The number one goal for any search engine optimization professional is to achieve high rankings for their clients. The methods optimizers employ in an attempt to achieve this success do not fall in line with a roadmap or best practice plan. SEO is full of grey areas and guesswork – however there are identified tactics that have been proven to increase the risk of a site being penalized or banned from directories. As a result, web marketing professionals must be careful when making changes to a website and the importance of perceived ethics in search engine optimization has become immense.

It can be said that SEO professionals have two clients: the website owner and the search engines. While clients have to be comfortable with changes to their site, search engines also have to be considered – is the site optimized, and are said optimization efforts in danger of compromising rankings? Each major search engine has its own set of stated guidelines that webmasters are expected to follow as a condition of its use. Client requests have to be weighed alongside these rules or ethics to avoid penalization.

SEO professional Wayne Hurlbert has outlined three popular SEO ethics classifications, often referred to as “hats.” Professionals are classified as being either a “white hat,” “black hat” or “grey hat” SEO. A “white hat” SEO professional is one who follows generally accepted optimization techniques, and avoids anything that even slightly conflicts with Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Any method that raises ethical questions is completely avoided. A “white hat” professional is one who upholds the highest ethical standards.

On the opposite end of the spectrum is the “black hat” SEO professional, who clearly violates all guidelines, stated by any search engine, and has no regard for generally accepted optimization techniques. Some “black hat” practices include cloaking, hidden text and link farms. A “grey hat” SEO professional is one who lies somewhere in the middle of the other two. Many disagree about what exactly is constitutes ‘grey’, but the utilization of certain linking tools and content generating software suites have been mentioned.

The exact definition and boundaries of the hat classifications are up for debate, but the concept serves as a barometer for ethical SEO practices. Professionals must figure out their individual boundaries and decide for themselves which SEO practices enable them to achieve rankings while maintaining standards that are in line with their personal values. Research is essential when it comes to deciding which SEM firm to outsource to, as below-the-belt tactics can prove devastating to a site’s organic visibility.

• The 411 on 301 Redirects

What is a redirect, and why are they a frequently employed facet of web navigation? Picture a bored traffic cop trying to manage a detour after a bridge has collapsed. Due to habit and training, said traffic will automatically try and cross the bridge - so to avoid disastrous, albeit probably humorous, consequences this traffic must be redirected to a safe, alternate route. The same is true after a website alteration. It may take months for search engines to reindex and reflect your new URL stru...