Manipulate Search Engines

While there will always be ways to manipulate the search engines, there is no telling if you will eventually get caught and lose your rankings if you optimize your site using overtly deceptive techniques. In any business such as SEO there will be different risk levels.

Search engines try hard not to flag false positives (return good sites as spam), so there is a bunch of slack to play with, but many people also make common mistakes like incorrectly using a 302 redirect. If you are ever in doubt if you are going too far or making technical errors feel free to ask me and ask at multiple SEO forums.

The search engines aim to emulate users. If you design good content for users and build a smart linking campaign, eventually it will pay off. New aggressive techniques pop up all the time. As long as they are available then people will exploit them. People will force the issue until search engines close the loophole and then people will find a new one. The competitive nature of web marketing forces search engines to continuously improve their algorithms and filters.

In my opinion the ongoing effort of keeping up with the latest SEO tricks is usually not worth for most webmasters. Some relational database programmers or people with creative or analytical minds may always be one step ahead, but the average business owner probably does not have the time to dedicate to keeping up with the latest tricks.

Related SEO Tips

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Giving search engines something to read
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Accessible to search engines & human
Your site must be easily accessible to search engines and human visitors.