opinion, or even just plain wrong.

What SEO 'facts' fall into what category? What kind of testing would you do to move a given idea up a notch or two on an SEO 'trustability' scale of:

True
Probable
Opinion
Myth

1. Google evaluates the content section of a page differently from the rest of the template. I say 'True'.
I've seen this effect several times in the power of a link in the body of an article compared to a link somewhere in a 'related links' section. Links in the body content rock the house.

2. Google is using human editorial input to affect the SERP. I say that's 'Probable'.
I sure can't think of a test to make this one proven. The big fuss over eval.google.com is several years old, and Google has now filed a patent on how to integrate editorial input into the algorithm.

3. Using a dedicated IP address helps in ranking. I say that's 'Opinion'.
In fact, I have moved domains from shared IP to a dedicated IP and seen no obvious change. I think it depends on the company you keep when" (from tedster,www.webmasterworld.com)