Ethics, Best Practices, and SEO - A Crisis in the Profession

There has been much debate recently on the practice of ethical Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The recent removal of a high profile SEO company from the Google results has plunged the industry into yet another debate on what is ethical and what is not in our profession.

I have been involved in the SEO industry for a few years now and the mention of the word ethics and best practices in what is still an unregulated industry creates a level of confusion the likes of which I have not observed in any other industry. Why does this reluctance to discuss ethics and best practices exist? After all, we call ourselves professionals and as professionals we should strive to be part of an industry which stands for best practices and quality of service.

The confusion seems to come from the way that search engines rank sites. Each search engine has an algorithm which is a complex method of giving a value to a site which will ensure that it is returned in the search results when a relevant keyword is typed into a search engine. These algorithms are kept secret by the search engines for obvious reasons. The SEO industry is highly focused on analyzing these algorithms and using any knowledge gained to modify and rank websites. Ask any two SEO's what they consider to be ethical in their pursuit of top results and you will most likely get two very different answers. Hence, the lack of agreement on what is ethical and what is not.

So where do we start? Our commitment must always start with the client and our responsibilities to them. An ethical company will always demonstrate loyalty and respect to their client. This is true whether they are an SEO, a doctor or an accountant.

Having sound business practices and a professional approach to all that you do then we can move onto the 'search engine guidelines.' All the major search engines and directories publish their own guidelines of use for webmasters. This should be the minimum that any SEO practitioner complies with when working on a client's site. Search engines have a right to protect the integrity of their results and the SEO practitioners should respect those guidelines.

The confusion seems to arrive with the interpretation of the guidelines. One SEO will interpret the rules to mean one thing and another SEO will see it as completely different. The stakes are high and a top ranking in Google for your site is powerful branding and can lead to a major upswing in your business.

SEO practitioners have been classified as 'whitehat,' and 'blackhat.' Whitehat practitioners are the ones that try to stick to search engine guidelines while blackhat operate using more questionable techniques and view the search engines as the 'enemy.' Unfortunately blackhat techniques can sometimes adversely affect the sites ranking and worse, get their client's sites banned.

Blackhats traditionally play to the emotional needs of their clients and often convince them to part with their money without giving clear and specific information on the changes they will make to their sites. If a client is fully aware of the risks and is prepared to buy into short term gain then that is their choice. However, many Blackhat SEO's do not disclose their tactics. Would you hire a CPA who submits your tax return including questionable practices and breaking all the IRS rules? You are the one who will get audited, prosecuted and have to pay huge fines.

Blackhat techniques are just plain bad business practice. They also do the search engines and the search users a huge disservice by contributing to poor quality of results. This adds nothing to the end user experience.

The search engines say that any type of manipulation to get a site ranked is a threat against them and the relevancy of their results. Whitehat practitioners will say that they are not manipulating sites but rather fixing search engine obstacles within a web site. The need for their services is great as many web site designers do not know how to integrate search engine friendly designs.

Last year a prospective customer contacted me after being burned by a "rogue" SEO company who got their site (and others) banned from Google for spam tactics. A few weeks later they were contacted by the same "rogue" SEO company under a new name. Perhaps naively she almost fell for it again. She reasoned that if they had been banned once they would not do anything wrong again! This demonstrates the lack of knowledge that consumers have regarding our industry. They don't know the difference between good and bad SEO. People are being taken advantage of because of their lack of knowledge.

No matter what techniques your SEO uses; 'ethical' , 'whitehat' ,'blackhat' none at all it all boils down to one thing. Doing right by the client? Ethics is often viewed by many in the industry as hype.

I think the focus should be on serving users as opposed to manipulating the search engines. SEO's who concentrate of making the sites the best that they can be for the end user will create a much better longer term affect. The SEOs who chase algorithms and try to game the search engines get burned when there is an algorithm change. Following search engine updates involving an algorithm shift, the industry message boards abound with posts along the lines of "I hate Google, they have killed my site" If these posters had spent more time improving their site for their clients, and the search users, the algorithm updates would be much less stressful for them.

