SEO Fox Offers Advice to Help Businesses Avoid Unethical Search Engine Optimization

As more businesses become aware of the need to optimize their websites to rank well in the major search engines, it is also increasingly important for companies and decision makers to understand the differences between ethical search engine optimization and unethical SEO schemes. The SEO Fox has created a list of "bad" seo practices and examples of good, ethical search engine optimization techniques to help companies better understand what kinds of questions they should ask of SEO consultants and firms before they sign a contract.

"Any company that cold calls your business and promises thousands of links, or guarantees a number one position for your keywords isn't completely white hat in their practices… or they're just liars," said William Cross, lead marketer of SEOFox.com. "The questionable or flat out unethical SEO tricks reap short term results, but cause serious long term damage to website search rankings. You end up paying more to have someone come in and fix the damage, than you would just hiring someone ethical from the get go."

Examples of good SEO practices include:
- Good site architecture, including URL structure.
- Well written content that is on topic and written for the visitor rather than search engines.
- Link development with reputable, relevant web sites.

Examples of "bad" SEO include:
- Hiding text within a page, so that the human user cannot see it, but the search engine robots can.
- Practicing "keyword stuffing"; the gross overuse of the target keywords for a given page or web site.
- Utilizing "link farms" to inflate link popularity
- Using robots or programs that spam blogs, guestbooks, and forums with fake comments and links to artificially inflate link popularity

While the consequences of using questionable techniques may not be immediately apparent, the long term affects can include having your website's search engine listings placed in the supplemental results, keyword, web page, and web site penalties, delisting from the search engines (being banned), or simply just not seeing any return on your investment.

If a company has fallen victim to a shady firm in the past, though, they should not be soured on the concept of search engine optimization in general. It is a valid means of increasing your web site's visibility in the major search engines, and ranking well for your target keywords aids in bringing traffic to your web site.

"Ethical SEO isn't magic, and while it can work quickly, you can't expect miracles overnight. That's why it's so important to select an SEO firm who is honest, and won't promise you the moon just to get you to sign the contract," Cross said.

For additional information on what companies should look for, and what they should avoid when interviewing SEO firms and consultants, please visit their website or call during business hours (EST).

About SEO Fox

SEO Fox (www.seofox.com) boasts a team of technologists, programmers, copywriters, artists and expert marketers who have been active in the Internet field since the 90s. Services include full web site design and creation, custom programming, web hosting, and full service search engine optimization and pay per click campaign management.