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Search Engine OptimizationSearch Engine Optimization, also known as SEO, can make or break a home based internet marketing business. But there are two very different approaches to SEO, and you need to pick the right one. The lifeblood of any business is traffic – customers who come to your business. If people don't know your business exists, then they won't come to visit you! This is especially true on the internet. Search Optimization can increase your web traffic significantly... ...Because one of the main ways people will find out about your web business is through the search engines. The more highly your site is ranked by the engines, the more traffic it will get. More traffic means more business, more interest, more income, and more influence. Hence the high value of Search Engine Optimization. There are basically two different types of Search Engine Optimization: #1 - Building webpages in a natural way to meet the needs of people searching the Internet. At the same time, taking into account how search engines work so each webpage is easily accessible to the engines. #2 - Using the latest tricks to artificially manipulate the search engines into ranking web pages more highly. This may include techniques such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, and spamdexing. Method #1 is sometimes known as "White Hat Search Engine Optimization." This is the most successful way to work with the search engines - and with your audience. Because these techniques actively seek to meet the legitimate needs of: • The people who search the web. Method #2 for doing search engine optimization is sometimes known as "Black Hat SEO." This approach isn't very successful in the long run. Earlier in my web days (web daze?!), I read about a seemingly wonderful idea for getting the search engines to bring more traffic to my site... The idea was to pack the site with a lot of powerful keywords -- but in such a way that all those repetitious words wouldn't irritate the visitors. At the time, I hadn't even heard of "Black Hat SEO." And it didn't occur to me that this new technique might be misguided. Thankfully, before I actually did it online, I happened to read an article by an experienced marketer. He pointed out the risks of misusing Search Engine Optimization: The search engines are run by brilliant people who are constantly trying their best to meet the needs of searchers. Those search engine managers know what their customers are looking for. That's their business. The search engines also know about SEO manipulation techniques. That, too, is part of their business. When an engine visits a website that employs trickery, the engine downgrades that site's ranking. That got me thinking... I didn't want to get downgraded. But I wasn't sure the technique I was contemplating would be considered trickery. So I read the "guidelines for webmasters" at one of the big search engines. There was my answer, in plain English. They specifically prohibited the exact technique that I'd been considering. (Sigh) Here's what I finally realized: The search engine business (like any other business) is built on meeting customer needs... Intentionally or not, those website builders are putting too much energy into trying to outsmart the engines. Consequently, they aren't working hard enough to directly meet the needs of visitors. So if you want to optimize your rankings with the search engines: • Give visitors the highest possible value for the time they spend on your site. Meet the needs of your customers with high quality information, merchandise, etc. The search engines will notice! • Help the search engines to help you by meeting their criteria for good, customer-oriented web pages. Success in business requires an ongoing pattern of mutually beneficial exchanges. It's a relationship between the business owner, the consumer, and the community in which they both operate. Your foremost goal is to please your visitors to the best of your ability – by meeting the wants, needs, or desires that brought them to your site in the first place. Your second foremost goal is to meet those needs in a way that works well with the search engines. Do that and you'll prosper!
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