At this time there is no initiative within the industry to create a trade body which sets a code of best practices. It is down to the consumer to practice "buyer beware" and ensure that they practice due diligence in selecting an SEO. They need to use even more caution than they would use to select any other vendor. I also believe the industry has a responsibility to provide education and resources for consumers and help de-mystify the profession.

Great SEO companies share their knowledge willingly. They hide nothing to either clients or search engines. They know that they have a specialized skill and are proud of what they do. They get their results through hard work and perseverance. They also know that to do the job properly takes a lot of time. This is something which most business owners feel they do not have. They are confident that when it comes to hiring a professional, their honest and open approach to their trade will be acknowledged by organizations who only want to work with the best.

The following are some golden rules I have written on choosing an SEO. If the consumer sticks to these rules then they should avoid the practitioners in our industry who give the rest of us a bad name.

o Only work with a company that follows search engine guidelines. (If I could only make one recommendation this would be it). The three main search engines are Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Look on their sites for their webmaster guidelines.

o Only work with a company that documents the SEO process they will use to rank your site

o Only work with a company that provides a written contract outlining their process and their costs

o Get at least four proposals for your site and compare services before you make a decision

o Do not work with a company that offers guarantees of top rankings. Nobody can offer these types of guarantees.

o Do not lock yourself into a contract you cannot get out of if you are not getting results

o Ask for references and follow up with them. If you still have any doubts ask for more. Ensure that references check out. Check that the suggested site is real and that the contact details given check out against the contact details on the site.

o Do not allow any work to be carried out on your site without your approval.

o Do not give the SEO carte blanche to do as they will with your site. It is your site not theirs. It is your responsibility to ensure that the SEO does not apply any techniques that would result in getting your site banned.

o Check the companies BBB (Better Business Bureau) report. Check for membership of any other established trade bodies such as the AMA (American Marketing Association) Many companies claim that they are more reputable because they are part of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization.) However this is not the case. All that is required to be a member of SEMPO is a $299 annual subscription.

o Do not work with a company that engages in site wide link exchanges. Question their linking methods. Ensure that they only have a policy of linking with on-topic sites. Remember, your site is built for users not for search engines. If your site is about computers and your link to a site that sells children's toys how useful do you think that link will be for your visitors.

o Ask other companies doing well on the Internet who they use for SEO. Always ask about the quality of customer service that is offered. It is not much use having a great SEO if you can never get hold of them.

o If it sounds too good to be true. IT IS!!!

In conclusion the SEO industry is a dynamic growing industry. This rapid growth has created some challenges for the industry. One of these challenges is the perception that outsiders have of SEO practitioners being unethical. To counteract this many SEOs are now promoting themselves as 'ethical SEO.' However, as the industry is unregulated it is up to the consumer of the service to become informed and exercise caution when selecting a SEO vendor. As the demand for SEO continues to grow the number of unethical practitioners calling themselves SEOs will also grow. To protect yourself, take the vendor selection process seriously. Look for vendors who are willing to share knowledge and partner with you to provide the best possible outcome for you business.



James Peggie is the Director of Marketing for Elixir Systems – a search marketing agency located in Scottsdale, Arizona. http://www.elixirsystems.com




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Best SEO Practices - Understanding the Power Behind the Force

There seems to be some serious issues regarding the lack of professionalism in the field of search engine optimization, and the more critical aspect is the apparent failure to establish a common ground on the required standards and ethics in the performance of SEO service providers. A legitimate Toronto SEO company readily acknowledges that the adoption of performance standards is the sine qua non of serious stuffs such as those involving interventions and solutions adopted to improve the ranking of websites in search engine results.

We have been hearing and reading all those oft-repeated branding such as professional search engine optimization services, certified SEO, the right SEO solution, etc. In fact, a lot of quarters look at search engine optimization as the gold rush of the Cyber web. While most people who are looking for authority and certified service readily seek the help and guidance of Toronto SEO professionals are looking for authority and certified service, a caveat that must be observed is the prevalence of the so-called experts that are inclined to sell pipe-dreams.

