Search Engine Optimisation, also known as SEO or Search Engine Placement is a method of Online Marketing employed to maximise the possibilities of a web site receiving online visits from the right sort of searcher and in the end accomplishing good business from that visit. A good Search Engine Optimisation Company will only use ethical means to improve the Search Engine Placement on a search engine’s search results page for a website.
The start point of ethical optimisation is careful analysis and application of keywords and phrases that a surfer is likely to use in and around a business’s website. The Search Engine Optimisation Company should agree the keywords to be promoted with the business owners, as this list of keywords should become the basis of payments made by the business for its improved Search Engine Placement.
References or back-links to the client website, particularly from other sources that are relevant will also enhance its profile and importance with the search engines. A site with more of these backward references will automatically appear more popular. The right links in the right places aid both the receiver and the giver.
These techniques are also supported by the creation of various articles mentioning the client’s business. These articles are then widely published across the web. The articles will contain links which connect to the client web-site.
These techniques, often known as White Hat techniques, normally have 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 laid down by the search engines. Optimisation using ethical methods will not only improve the client success rate but also enhance 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 kind of business, there are many ways of achieving the desired results. Unethical techniques may be implemented aggressively for better short term effect, but with long-term consequences. They may even result in a company’s site being effectively black-listed by search engines. However, Optimisers employing these techniques (referred to in some circles as Black Hat techniques) seem to believe that a damaged reputation is an acceptable price of that gain, not worrying about the long-term future.
One popular method used was spamdexing, or keyword stuffing, which involves stuffing a client page with keywords to make the page appear more relevant to a search robot. Such improper use of keywords could, in the past, result in a search engine giving a mistakenly high priority to an irrelevant website. This overloading or Keyword Stuffing was often done by making keywords invisible to people viewing the web site. Keyword stuffing is sometimes still used as a way of sending searchers to a doorway page, an intermediate web site usually owned by the optimiser. This website is then used to direct a searcher to the client’s site instead of allowing the searcher to go directly from the search results list to the actual website that he is customer return immediately to the search engine results in the hope of finding a more useful outcome with another company and can lead to an undeserved distrust of that search engine.
