Search Engine Optimization - Let's Get Ethical

Ok, there's a lot of companies out there offering you an easy ride to the top ten! But, and it's a big BUT some search engine optimization companies use unethical and often devious tricks to artificially boost the search engine rankings of a web site.

You might get short term results with these techniques but it's very likely that your site will be banned from search engines if you use one of these techniques. You'll put your web business at severe risk if you use one of these methods.

You don't need to know the full ins and outs of these dodgy dealings, but look out for any of the following

* Automatically generated doorway pages

(Doorway pages are often easy to identify in that they have been designed primarily for search engines, not for human beings. Sometimes a doorway page is copied from another high ranking page, but this is likely to cause the search engine to detect the page as a duplicate and exclude it from the search engine listings.)

* Cloaking and false redirects

(a technique in which the content presented to the search engine spider is different from that presented to the users' browser)

* Keyword stuffing

(that's a page filled with way too many references to key words or phrases)

* Hidden text or hidden links

(search engines quickly sift out invisible text using the background colour)

* Pages loaded with irrelevant words

(What's the point! I'm sure you're not going to go down this route because you want a successful website!)

* Duplicated content on multiple pages

(search engines want information, not duplication. They're not daft, and this isn't going to fool them!)

* Misspelling of well-known web sites

(We all make spelling mistakes, but this is an old trick that really does little to help)

* Unrelated and centralized link farms

(Websites that offer thousands of links are EVIL and you should avoid them like the plague - they're more hassle than they are worth and search engine spiders can spot them a mile off!)

* Other methods that try to trick search engines

(Why try tricking search engines when you can play the game fairly and win?)

If you play the game fairly then it has benefits for you, the search engine and your customer!

* Search engines win as they get pages that are easy to understand and that contain the quality information.

* Web searchers win as they get what they ask for. They search for "widgets" and get a page about widgets.

* Web site owners win as they are getting visitors who are actually interested in what their web site has to offer.

No company can guarantee to get you a particular position, unless of course they specify which key words they are going to quote on (and often these will be low volume search terms)

The only way to get high search engine rankings and staying there is good web page content and playing by the rules.

Beyond this, there are extra techniques that can be employed, which involve detailed research on your competitors' websites, and an analysis of their content. This can really reap benefits/