• By John Cunningham
• Published 08/3/2009
• Article Writing

Search engine optimization has grown into a lucrative industry. Unfortunately, as more and more companies realize the need to build their online presence, some people who know a thing or two about web development are brazenly marketing themselves as professional SEO services provider. Many companies, especially those who are not knowledgeable about how the Internet and search engines work, fall for the trap. So what exactly does search engine optimization do? And how does it do that? Simply put, search engine optimization involves tweaking or overhauling your web pages for the purpose of making it search-engine-friendly. The end result is that search engines will be able to crawl over your pages easily and find relevant information, giving it a high ranking in the search engine results page (SERP). There are many ways of doing this-whether ethical or unethical-but we will get to that later. Contrary to popular belief, you can get these results from getting either a costly or an affordable SEO provider. What is more important is for you to find a provider that offers professional SEO services as opposed to one that promises everything but achieves nothing.

The SEO industry categorized SEO services into white-hatting and black-hatting. White-hatting involves ethical SEO practices that tend to achieve long-term results. White hat SEO follows the guidelines that search engines like Google have set. In addition, it also ensures that Internet surfers view the search engine results according to the order that they have been ranked by the

search engine’s algorithms. On the hand, black hat techniques consist of unethical practices that tend more to deceive and manipulate the search engine crawlers. SEO services providers also seek to improve the page ranking of their clients by hiding the legitimate results and showing only the results that they want. Needless to day, professional SEO services providers use only white hat techniques in delivering results to their clients. They stay away from such practices as keyword stuffing, page-swapping, copyright infringement, using irrelevant keywords, posting the identical content in all pages, putting invisible text in web pages, and overusing graphics and flash content. It is important to deal only with professional providers for different reasons. First, professional SEO will get you more stable, longer-term results. While black-hatting can get you on the top positions in the search results page, note that search engines have a way of tracking down website that utilize unethical practices that mislead users. In the end, there is a danger that your website will be permanently banned from the search engine results page.

Also, word gets around in the industry, such that industry players are likely to know which ones are legitimate and ethical and which ones are employing unsavory practices. Especially if you have a good reputation that you have to protect, you are better off keeping your distance from unprofessional SEO providers. Ultimately, while you are not privy to the methods that they use, your good reputation can get hurt and harmed from merely associating with them. The best thing to keep in mind is to know what you are getting into.