There are two main methods used for achieving SEO, the one is known as ‘White Hat’ which uses legitimate, ethical methods of maximizing results. The other main method is known as ‘Black Hat’, which one can easily assume, uses unethical methods to maximize results. There are many companies that will claim to deliver miraculous results with seemingly very little effort or alterations to the website itself, be very weary of such companies as they are often using methods to attain quick and often short results.

There are ways in which a company can increase traffic to a site practically over night, with very little effort in changing the actually website. These Black Hat methods that will result in increased traffic will eventually be realized by search engines and your site will loose its standings dramatically as well as loose credibility. Credibility is the golden goose of search engine criteria, if a website is informative, well linked and user friendly while also being established and recognized, it wont fail.

An effective strategy will not take place overnight, whether you do it in house or out source your SEO division, it is ongoing and certainly not instant. That is not to say that your rankings can’t improve dramatically in a short space of time, it’s just that you won’t be number one in a week. If that is what you have been promised, RUN!

When analyzing the results of your strategy don’t merely assess the amount of traffic that is reaching your site, as this is often a Red Herring, designed to make business owners think they are reaching their markets. Knowing your market and targeting them directly is crucial to the success of your website.

Having ten thousand hits a day sounds great but when you looking deeper and find that the average length of stay is six seconds and you only convert 1 person to actually use your site, then your alarm bells should ring long and loud. Analyse how long the users were on your site for, what did they do, how did they get there, were they meaning to find your site?

Start redesigning your website to better suit your target audience, to help and inform them. This will lead to greater results then any Black Hat method.

Black Hat methods will often result in inactive traffic, users that have reached your site without intending to, or users who will be frustrated by the Black Hat methods and therefore leave your site, annoyed and with no intention of returning. The shortcuts used are not the most productive or successful methods of gaining more active users, or ranking higher on the search lists.

The bottom line is that one can pay a small fortune to be ranked higher, to gain more traffic and still your business won’t benefit. In fact sometimes it may hurt your business. The best method is still providing an informative, useful, well designed website, with well placed legitimate links.

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