The key to website success is getting found by the search engines. So why do so many people risk getting blacklisted by utilizing unethical search engine optimization tactics? Your site definitely can’t get found if Google has booted you from their index. The most surprising tactic that started over 10 years ago and still gets used by Black Hat SEOs today is the use of hidden text on your webpage.

Hidden text is textual content that visitors to your site cannot see, but is readable by the search engines. The idea is to load a page with keywords and phrases that would be unsightly to web users but would improve a page’s ranking in the search results. These keywords and phrases are invisible to searchers because they are usually in very small font and/or made the same color as the pages background or background image. It’s search spam and it’s a terrible optimization tactic that could cost your website ever being found again.

Search engines have been more than vigilant about fighting efforts to manipulate their results. Unethical techniques, like hiding keyword stuffed sentences on your page, may be able to trick the search engines for a brief moment of time, but once found, you run the risk of being permanently banned. If the welfare of the site matters to you at all, then don’t use spam methods at all.

Poor SEO practices can also be damaging to your reputation and brand. Your website, if your Black Hat practices are brought to any one’s attention and especially if you get blacklisted, will be perceived as untrustworthy. You are after all, presenting your site in one format to search engines while showing different information to a searcher. If your reputation or the reputation of your business and brand matters, then stick to ethical optimization results.

So remember, per Google themselves: “If your site is perceived to contain hidden text and links that are deceptive in intent, your site may be removed from the Google index, and will not appear in search results pages.” Make sure you know the team you hire to handle search engine optimization for your site. Don’t waste your time and money on spam tactics. Invest instead on a custom web design that uses ethical search engine optimization tactics like including keyword rich quality content and natural link building campaigns.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

Please rest assured that HP is always striving to provide the best-possible user experience and can only do so with the type of valuable feedback you provided.

That’s probably what you would hear if you inquired with HP on why they are using annoying survey pop-ups on their website. Pop-ups are the irritation of Internet users everywhere. You have no options-you have to look at it to hopefully close it and move on with your intended mission.

How can such an irritating practice still be in use by so many?

The unfortunate truth is that pop-up ads have been successful in the past. As sad as it may be, countless brands have been transformed into household names with the use of pop-ups. They get consumers’ attention whether it be negative or, for a surprising few, positive. But if you wouldn’t consider telemarketing your customers for fear of what it might do to your brand, then why use pop-ups? These marketing techniques won’t build consumer confidence or help your brand reputation.

Here is a reality check before you jump on the pop-up, under, or over campaign. Forrester Research released a report indicating 64 percent of Internet users still find pop-ups “irritating”. That’s more than half of your target audience. At the same time, consumer usage of pop-up blocking software is on the rise, as well as the number of browsers offering the feature, making this irritating marketing campaign less effective with each day. Hopefully this will be enough to deter marketers from using this annoying technique.

One option is to have something where the user clicks on a link to see the pop up. For example, HP could create a non pop-up banner ad where on that site that said “Take our 2-minute survey and be entered to win $10,000″, then when the user clicked, it would open the pop-up survey. In doing it this way, they would be looking at a pop-up campaign that was a lot more effective with less irritation. And what is $10,000 to HP? A drop in the massive bucket.

If the above isn’t good enough to stop the pop-up urge, then consider your reputation. Pop-ups are extremely negative for your image and brand. Once your target market loses trust in your brand, you will have not only spent thousands on a damaging pop-up campaign, but now you will be spending thousands more to repair the dents in your reputation.

Rafferty Pendery
CEO Studio98

One of the keys of reputation management that many people overlook is honesty.

Unlike many businesses today, I am confident that today’s consumers have no problem seeing through false promises in advertising. I admire honest marketing and believe it to be the best marketing approach. It is surprising how many companies are still pumping out ambiguity and doubt in their advertising because they reveal no facts to back up their points.

Three cheers to companies like Progressive Insurance who is confident in their rates and service and in their customer’s ability to make their own informed decisions. They freely post the rates of their competitors right next to their own. Never claiming to have the very best rates for every one in the world and offering options for customers to find a policy that works best for them, thereby restoring consumers’ faith in their own decisions.

Dishonesty would obviously never fall under the category of “good marketing”, but all too often it slips in through the crack under the door. You can’t fake honesty. As a business or industry you must provide quality and content that are credible.

This all leads me to wonder, how might an inferior company then promote their product or service? The first step would be to start being honest with themselves and then with consumers. How would a company make the change to honest marketing? I suggest starting at “home”. Try asking your customers and employees for some honest anonymous feedback and build from there.

We can’t all be the best at everything all the time. Being honest in your marketing campaign is a start to developing quality customer relations and building a great reputation.

Studio98 develops full reputation management strategies for companies and individuals through a full integrated marketing campaign.