Ranking Reports and SEO Performance

The use of ranking reports is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book. Time and again, the practice has been maligned and scoffed at; yet, a lot of people are still using them. For those who are in the know, those ranking do not give us anything substantial, and their claim to existence is purely on their role in inflating query statistics. When affordable SEO service providers highlight the use of ranking reports, they are just actually stressing that they can improve the search visibility for targeted keywords.

The providers of professional search engine optimization services will only use ranking reports to compare with search referral data. Their accomplishment and performance should hinge on the correlation between the search referral data and ranking reports. The failure to establish such material correlation between the two performance metrics means that they are not using the appropriate keywords.

SEO and Competitive Research

You have to think twice before getting the services of a SEO professional who recommends that you get links from where your main competitors are getting theirs. The last thing that you want to happen is for your competitors to know where you are getting your links from. You cannot possibly win the race if you keep on handing out information about your SEO strategies to your competition.

Do not ever commit the mistake of referring to competitive backlink research as genuine competitive intelligence, for it is not. The most that you can do is to use the information that you can gather from studying the backlink profile of your competitor's website as blacklist or list of sites where you should not get your links from. Remember one of the basic rules of engagement - stay away from your competitor's radar range at all times.



Jon Nestorovic is a search engine optimization expert providing performance-based SEO packages for small and large businesses. We improve your bottom line and have a unique ROI indicator. Over 95% of internet traffic happens on the first page of Google.com. If your business is not competing on the first page, you could be possibly missing out on new sales. Let us help you increase your sales & bottom line by being "found" online. Free 1 hour personal consultation.




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Best SEO Practices for Optimizing Your Blog

A company blog can help your business achieve greater online visibility and improve the way you communicate with your current and potential customers. Success of a blog depends upon many variables. One of them that can never be overstated is the quality of content. Authentic articles that deliver fresh and informative topics can generate loyal readership.

Even though relevant content can bring some success in the search engines, it is only one piece of the puzzle. If you consider that there are hundreds or even thousands of potential customers using Search Engines to find the type of products/services that you are offering, optimizing your blog will play an important part in helping them locate you. This means that you need to implement On-Page SEO tactics to help improve your ranking and increase both quantity and quality of traffic.

To get your posts ranked high for your targeted keywords and boost the success of your blog, you need to go by the following best practice SEO rules and guidelines for optimizing your blog content.

Determine Keywords

Identifying the most relevant keywords for your blog is the most important part of your SEO campaign. Performing a keyword research will help you determine and optimize the right set of keywords. With the help of tools such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool you can check the popularity of your chosen search phrases and get suggestions that may work better for your blog.

Smart Use of Hyperlinks

Search Engines will place a higher value on your company blog if it contains optimized links to your previous posts. Using your primary keywords in the anchor text of these links is highly recommended as search engines use them to crawl your pages. Linking to previous posts also benefits your readers providing them with more resources on the topic they are interested in. When it comes to hyperlinks density, it is recommended to have one hyperlink per paragraph of text.

Another important note that you should keep in mind when it comes to internal linking is the form in which the link is presented. Avoid using "click here" as your link phrase and try to use a description of the content you are linking to as a part of sentence.

Title Tag Optimization

The title tag appears as the clickable link in search engine result pages and it may just be the most important place to use your targeted keywords. You should make sure that your article titles are optimized and effective as it will help you achieve higher rankings and inspire potential customers to click on it and visit your blog. Ensuring that your entire title shows up in the search result can improve a click-through rate, so try to keep it under 72 characters.

Add Tags And Categories to Blog Posts

Tags are very helpful in organizing the content of your blog so that your readers can easily find what they are looking for. It also makes it easier for search engine robots to crawl your blog. One thing you should be aware of is that a large number of tags per post can get you penalized by Google as it is may be considered as an attempt to trick the search engine. To avoid being penalized, keep the number of tags up to five for each post.

Adding the right categories for your posts is also very important for helping visitors better navigate through your content. Proper categorization also helps to improve search engine rankings of your company blog.

