What would you prefer - A company that tells you what you want to hear? Or a company that tells you straight?
TWO APPROACHES TO SEO
There has always been two approaches to optimising websites - black hat or white hat. Put simply, the Black Hat approach uses underhand techniques (strategies search engines tell us are bad) to push websites up the rankings. That the approach can produce short-term gains is why it is still an approach that appeals to many. But the hidden sting in the tail is that Black Hat SEO can get your website penalised or even black-listed by search engines.
The White Hat approach uses techniques search engines tell us are good. It is the approach that we’ve always taken. We’re interested in the long-term health of websites as well as doing what we can to improve search engine ranking. It is an approach that always needs to be on-the-ball as search engines sometimes change the rules.
EXAMPLE CASE STUDY
We’ve been optimising one site for more than 15 years. In that time we’ve coped with big changes - none greater than Google Penguin & Panda - rule-changers that significantly changed the way many websites were optimised. Over the years, the site has achieved a great many top ten keyword phrase positions and if you want to know more we can go in greater depth about it. At the time of writing they have 22 top ten placings out of 70 phrases that are being logged. 16 of those are in the top 5 positions in Google.
A very wide-ranging strategy is used to achieve such results. This includes designing the architecture of the website, coding pages in particular ways, involving social media integration, encouraging natural linking and careful keyword research.