SEO Tactics
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques: What to Use and What to Avoid
Methods of search engine optimization or SEO can basically be divided into three major groups, according to whether search engines find them acceptable or otherwise. Search engines base their indexes on logic which is why certain SEO techniques work well with search engine logarithms while others do not. That is why you need to differentiate which techniques are considered legitimate from those which will get you penalized or even banned. The three major groups are known as the White-Hat SEO methods, Grey-Hat SEO methods, and Black-Hat SEO methods.
1. White-Hat SEO Techniques
White-hat SEO techniques are those which are recognized by SEO’s and all major search engines as legitimate methods of optimization. Aside from the fact that using these SEO methods will never get you banned, white-hat SEO techniques maintain your website’s integrity as well as increase your search engine page ranking in the long run.
a. Content Creation
With content creation, we are referring to creating the kind of content that your site visitors will consider as well-written, original, relevant, and appealing. Basically speaking, the more your website’s content is regularly updated and rich in information, the more valuable your website will appear to search engines, thus increasing your chances of moving forward in the search listings. Aside from that, webmasters who are looking for websites to link to need to see that your content is actually worth linking to in the first place. Also, the extra pages that you get can target the additional keywords that are relevant to the page topic. Quality content requires much time and effort, but the long-term results are supremely worth all the trouble.
Another twist to this method is writing content for other people’s websites. Write interesting, relevant forum posts, articles, etc. that can make other readers want to post them on their sites. This helps build better links to your website, without having to give a reciprocal link back.
b. Reciprocal Linking and Internal Linking
With reciprocal linking, you have to remember that exchanging links must be done intelligently and with websites who have good reputations and have content that is related to your site’s own topics. Avoid linking to penalized websites and industries and instead, focus on websites that contain your target keywords. Strengthening your site’s relevancy through association will help your website succeed in the search indexes.
Internal linking, on the other hand, is all about adding text links to at least your homepage, near its bottom. These links should enable the site visitor to click through to each of your main internal webpages, together with a sitemap that can show your internal pages.
c. Site Optimization
Everything about your site must work hand in hand to maximize your website’s chances of exposure on search engines on the web. Think about creating a website that does not hinder conveying your message to your readers or hamper your content’s search engine efficacy. Maintaining the salability and message effectiveness of your website is key in site optimization.
2. Grey-Hat SEO Techniques
Techniques that belong to the grey-hat category are legitimate when properly utilized. However, these are often abused by unscrupulous SEO’s and webmasters. Although your website will not likely get banned from using grey-hat tactics, caution must still be exercised when using them. Abuse of these techniques will have you penalized by search engines, especially if your vigilant competitors report your activity to them, thus removing you from the competitive scene.
a. Cloaking
There are two arguably legitimate uses of cloaking. One is by reserving information for visitors while presenting different content to the search engines since you have a “Members Only” section. The second case is when an image-based website uses text to represent each of its webpages. As long as the text is an exact description of the images and the page, then it is considered as legitimate. It is best to ask permission first from each search engine in order to fully explain your reasons when planning to use any of these forms of cloaking.
b. Paid Links
Purchase links for your website only if your intention is to purely advertise your site’s products or services. Purchasing links to gain higher link-popularity will get your website penalized or your links discounted for abuse.
c. Duplicate Content
Search engines now have filtering mechanisms which locate pages that have content that are duplicated or extremely similar with each other. Once found, the duplicated content is eliminated. Competitors will also report their rival sites for duplicating content. In both instances, the erring website’s rankings will be penalized as result. Only resource websites are immune to this sanction since search engines allow them to have duplicate content since they serve as article indexes.
3. Black-Hat SEO Techniques
Under no circumstances must you be tempted to use black-hat techniques. Large scale abuse of these methods has caused major search engines to instantly ban and/or penalize users of these shady SEO tactics. Although black-hat techniques will increase your ranking quickly, your website will eventually be at the losing end since you will sooner or later be severely penalized or worse, permanently banned.
a. Keyword Stuffing
This is when an SEO or webmaster repeatedly puts a targeted key phrase on a page in an attempt to fool search engines into thinking that the words are relevant. The text is often in very tiny font size and placed at the bottom part of a webpage.
b. Hidden Text
Similar to keyword stuffing, this technique only differs in the fact that the text’s font color is exactly or almost the same as the webpage’s background (which can also be an image file).
c. Cloaking
This method of presenting information to search engines that is different from the actual information that human visitors get to see comes in many forms and is abused by many unethical webmasters and SEO’s. Again, this is risky since even if the search engines fail to detect your illegitimate methods, your competitors will surely report you as soon as they figure out your scheme.
d. Doorway Pages
Frequently generated by software and automatically added to a website, doorway pages are created for the exclusive purpose of targeting a certain keyword phrase/s to lure visitors and search engines and yet have little or no relevancy at all to any helpful topic. Usually the page only exists to contain the phrase, hoping that the visitor will click through to the homepage.
e. Redirects
Redirects are used to automatically transport visitors to a webpage, whether or not the webpage has something relevant or informative to offer them. Redirecting is used in complementing doorway pages.
f. Duplicate Sites
Created as a way to throwback search engines, webmasters using this method duplicate a site that they were promoting and put it online. They think that doing so will make the duplicate site outrank their original website and take their sales.
g. Interlinking
Linking together multiple websites created by a single owner to build overall link popularity is a black-hat technique. It was devised as incoming links became vital in boosting search engine page rank. Difficult for search engines to detect, users can only detect this technique if multiple websites end up having the top places on the search engine indexes.
Profitworx is a White-Hat SEO Company helping thousands of clients world wide increase their Organic Search Engine rankings through professional SEO Services and skilled SEO Consultants.
This article inspired by Beanstalk.
