In this edition of SEO Tips & Tricks, I’ll discuss how using “white hat” on-site optimization strategies can help you improve the ratio of search traffic to goal conversions for your website. White hat onsite optimization involves the use of “honest” strategies and techniques aimed at boosting a website’s position in search engines. Conversely, dark optimization strategies (both onsite and offsite) are those that will eventually get your website penalized by search engines once it is determined that you are trying to manipulate or trick their systems. .
The decision to use a white hat SEO plan is obviously an extremely important choice due to the potentially dire consequences and long-lasting repercussions that otherwise would entail. Often, website owners and businesses are completely unaware that something unethical is going on. Usually, it’s because they don’t take the time to learn the proper way to optimize for search engines themselves, or they’ll hire an unscrupulous or incompetent SEO company to screw things up for them.
Remember, there are NO shortcuts to get to the top. Other than an effective pay-per-click campaign (technically not SEO), there aren’t many natural or “organic” strategies that will produce significant instant results. Depending on how difficult it is to rank for given keywords, eventually, an effective white hat SEO campaign will attract higher quality search results in the long run. When you can attract the right kind of visitors to your website, you’ll get more targets and achieve more success. FYI, most reputable SEO companies will tell you that white hat organic SEO plans will take 3-6 months to generate significant positive changes in search traffic.
In the next edition of SEO Tips & Tricks, I’ll discuss common onsite and offsite (white hat) SEO strategies used to influence performance with popular search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing.