SEO, or "search engine optimization" is a red-hot topic in a new day and age of internet commerce. SEO techniques are employed to help raise the search engine results pages (SERPs) for websites selling some type of product or service. The higher the ranking, the greater the chance of appearing on the first page of the search engine results when a user types in keywords that relate to the content of the webpage.

Small and large businesses alike compete for page-1 search results. The chances of a potential client or customer clicking on the link to a proprietor's website and making a purchase diminish greatly when their site does not appear on the first page. The best position to be is on page 1 of the results for maximizing the conversion rate (the ratio of people visiting a site to people who make a purchase). This is what gave birth to "Search Engine Optimization", or SEO for short.

The competition for page 1 placement on the popular search engine site Google.com has opened up a cottage industry. Consultants charge hefty fees to decipher the top-secret way that Google ranks sites and keywords. Business owners wanting to increase exposure for their company by hiring consultants to perform SEO work has become commonplace. But what has also become common are SEO consultants who find technical "shortcuts" to getting their clients ranked higher than their competitors.

Google staff spends a great deal of time trying to stay ahead of those who constantly work at figuring out Google's trade secrets of webpage ranking. When a site draws major attention and internet traffic by circumventing the system, Google will "slap" them back down to size, thus not allowing their site to enjoy top search engine ranking (hence the term "Google Slap"). Some website owners even resort to what is called "black hat" methods that are clearly unethical methods of cranking up their search engine rankings. Some of these abusers can be banned permanently from having any search engine results placements at all.

While the SEO "experts" out there constantly analyze Google to find the shortest route to page 1 listings, Google has a different mission: to protect the integrity and quality of their search results for its consumers. This means that the average internet searcher will be rewarded with sites that are best fit for his or her search terms rather than havign results on page 1 from website owners that paid the most money for SEO experts to get them on top by some technical shortcut.

It would not be necessary for Google to constantly change the way they rank websites if people played by the rules. But over the years, they have had to change their methods as often as the short-cutters would figure them out. For example, many years ago there were a significant number of websites that practiced "keyword loading". This was done by repeating certain keywords by the hundreds at the bottom of a webpage, then changing the color of the words to match the background so they were not visible to those viewing the site. This method worked, because the web crawlers (computer "robots" that crawl the web gathering information) would think that the site was much more significant due to the high concentration of keywords on the page.

If you tried this trick today, you would get banned by Google. As a result, your site would not show up in the search engine results pages at all. This trick and many others have been employed and exposed over the history of the search engine. But the search engines today are much more sophisticated, and little tricks like this do more harm than good.

To avoid Google Slap and an ever-changing Google ranking system, website owners should revert to using natural and organic techniques to gain higher results on search results. Focusing on keyword research, writing creative content, having relevant information, and keeping your site updated are methods that will never be "slapped" because they agree with the overall mission of the search engine provider: provide the most relevant results for the user.