Optimize Meta Description Tag

Meta description tag is the description that appears in the search results just below the title tag and its length should not exceed 160 characters. It is a unique summary of your post that should contain the primary keyword, ideally toward the beginning, to get good response from search engines. This content snippet is what will engage visitors to go to your blog for more information.

Optimize Content of Blog Posts

When writing posts your primary focus should be on your readers. With SEO as a priority, your post will seem unnatural. Writing articles that are relevant to the reader and rich with keywords is a winning combination. Including keywords in the body of your post, with the emphasis on the first paragraphs, will increase your chances of achieving higher search engine rankings. Be careful not to go overboard with keyword placement as search engines may interpret your post as keyword stuffing. The content of each of your blog posts should be developed around your primary key phrases.



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How White Hat SEO Practices Differ From Others

Remaining true to the guidelines and ethics as set by the web world SEO community, proactive determination for clinching the requirements of clients, applying only long-acting and potential SEO methods and an unequalled persistence feature white hat SEO practice. Unlike black hat SEO practices, the white SEO ones involve the job of optimization through a thorough on-page analyses of SEO-friendly code and design of a website, meta tags, titles tags, meta descriptions, meta keywords and internal linking as well as through off-page analyses that include link generation tasks, social media efforts and purchasing links. Black hat SEO techniques do neither follow ethics and proper guidelines nor do they care for a long-term solution when they try for only short-staying gains and solutions in terms of page rankings.

Anyone who has been in this field for a long time can recall the lyrics "we are the good guys --- the black hats lost." There is no doubt that a fair way may need a longer period to fetch a desired target when an unfair means may bring you huge fortunes overnight. But in business, be sure that gimmicks don't find any permanent place because its concocted and feigned stance will certainly be debunked in a day or the other.

In case of optimizing a website, be it a new one or an older one, unstable and fake rankings may mar the further prospects of a website that could be on some pleasing positions where a huge traffic can be expected from. And here only, white hat SEO methods have many reasons to prove its successful worth.

On-Page Analyses: Designs and contents of a website need to be minutely examined and stronger keywords that could match properly the gravity of the business of the website accordingly are selected from different web pages. To be very precise, a thorough research across the web pages of an assigned website for SEO are required to be performed, so that generation of meta tags, meta titles, meta descriptions and so on can be possible and by doing so off-page optimization job will be more convenient although the processes of increasing page ranks and page visibility will take more time than the ways undertaken by black hat SEO techniques. Unfortunately, black hat SEO techniques do never care for these ethics. Nor do they conform to the proper SEO techniques. As their very name signifies, their dark ways and objectives lie in promoting web pages and their ranks and they do only care for quick improvement, however transitory their existence may be.

Off-Page Analyses: Off-page SEO jobs such as link building, directory submission, article submission, blog commenting and link exchanges, video submission and the likes do also take a considerable period of time for improving page ranks of a website when all ethics are duly followed by a SEO Company. But the scene tells another story. Most of the SEO companies do not stick to the norms. They prefer dark ways. Indiscriminate exchanges of links and the likes to websites of alien kind and software-driven cunning submission of links can dredge the litany of lapses within a short time span. In a word, any unethical SEO jobs can be termed as misleading techniques and its results that seem to be apparently successful are equally short-lived.

Any entrepreneurs would very reasonably prefer White hat SEO technique to Black hat. The truth is business is to stay for longer than gimmicks that evaporate and are forgotten along the gradual exposition of their empty buoyancy.



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White Hat - Black Hat SEO Practices - Where is the Line

There is still much debate over White Hat and Black Hat SEO tactics. First, lets understand what SEO is: it is Search Engine Optimization. SEO covers a wide range of tactics and procedures, and ranges from on-site optimization to off-site marketing. Google still holds you cannot pay for search engine rankings, but is that really the case?

I started writing this article when I noticed a lot of blogs picking up my articles. These blogs had urls that had no meaning or relevancy to my industry. It seemed like someone was creating a free blog and cramming it with content and adsense, hoping for Page Rank increase and Ad Revenue. These blogs are poorly put together, and some even were obviously full of automatically generated content, which was nothing more than a bunch of words randomly positioned throughout the site.

