span (mistakenly) hire the services of
class="cap">S EO a Black Hat company, your own
(Search Engine image will be affected as well as
Optimization) is a vital (eventually) your placement on
component of ensuring your the Search Engines. This damage
website is successful. This is can often be permanent. Also, the
because SEO focuses around changing algorithms and methods
optimizing your site for the of the search engines also ensure
Internet Search Engines (such as that any "loopholes" are soon
Google, Yahoo! or MSN) and in closed. Black Hat SEO is simply
creating web presence for you not worth the money and the
through link popularity, PPC (Pay resultant consequences.
per Click) Management and many
But how do you know that
other specialized services. the company you are dealing with
This is a fast-changing, dynamic is going to employ ethical
and growing business. Because SEO techniques?
has become critical in conducting
Here are a few things you can
an effective web business, some look out for:
"shady" practices have crept in
1) Link Building
to cheat the system. These
Ask questions as to how they
methods are often referred to as intend to build links for you.
"Black Hat SEO." They are highly Link Farms used to be a very
unethical and create a popular Black Hat technique.
disreputable image for those who Basically, Link Farms contain
have employed the services of spurious content with scores of
companies that practice them. links thrown in. These links are
Black Hat SEO is also penalized not even related, so that a
quite actively and fervently by person would not even be able to
the Internet Search Engines.
use the site to surf a particular
In other words, if you topic. Link Farms are now
severely penalised by the Search
PPC (Pay per Click) is a very
Engines and having your website effective method of advertising,
on them will be detrimental for both in cost and value. PPC
your placement.
basically is paid advertising on
2) Keyword Stuffing
other websites that link to your
If the company in question site. You only pay for the
offers to 'hide' relevant advertising if the advert brings
keywords in the actual content of in a lead. Black Hat SEO employs
your site, beware. They may also various methods to basically
suggest content on your site that force web-users to click on the
is "stuffed" with keywords. advertising through pop-ups at
(Note: this is not the same as various sites (or link farms) or
Metadata.) What this means is even employing the use of Spyware
that the content is bad, false, (installing software on web-users
or irrelevant; they simply try machines without their consent
and put as many search keywords that displays the advertising in
and phrases that they can into various ways.) Some may also
the content of your site. This is offer an "e-mail campaign" which
in hope that the more keywords is nothing less than a "Spam
you have, the higher your search Fest." We all know what e-mail
engine ranking. Search Engines Spam is, and what it's like;
have grown aware of this method, don't let your company be brought
and have employed various methods down through this unethical
to curb the problem. Google, in practice.
particular, has begun to focus
4) More Spam
their algorithm in a way that it
Blogs have become increasingly
checks the coherence of the popular, and are very helpful
content and places better quality when it comes to SEO. There are
content on better ranking.
ethical ways of using them, and -
3) PPC Advertising
of course - unethical ways. Black
Hat SEO focuses on spamming
internet blogs that are
false content (and links to your background-color: #F5F7FB;
website) on blogs all over the border-left: #BAC9FF 1px solid;
internet. Sometimes, they may border-right: #BAC9FF 1px solid;
even create "Spam Sites" which margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom:
are entire websites or blogs with 10px;" valign="top"
false content to direct people to align="center">
your website. This can be very
damaging for your reputation amongst the community and once type="text/javascript">
google_ad_channel
="8710800197"; type="text/javascript"
google_color_border =
"F5F7FB";
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndica
google_color_bg = "F5F7FB"; tion.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
google_color_link =
"0000FF";
google_color_url =
"3E3F43";
google_color_text =
"3E3F43";
About the Author:
Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who represents many UK businesses. For Ethical Search Engine Optimisation, he recommends Impact Media Ltd, one of the UK's leading specialists of Search Engine Optimisation.
Article Tags: seo, black, link
