With the internet’s evolution transforming the way business is done, SEO or search engine optimization has acquired high value for people seeking to make their sites highly visible to casual visitors. In fact, it’s almost impossible to do well with a site today without using some form of SEO. SEO can be divided into two rough categories: White Hat and Black Hat. Black Hat SEO involves maximum exploitation of search engines at the expense of actual site content or usefulness, and is considered bad form as a marketing technique. Therefore, this article will focus on White Hat SEO, which is universally accepted as appropriate, and has better results in the long run.

White Hat SEO uses techniques that increase traffic to web site, as well as increasing your site’s overall visibility, without risk of being penalized or punished by search engines or other entities. In fact, good White Hat SEO involves making people happy to see your site and get to it, creating a stream of traffic that wants you to be around and finds your marketing to be not only non-intrusive but actually helpful and convenient. Once you’ve built up a good reputation and high visibility, all you have to do is maintain it with minimal effort to reap the benefits for years to come. So, let’s go through the major functions of White Hat SEO.

One of the biggest procedures is effective internal linking. This refers to the links your site has to other sections of itself. While this may seem obvious and trivial, it’s actually very easy to get wrong. Search engines collect information on your site by using ’spiders’ that check through all your text links. However, these spiders don’t understand graphical interfaces, frames, or other fancy things. So a site that looks pretty but doesn’t have simple text navigation will have trouble getting acquainted with search engines. That’s why you always want to have a basic text interface available regardlesss of any other aspects of your site’s design.

Exchanging links with other sites, called “reciprocal linking”, is another important White Hat SEO technique. When engaged in reciprocal linking, keep the following items in mind: Exchange links with sites with content relevant to your own site. Link to sites that have content that will interest your target viewers. Link to sites that use keywords you wish to target for your own site.

Don’t make the mistake of linking with just anyone, though. What separates White Hat from Black Hat is, in part, who you link to. Share links with friendly, relevant sites that are related to your own site in some way. Focus on linking to sites with quality content and not just fluff.

Take your time and link to the best sites, because you are who you keep company with. It will take a long time to build up a robust system of links. However, once you’ve done it, your traffic will soar, and maintenance of the system will be negligible.

Optimizing the layout, structure, and presentation of your site will do a lot for it too. If it easy to use and pleasing to behold you will gain better exposure, and that translates into higher ranking and visibility.

Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing Consultant who provides world class SEO Services to website owners. For more information visit: http://www.seorankings.co.za

Tags: SEO