I started investigating a little and it turns out, many of these blogs point to sites and have the same anchor text. The blogs are simply a means to get incoming links with the anchor text of your choice to boost search engine placement for keywords. Granted, I benefit from some of the additional links coming to my site from these "blogs", but I can't help but think of these pages as useless content black holes that are used to prey on adsense revenue and to essentially "cheat" in obtaining search engine rankings for keywords. I would consider this Black Hat SEO tactics.

This is just one of the tactics I found recently to be less than reputable. According to Google Webmaster Guidelines, incoming links act as a vote for your site. There "votes" affect your page ranks and your keyword ranking in search results based on the incoming Page Rank of the site that links to you, and the anchor text used as the link. voting for yourself hundreds or thousands of times by creating garbage web sites or blogs doesn't qualify as an ethical SEO tactic.

So what does qualify as an ethical SEO tactic? There are a lot of answers to that one. You can first start by creating a website that has good content. It should offer products, services, information, opinions, or be some other media type that people will find useful. Then, you can follow guidelines set up by the search engines to optimize that content for you industry keywords. Once you have a quality site, its time to tell people about it. Submit it to directories and get it added to listings. If you have an e-commerce site, get listed in local or regional directories. Write articles about your products or services and submit them to article directories. Create Press Releases about your new site and what it offers. Start a real blog with frequently updated content that people can follow and comment on. Use your expertise and experience to bring a fresh perspective to the industry. Once you have something useful for your customers or your audience, then you will naturally begin to generate votes and links for your site. That is how to optimize for search engines.



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White Hat Vs Black Hat Internet Marketing Practices

White hat, black hat, and gray hat are terms often used to describe the aggressiveness of internet marketers or website developers, especially regarding practices used to get search engines to give a high ranking to websites (SEO). But what do the terms mean? It depends on who you ask. There are at least three ways to understand white hat vs. black hat practices.

1 - White hat is considered entirely ethical, while black hat is considered unethical. Gray hat, then, would be something in-between: ethical to some, but perhaps not to others.

2 - A white hat marketer is not at all aggressive in promoting a product, service, or website and chooses to let traffic develop naturally. (In reality, there are probably no white hat marketers if you look at it this way.) A black hat marketer, then, is extremely aggressive in promoting a product or website. At this end of the spectrum is the danger of unethical practices. (There are a large number of these out there.)

3 - White hat practices are just shrewd methods of working within the current system, doing anything that is acceptable to search engines. Black hat marketing, then, would mean using tactics that flout the search engine rules while trying to avoid getting caught.

Since there are no written rules beyond search engine guidelines, determining where you should be on the spectrum can be a challenge. If you're working online as an internet marketer, though, you need to determine which you're going to wear: a white hat, a black hat, or a gray hat, no matter how you define them.

You probably already know this by now, but in order to make money online, there are some choices you'll need to make. Okay, let me warn you, there are a LOT of choices you'll need to make. For example:

Should I work for someone else or should I begin an at-home business and work for myself?

Should I do it all on my own or get some help?

Should I learn from this expert or that one?

Should I use this tool or that one?

In order to make your decisions you probably ask other questions:

What goals do I have?

How much time do I have to invest?

How much money can I spend right now?

But sometimes we need to ask additional questions, especially when determining what to promote and how aggressively to do so. Here are some that I often ask myself:

Is it good for others as well as for myself?

Could I defend my decision to God and to the people I love and lead (like my children)?

Can I keep the promises I'm making?

Would I pay for the product or service I'm promoting?

Would I want others to promote this product or service to someone I care about?

If others used this practice with me would I feel deceived?

Could there be unforeseen negative consequences if I do this?

If you've bought many products from internet marketers trying to "teach you how to do it," then you've probably encountered some people who didn't seem to ask themselves this last set of questions. I've certainly been exposed to a few. Yet, I've also met some I highly respect and trust. The internet would be improved, in my opinion, if all internet marketers would not just tell others what to do and what to buy, but would also ask a few more questions.



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