What is SEO? Is it illegal?

[hutsirmagus]

I want to internet market for my company website, but I've heard lots of news about search engine optimization and companies like JCPenny getting in trouble for it? Is doing SEO against the law or just unethical? I dont' understand--what is the alternative to SEO if I want to get Google visitors? Is getting the little text ads that i see in my Google mail the same as SEO? can I get in trouble if I do that wrong?

[Beyond_Life]

Maybe this is something you could/should read.

http://www.a3webtech.com/index.php/seo-legal-requirements.html

[Steve Krause]

First question - What is SEO:

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of optimizing a website so that Search Engines can easily crawl the website and index it in a way which takes your content and allows you to rank as high as possible in search results.

As an example. A simple SEO principle is to take a URL like www.grovypost.com/?p=20422 and turn it into a friendly name filled with keywords that describe what the webpage is about yet at the same time focus on keywords which might be typed by a person doing a search to find this content like: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/how-to/disable-remove-startup-entries-windows-ccleaner/

Make sense? Rather than ?p=20422, you get disable-remove-startup-entries-windows-ccleaner.

And that is just the beginning when it comes to SEO.

Second Question - Is SEO illegal

Put simple - No. Of course not. SEO is just a term used by web masters. However I think the questions you getting at is:

Is there such thing as BAD SEO or deceptive SEO practices?

Yes. Unlike proper SEO techniques which will help you rank better in Search Engine search results, deceptive SEO practices can cause your website to be banned from Search Engine Results.

An example of Deceptive SEO practices include things like

1. Filling your page with keywords which are visible to search engines but not visible to readers. Some think this can help your page rank for many many different keywords when actually your content has nothing to do with those topics.
2. Although not typically SEO related, another deceptive practice is to pay for other Web Sites to link to your content in order to gain Authority in the eyes of the search engines (more valid backlinks to your page = the more authority granted to your page and content). This is actually what JCPenny did.

SEO is actually a HUGE topic which professionals spend their entire career mastering. If you need help with a new project, feel free to ping me and I can perhaps assist you get things off the ground.

[Jack]

First question - What is SEO:

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of optimizing a website so that Search Engines can easily crawl the website and index it in a way which takes your content and allows you to rank as high as possible in search results.

 

As an example. A simple SEO principle is to take a URL like www.grovypost.com/?p=20422 and turn it into a friendly name filled with keywords that describe what the webpage is about yet at the same time focus on keywords which might be typed by a person doing a search to find this content like: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/how-to/disable-remove-startup-entries-windows-ccleaner/

Make sense? Rather than ?p=20422, you get disable-remove-startup-entries-windows-ccleaner.

And that is just the beginning when it comes to SEO.

 

Second Question - Is SEO illegal

Put simple - No. Of course not. SEO is just a term used by web masters. However I think the questions you getting at is:

Is there such thing as BAD SEO or deceptive SEO practices?

Yes. Unlike proper SEO techniques which will help you rank better in Search Engine search results, deceptive SEO practices can cause your website to be banned from Search Engine Results.

An example of Deceptive SEO practices include things like

1. Filling your page with keywords which are visible to search engines but not visible to readers. Some think this can help your page rank for many many different keywords when actually your content has nothing to do with those topics.
2. Although not typically SEO related, another deceptive practice is to pay for other Web Sites to link to your content in order to gain Authority in the eyes of the search engines (more valid backlinks to your page = the more authority granted to your page and content). This is actually what JCPenny did.

SEO is actually a HUGE topic which professionals spend their entire career mastering. If you need help with a new project, feel free to ping me and I can perhaps assist you get things off the ground.

 

Nice breakdown - I think you meatn to say that SEO was LEGAL. Since I dont' think you can be prosecuted in a criminal court or sued for SEo, right? The worst thing that will happen is that google will blacklist, which is the OPPOSITE goal of SEO.

[Steve Krause]

First question - What is SEO:

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a process of optimizing a website so that Search Engines can easily crawl the website and index it in a way which takes your content and allows you to rank as high as possible in search results.

