SEO Search Engine Optimization Ethics Tip! keywords placed at the very end of a page are important because it tells the search engine that a page which started out describing a concept such as �search engine optimization� is still talking about it even at the very end. There are various techniques of Search Engine Optimization. Broadly, these are referred to as White Hat, Black Hat and Grey Hat. According to various definitions available, ethical SEO would be: a technique that does more good than harm one that keeps in mind the dignity and rights of all involved one that treats all parties involved fairly looks out for the overall benefit of all concerned enhances the participant experience in all aspects But why is this needed? Why should there be ethics defined for something like searching on the Internet? Given the fact that this is an ever-growing area of revenue and traffic generation, the interest in best practices is increasing. And just as well, the ethics that are being discussed and adopted widely are not restricted to the big corporate search engines. In fact, they apply more to those who are optimizing their pages so that they will show up on these engines' results. People using a search engine expect to find accurate results when they search. But usage of underhanded (Black hat or Grey hat) techniques, may return a page that does not have the relevant information. This counts as bad user experience and the search engine stands to lose out in its audience. Moreover, a web page that does have the information being searched by a user also loses out. Over a period of time, if there are too few people linking to a misrepresented link, its ranking will fall anyways, but not before it has done some damage to the user's experience. One of the most unethical practices is deception of a search engine. This can be achieved by keyword stuffing where only keywords relating to a particular topic are placed on an HTML page. By doing so, the search engine bots index and rank the page but when someone visits it, they find only a list of keywords or content that is not relevant to their search. Tip! Site That Is 'Link-Worthy' - Having other sites link to yours is a vital element of any successful search engine optimization, as all of the major search engines place a good deal of emphasis on your sites overall link popularity. Another technique that is often implemented and has been universally termed as Black hat is the practice of hidden text. By putting keywords or text into a web page with the same color as that of the page background (e.g., white text on a white page), search bots will pick up the page as containing ?x' content. In reality, though, the content may be entirely different from what the keywords claim it to be. Both examples have and continue to lead to the banning of companies and their pages on the search engine results pages. Almost all search engines have their techniques by which they identify pages which are fooling their bots. Once found, action is swift and often, severe. Tip! Laziness is also a major contributing factor. Many webmasters feel it is just too hard or too time consuming to do search engine optimization. Just to be clear, here is what is expected of the three main parties involved in searching on the Internet: Search Engine: To return the most relevant resources based on the keywords entered by the user Index and maintain an index of web pages Guide To Search Engine Optimization. Guide to Obtaining a #1 Ranking in the Search Engines. Be honest about links that are sponsored on its search results pages Web page and site owners: Provide content that is relevant to the search made by a user Change the content or keywords but remain honest about it Tip! Learn search engine optimization. Get a free eBook from Home Business Research. Adhere to the Terms and Conditions as laid out by various search engines Users: Search only with those search engines that return relevant results and are clear about what they do on the results pages Be somewhat aware of what happens on the Internet Be fair in case of minor mismatches in search results unless they appear to be done with malicious intent Yes, the above are ethics but as in the real world, black will continue to co-exist with white and in some cases, overlap to offer the gray areas! John Tourloukis is the founder of Fast PC Networks an internet consulting and Ethical SEO company. I blog about SEO here