Search Engine Optimization can be confusing enough to a small business website owner; and it doesn’t help that the internet is polluted with really, really bad SEO tips & strategies. It may be tempting to follow poor advice, especially when you believe that you will see results much more quickly.
There are 3 “types” of SEO tips, and only one type is worth following. First, let’s take a closer look at the worst form of SEO guidelines, so you know what not to do when you want to optimize your website to gain traffic through search engines.
Black Hat SEO… It’s Just Not Worth It!
So there’s no confusion about it, black hat SEO tips produce spam. This is the most unethical method of search engine optimization possible, and there are many ways to go about it. The entire concept, however, is based on manipulating the results when a search engine spider, such as the GoogleBot, “crawls” (or indexes) a website.
Examples of black hat SEO include:
- Article Spinning – a process which “rewrites” one original article into several duplicate articles that are considered unique (to a robot) by spinning words and sentences into similar words and sentences, that contain the same meaning. This is usually done through article spinning software, or by hiring low quality, low wage freelance writers to generate multiple rewrites of a short piece of content. Spinning an article is unethical because the end product is not unique or original, and offers nothing of true value to a human perspective.
- Keyword Stuffing / Keyword Counting - While keyword density is important in any effective SEO campaign, it is unethical to “push the limit” and aim for a higher density of keywords (as high as 5% on web pages.) When producing an SEO Blog or Article, keywords should fall into place naturally. The quality of an article is compromised when you focus on counting the number of times a long tail and/or short tail keyword is used instead of providing valuable information related to the target topic. Another example of keyword stuffing is to use meta keywords that are not relevant to the web page, in an attempt to mislead search engine traffic.
- Cloaking – An especially deceptive black hat SEO strategy is to publish hidden or invisible text on a web page, for example by disguising keywords in a color that blends into the background of a web page
Also known as ‘spamdexing’… Black Hat SEO tips are easy to recognize. If it sounds like “cheating”… it is. There are several reasons to avoid these deceptive strategies, the most important being the risk taken that if you are caught (and you will be caught) you will suffer the punishment of a reduced page ranking… or worse yet, being black listed by search engines. (That means your website will not show up in search engine results at all.)
White Hat SEO… Taking the Honest Road Pays Off in the Long Run
Sure, it may take a bit longer before you see any results, but the only SEO guidelines worth following are those provided by the search engines. When all is said and done, search engine optimization is just one element that your website content serves. The most important purpose of any website is to serve the end user, human visitors.
Whether you want to inform, educate, entertain, or convert… this purpose should always be met first and foremost. Keyword density, and keyword placement, will occur naturally when you understand white hat SEO guidelines are based around customer satisfaction. The highest page ranks are given to the highest traffic websites, and if you can’t keep visitors on your website… you’ll never stack up against competitors!
So the best ways to optimize your website for search engine traffic are to:
- Focus on a topic that will include natural density and placement of target keywords & phrases. Produce quality content that serves a purpose to your audience, and will satisfy your target market.
- Turn to the search engines for quality, white hat SEO tips & strategies that you can follow yourself to rank higher in search engine results. (Try Google’s SEO Tips and the Yahoo! SEO Content Guidelines for more information.)
- Keep content fresh and up to date. Stale content is useless to consumers as well as search engines, so be sure to maintain your website with at least 2 new posts each month. (I recommend a minimum of 2 posts a week, depending on the nature of your small business.)
What About Silver Hat SEO Guidelines?
Silver Hat SEO is a pretty name for a combination of ethical (white hat) policies and the deceptive policies of black hat seo. In other words, it doesn’t matter. Whether you cheat a little or cheat a lot, you’re still cheating and it’s not worth the risk. SEO is not the sole purpose of your website anyways, so what’s the point of disappointing potential customers?
