Shep's Thoughts on SEO

My View on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO have many different ideas on promoting websites. On SEO forums these different views are often described as "Black Hat Optimizers" and "White Hat Optimizers". I will describe the different views and than describe my mentality on search engine optimization.

Black Hat Optimization

Black hat optimizers use any technical available to get their site to the top of the search engine rankings. The classic black hat method is called hidden text. Designers use white fonts on white background and repeat the desired phrase many times at the bottom of the page. The search engines like Google soon caught on and penalized sites that used this method. This method is almost never used anymore because Google can very easily find this methods. Black hats now use more advanced methods to deceive the search engines. Google and other search engines constantly changes their way of doing things to attempt to counteract black hats. Those using black hat methods are in danger of having their websites banned from the search engines. I strongly discourage this method unless you are willing to get a new domain if you get penalized by the search engines.

White Hat Optimization

White hat optimizers believe in building their websites according to the guidelines and suggestions of the search engines. They believe in building websits that stand the test of time. Websites should be easy for user to use and be friendly to the search engines as well. Although ranking for keywords is important, that is not the only goal of the website. My views have been largely influenced by the moderator Jill and the other fine folks at High Rankings Forum. Although this method sometimes takes longer, I believe this is the only method that should be used by small businesses that would like to use their domain for many years to come.

Webs By Shep Optimization

Here is the primary ideas that I use when building websites.

• Websites should be very user friendly.
• All available information about your product and service should be on your website.
• Customer should be able to easily figure out the total cost of the product without contacting your company. This does not apply to all industries.
• A customer should be able to easily navigate and find the information they are looking for.
• Websites should be robot friendly. The search engine robots should be able to easily find all the pages of your website.
• Robots should be able to understand what the main concept is of each page by reading the title tags and the visible text on each page.
• Websites should follow the guidelines and suggestions of the search engines.
• Methods that are only to increase your rankings in the search engines should be avoided. While those methods might work in the short term, these methods could also be penalized in the future.

If you have any questions about my methods, feel free to email me and I might be able to answer your questions.