Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is little understood and therefore the source of much misunderstanding. It is also the source of accidental and, too often, deliberate, fraud. Many "experts" in the field do not stay current. As a result, they use obsolete strategies such as link farms. Other use so-called Black Hat methods that will get you a high page ranking ... until Google finds out they've been spammed. Google is leading the charge to filter out sites that use Black-Hat methods. In fact, they recently dropped one such offender from a PageRank of eight to zero.

Keeping up with SEO techniques requires ongoing research. The search algorithms are constantly changing, what is considered White or Black hat is shifting territory. Before you hire an SEO consultant, make sure they are ethical and that they keep current with the technology and practices.

Hats-Black and White

There are many methods used to increase a site's Page Rank. Some are quite valuable, others will actually lower your ranking. The terms for these various techniques are Black Hat and White Hat.

White Hat SEO techniques are supported by Google and other search engines because they reflect the site's real value to a typical user. Examples are careful use of keywords in the text, making sure your site shares links with similar sites, and making sure that your site is easily read by a spider.

Black Hat techniques are frowned upon by search engines. They are attempts to scam the engine's algorithm. These techniques do not reflect the site's real value to a typical user. Examples include link farms, hidden text, cloaking, or a fake layer of sites that replace the link farm, but still exist solely to increase the Page Rank of the targeted site. Many SEO experts will increase your rating using a Black technique, collect their fee, and move on. You'll be on your own when Google figures out what happened and drops your ranking, or drops you permanently.

A Gray technique is one that (yes, you guessed it), is marginal. Many sites, especially Real Estate Sites, have long paragraphs of text at the bottom. The text is simply a collection of key words, not structured into sentences. The purpose is to weight the spider's keyword algorithm. The problem is, simply listing the keywords is of no real value to the user. This, and other techniques skirt the edges around what is accepted. Often, these are new techniques that SEO Experts discover as the search engine algorithms evolve. Often, these techniques get moved into the Black are, other Gray techniques emerge to replace them.

Is Black Always Bad?

If you loan your car to somebody, it is usually understood that they will drive carefully, taking no unnecessary risks. The borrower will understand this, and use caution. On the other hand, if you own a racing car, and loan it to a driver in an important race, you expect the driver to push the envelope, taking risks to win the race. In a similar fashion, if a site owner in a very competitive market feels the need, they may choose to use more aggressive SEO techniques. This is not wrong, as long as everybody involved understands and accepts the risk.

What to do?

Know that your SEO Consultant is honest. Understand how aggressively they market your site, and make sure you agree with the level of risk. Ask for references, and then follow up. Ask for details about the plan. If it does not sound right, it might not be.

The bottom line, deal with somebody you feel you can trust, and monitor that relationship to make sure you were correct.

			Search Engine Optimization
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