Raleigh NC Web Design and Ethical SEO
There are two approaches to search engine optimization (SEO), each of them as different as night and day. One approach seeks to obey the search engine rules while the other does not. It’s basic human nature for some people to take the high road while others choose to cut corners and bend the law, and it’s this latter attitude that leads to the practice of what is known as black hat SEO.
What Is Black Hat Optimization?
In the old cowboy movies, the bad guys always wore black hats, and that same hat is worn today by SEO Web developers and designers who take pride in the fact that they break all the search engines rules. The black hatters often claim to be smarter than the algorithm prodigies at Google, and these internet gurus all believe they’ll never get caught. But get caught they do, and if an unethical SEO firm optimized your website, it’s only a matter of time before that firm’s outlaw ways come back to haunt you. The following three examples are but a few of the many black hat SEO techniques:
Key word stuffing: This term refers to the practice of ‘stuffing’ pages with key words and phrases in an attempt to trick the spiders into giving your website more attention than it deserves. Most search engine spiders today can detect these worthless pages, and while some spiders simply ignore them, others will punish you severely for engaging in this practice.
Doorway Pages: Doorway pages are programmed to appear one way to the spiders and a different way to visitors to your site–these phantom pages redirect a visitor to a legitimate text while the spiders continue to view key word gibberish. Once again, the spiders will always catch you in the end, and any short-term gains will seem meaningless when (not if), your site is flagged, censured or permanently banned.
Invisible: Very clever, white text on a white background, yet another way of trying to attract the spider’s attention to long lists of key words and phrases while keeping this incoherent text invisible to the human eye. When the spiders catch you, and eventually they will, your website will be happily labeled as spam and promptly banished to outer space.
Raleigh NC Web Design Is A White Hat Optimization Firm
While the unethical techniques listed above may bring short-term gains in search engine page ranking, they detract from the overall legitimacy of a website and will ultimately damage any reputable business concern. The ethical SEO specialists at Raleigh NC Web Design are all committed to white hat Web optimization techniques, and we hold this commitment because we firmly believe that a long-term internet marketing strategy must always be pursued for any client whose business intends to withstand the test of time. Isn’t it time to ask us what an ethical SEO plan can do for you?
