In life we are regularly faced with a difficult choice; stick to the rules, take the higher road and get the results in the right way or alternatively bend the rules, walk on the wild side and get to the top without worrying who’s toes you step on. This is a problem faced by many search engine optimisation specialists, the choice of whether to use the ‘organic’ techniques to achieve top rankings or use the strictly outlawed paid links system to build links quickly and reach the top of the rankings in a flash. This blog will argue both sides and determine what has caused this growth and what is the road to take.

A organic search engine optimisation strategy to help increase search engine rankings centres on using SEO practices that adhere to Google’s laws and seek to reach the top of Google (other search engines use different rules but as Google is the most prevalent it will be used as the example). An organic strategy encapsulates relevant keyword discovery and deployment, the quantity of in-bound links to the website and importance of these links. Google’s algorithm responds to these techniques and subsequently ranks the site higher in its ranking over-time as Google works heavily on a ‘trust-factor’.

Focusing on high quality content that Google relates to and associates with the search terms will usually mean the website will eventually reach the top of the rankings. Although, as i’m sure you are aware,designing and developing a top level web site is no mean feat, and it can be especially to create new unique content and target keywords that are not already used heavily by competitors. These very issues have helped cause a surge in SEO agencies paying other websites to host a link onto their site, which deceives Google’s algorithm so that they can rank higher quicker without having to spend time on painstakingly building their own backlinks and unique content.

Despite it being a hard , hard slog to get a site to the top of the Google rankings the benefits of this are their to see. At the time of writing the number of searches for the term car insurance was roughly five million a month. Therefore just being in the top ten is heavily advantageous. A recent report by Chyan et al stated that there is a ‘golden triangle’ of Google searches and 50% of those who use Google never scroll beyond the top seven websites returned. Furthermore it has been estimated that over 75% of searched terms result in click through’s to the unsponsored links that are determined by Google’s algorithms and do not browse on the sponsored links that companies pay for. Additionally Google has recently introduced technology whereby its spider crawls can index Flash animations, which helps to produce even more accurate results.

Google have strictly prohibited this but have struggled to stem the growth of it and it has caused a booming ‘black market’ for those promoting paid links to boost their rankings. It can be argued that this growth is partly Google’s own fault as it is very difficult for established companies (let alone new ones) to achieve a first page ranking Google organically due to the massive amounts of competition for the best keywords. It is especially difficult for new companies given the fact that established websites have a much bigger bank of backlinks and usually bigger budget for search engine optimization marketing , which all improve their page rank. Furthermore the punishments handed down by Google have thus far failed to stamp out the trend of paid linking. Google have been known to ‘Sandbox’ those found guilty of paying for links for up to a year (including BT). However many companies believe that the eventual benefits of these black hat tactics far outweigh the threat of a ban by Google as they will eventually reappear at the top because all their links stay in place when they are allowed back on Google.

The epidemic of paying for links is also worsened by the admission by C.E.O’s of leading search engine optimisation specialist companies have been paying for links themselves, which in turn causes a ripple effect as smaller companies have to deploy the same tactics to keep up. Not only does this create an unfair playing field, due to the larger firms wealth and man power but it is also building the perception in the business community that paid links a acceptable search engine optimization marketing technique and they are placing pressure on the ‘clean’ search engine optimisation specialists to risk their reputation and use such tactics or loose the client.

To summarize, in theory in is advantageous to use an organic search engine optimization marketing strategy as reaching the top of the rankings in the right way is the most sound strategy as it gives solid foundations for any companies looking to expand. However as the practice of search engine optimization marketing grows and clients expect more quicker from the agencies it will become increasingly difficult to achieve and maintain a top ranking without having to cut a few corners here and there’ especially as the Internet becomes more crowded and keywords continue to be mined at their current rate. Also Google (and others) need to take a long look at it policy and seriously consider tightening up their punishments for those who breach the guidelines they set, including long bans coupled with the loss of page rank and invalidation of all back links up to the date so that they have to start again. Otherwise this market for paid links will continue to grow and Google will be powerless to stop the problem that they themselves have exacerbated.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 10:27 am and is filed under Search Engine Optimisation Hampshire. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.