When people are attempting to promote their businesses they often use SEO. When it comes to SEO there are two methods, one good and one bad. The bad one uses unfair tactics and is known as Black Hat which may offer short-term benefits for the business, but in the long run, can cause a lot of damage not only to your reputation but also to your results in the long term. The good one uses fair tactics, known as white hat, and will ultimately help you with the development and long-term success of your business.

One commonly used tactic, known as hidden text manipulation, tries to fool the search engines by stuffing pages with keywords over and over again. This technique will cause your website to feature highly in page rankings, but when someone clicks on the link to open the page they find that the content displayed is not what they were expecting.

There are also a number of other methods which are used to gain an advantage. Some people use link spamming with excessive link exchanges in an effort to achieve a better web presence for their site.
Search engines set our specific guidelines relating to their rules and regulations and it is very important that you read and abide by them. Before employing SEO it is strongly recommended that you read Google’s guidelines in order to avoid breaking the rules.

Another thing to remember is things are not always clear-cut when it comes to the difference between white hat and black hat SEO. The techniques you employ may not necessarily violate the search engines’ terms and conditions but neither will they deliver long-lasting benefits to your business. It goes without saying that you should try and stick to white hat techniques when using SEO. By using these methods you will not only stay within the guidelines but you will also be helping to generate higher page rankings. Your site will be able to maintain its high place in the rankings for far longer than if you were to use short-term methods like PPC.

It can be very tempting to use shortcuts for quick gains when you first set up your business, whilst forgetting that the ultimate goal should be for long-term success. It really is not worth employing black hat methods which will only cause problems for your business in the long run.

The internet is regularly updated and improved, and by complying with the search engine guidelines you are more likely to enjoy the success you deserve.