Search Engine Optimization, alternatively known as SEO or Search Engine Placement is a method of Online Marketing devised to maximise the chances of a business receiving online visits from the right sort of visitor and ultimately accomplishing good business as a result of that visit. A good Search Engine Optimization Company will only use ethical methods to improve the Search Engine Placement on a search engine’s search results page for a website.
The starting point of ethical optimization is careful analysis and use of keywords and phrases that a searching customer is apt to use in and around a business’s website. The Search Engine Optimization Company must agree the keywords to be supported with the business owners, as this list of keywords should form the basis of payments made by the business for its improved Search Engine Placement.
References or links to the client web site, in particular from other web-sites that are relevant will also raise its profile and importance with the search engines. A website with more of these backward references will of course appear to be more popular. The right links in the right places help both the receiver and the giver.
These techniques are additionally enhanced by the creation of abstract articles referring to the client’s business. These articles are then widely distributed across the internet. The articles will contain links that connect to the client website.
These techniques, often referred to as White Hat techniques, invariably enjoy much greater long-term success. They improve the search from a human perspective rather than the pure mechanics of a search. They follow the rules and policies set down by the search engines. Optimization using ethical techniques will not only enhance the client success rate but also improve the reputation of the client with potential customers and search engines. This also reflects well on the Search Engine Optimization Company and the reliability of the search engines themselves for Online Marketing.
As with any type of work, there are many methods of achieving the desired results. Unethical techniques can be applied aggressively for greater short term impact, but with long-term consequences. They may even result in a company’s website being actively banned from search engines. However, Optimizers employing these techniques (known in some circles as Black Hat techniques) appear to feel that a damaged reputation is an acceptable consequence of that gain, not worrying about the long-term future.
One popular technique used was spamdexing, or keyword stuffing, which involves stuffing a web page with keywords to make the page appear more relevant to a search robot. Such unethical use of keywords could, in the past, result in a search engine giving a mistakenly high ranking to an irrelevant website. This overloading or Keyword Stuffing was frequently done by making keywords invisible to someone viewing the website. Keyword stuffing is sometimes still used as a way of sending searchers to a doorway page, an intermediate website typically owned by the optimiser. This web site is then used to direct searchers to the client’s site instead of allowing the searcher to go directly from the search results list to the actual web site that he is seeking. This result is likely to make a lead to an undeserved distrust of that search engine.