White Hat SEO

As we get started, let’s get an understanding of what a search engine does. 

When you type words or phrases into the search box, the search engine returns what it thinks is the most relevant information about your search. 

So how do search engines like Google and Yahoo decide what results are most relevant to a searcher? 

Large search-engine companies like Google have thousands of computers that systematically scan web pages for text and look at other factors such as inbound links to web pages. 

Then they process that data with proprietary algorithms to decide what search results to return when someone enters a set of words into a search box. 

Crawling Spiders and Bots  

This systematic scanning of the web pages is called “crawling.”

The software is known by terms such as “spiders” and “robots” (often shortened to “bots”).

Google and other search-engine companies are constantly updating their technology to improve the connection between the results searchers want and the results they get from the search engine. 

In other words, the search engines are starting to think more like humans in what they view as the “right” information.  

Even though Google and others are constantly evolving to think more like people, they still need data to make that happen. 

This is where the whole industry of search engine optimization comes in. 

SEO = Giving Search Engines What They Crave

Simply put, SEO or search engine optimization is a process to improve the visibility of your website to a variety of search engines such as Google and Yahoo by giving them what they crave.

• This is done by getting inside the mind of search engines.

The goal is to provide what they are looking for easily and in the right amounts to directly affect your site ranking. 

Put on the White Hat

In the early days of SEO, people tried all kinds of tricks to fool the search engines and improve their site rankings. 

SEO included things like repeating keywords over and over in a white font that is invisible to the human eye, but not to search engines. 

Many of these early techniques focused on deceiving the search engines and didn’t add any value to the searcher’s experience. 

These methods worked for a while to fool the search engines, but Google has gotten a lot smarter since then.  

This type of trickery is called “black-hat SEO” and just as in the Old West, the black hat can get you labeled a bad guy in the mind of the search engines.

Google and other search engines will ban you and drop your ranking if they find you using questionable black-hat tactics.   

• Today the concept of “white-hat” SEO is what we recommend. 

This simply means being good guys in your optimization techniques.

Use strategies that provide real value to your online visitors and “play nice” with the search engines.

Keep following our blog to learn different white hat techniques!