 

As an example. A simple SEO principle is to take a URL like www.grovypost.com/?p=20422 and turn it into a friendly name filled with keywords that describe what the webpage is about yet at the same time focus on keywords which might be typed by a person doing a search to find this content like: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/how-to/disable-remove-startup-entries-windows-ccleaner/

Make sense? Rather than ?p=20422, you get disable-remove-startup-entries-windows-ccleaner.

And that is just the beginning when it comes to SEO.

 

Second Question - Is SEO illegal

Put simple - No. Of course not. SEO is just a term used by web masters. However I think the questions you getting at is:

Is there such thing as BAD SEO or deceptive SEO practices?

Yes. Unlike proper SEO techniques which will help you rank better in Search Engine search results, deceptive SEO practices can cause your website to be banned from Search Engine Results.

An example of Deceptive SEO practices include things like

1. Filling your page with keywords which are visible to search engines but not visible to readers. Some think this can help your page rank for many many different keywords when actually your content has nothing to do with those topics.
2. Although not typically SEO related, another deceptive practice is to pay for other Web Sites to link to your content in order to gain Authority in the eyes of the search engines (more valid backlinks to your page = the more authority granted to your page and content). This is actually what JCPenny did.

SEO is actually a HUGE topic which professionals spend their entire career mastering. If you need help with a new project, feel free to ping me and I can perhaps assist you get things off the ground.

 

Aye - Fixed.

[mistycantsleep]

I want to internet market for my company website, but I've heard lots of news about search engine optimization and companies like JCPenny getting in trouble for it? Is doing SEO against the law or just unethical? I dont' understand--what is the alternative to SEO if I want to get Google visitors? Is getting the little text ads that i see in my Google mail the same as SEO? can I get in trouble if I do that wrong?

 

SEOs are OF THE DEVIL, LOL! I have helped do some SEO work for a few online employers and they are very sneaky. Don't you just hate it when you are searching for something specific, using the product name, and every review, article and competing product comes up, before the actual product does? Thank SEOs for that lovely 15 min loss of your life that you will never get back. But the success of a lot of small companies and generic alternatives owe their online success to them. While they may not be able to afford a huge advertising campaign, they can sneak their name in your field of vision , by using keywords instead of ads.

[amariotto]

SEO (Search engine optimization) is the method of optimizing your website on search engines. Search engine work on algorithms to list a website on their search results. Definitely it’s a legal way to do promotions on internet. For that, you have to hire a good firm who is working according to the norms and guidelines of search engines. If you simply begin a search on the internet, you will come across thousands of SEO firms, but only some of them like LinkShake and WebiMax have maintained their great reputation in this field.

[AitchB]

All the replies are correct and offer good advice. The easiest part is making a website. The hardest part is getting people to see it. So think of it like this...

Stage 1 -You make a website. You write/add content that is correct and informative for your product or service. You "register" it with the major search engines (Google, Yahoo etc.) You wait. Nothing happens.

Stage 2 - You add a Blog. You create a page on Facebook. You have Twitter account. You make a few video clips and post them on Youtube etc. You wait. Nothing happens.

Stage 3 - You search for a good SEO company and/or a referencing company. WARNING There are many companies offering SEO and referencing. The two go together. You are unlucky, pick a useless company, pay a lot and nothing happens.

Now be careful. You can spend a small fortune on these companies with no results, so before committing to one of them use Google to see what other customers really think about the chosen one.

Stage 4 - You do a serious search and find a responsible company. Your site begins to pay dividends.

I mentioned doing a Blog. There is a very popular word game ( I wont name it) on the Internet and I love playing it so I decided to do a blog with advice and named it " 'wordgame' mytips" and never referenced it or paid attention to SEO and I have had over 500,000 hits. This tells me two things. Whatever else you do add a blog with all the best bits of your business taken from the created website. try a name that could be easily asked. (as "any tips for 'word game'") Leave links back to your website and if it's with Blogger, then Google, the owners of Blogger will do the rest.

[myjob]

SEO is not illegal. However, depending on what you do or do not do, it can hurt you. A good SEO campaign is designed to help you attract traffic to your website so your business can grow. Just like Social media, SEO can be done as an acquisition strategy