AH! Scary acronyms. The entire field of search engine optimization revolves around the premise that the majority of traffic generated on the web is coming from huge search sites like Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc… As the web continues to evolve, this premise will likely be challenged. Somebody WILL build a better mouse trap, and the world WILL beat a path to that individual’s door. All credit given to Ralph Waldo Emerson for the above paraphrase.
However, since that day isn’t today, and the search conglomerates still rule the day, you really need to think about SEO. At it’s simplest, SEO simply means setting up your website to achieve a high page rank, and ultimately you can reap the benefits of getting much more targeted exposure - potential prospects if you will.
Since I have been exploring some content sites as of late, I figured I would invest a bit in learning more about this hugely profitable field. Some SEO gurus make outrageous money, but it’s because their strategies work. This can be a dangerous field though if you’re not playing by the rules the search companies have put in play, so you really need to do your homework.
As a general rule of thumb there are three forms of SEO:
1. White hat - typically well intended structure to your site, maximizing and leveraging keywords. Legitimate backlinking, and redirecting of sites. There’s a lot more to it than that, but this is just a primer. White hat SEO is considered by most webmasters as not only safe, but also as ESSENTIAL
2. Grey hat - similar to the strategies employed above, but often treading the lines a little more tightly. Some common examples include purchasing links, and cloaking(showing different content to people than what you show the search engines). There are times when both of these strategies may be legitimate, but there are also times when they are both highly questionable. Search it on google, and I’m sure you’ll have a field day learning about the strategies. Grey hat SEO is considered by most folks to be middle of the road, and as long as the strategy you are employing is being used for the right reason, then it’s OK.
3. Black hat - this is the dreaded realm of unscrupulous marketers. Black hat strategies are NOT OK. They will likely get your site banned from the search engines, and yet they can still be quite profitable when done well. I will not provide any examples here because I don’t want to encourage anyone to do things that most netizens consider inappropriate, but you could search any major search site and find a ton of examples. Most online business folks would likely tell you to avoid these strategies like the plague. Many of those same people employ the exact same strategies every day in their businesses.
