Monday, 28, Jan 2008 11:00
A great many companies are using search engine optimisation (SEO) tactics which Google considers to be black hat, meaning they risk losing their ranking entirely, an expert has warned.
Patrick Altoft, director of Blogstorm, made his comments in an E-consultancy article, cautioning companies to double-check the strategies their SEO firm is employing to boost their ratings.
As Google now possesses 90 per cent of the UK market, companies cannot risk flouting the guidelines, he asserted.
Websites which are ranking highly as a result of link buying or selling or large-scale reciprocal linkers are most at risk of being noticed and penalised by the search engine, Mr Altoft commented.
"The key is to develop long-term strategies for sustainable rankings that will help sites ride through the inevitable Google ranking alterations without major trouble," he urged.
Last week, Stephan Spencer, founder and president of Netconcepts, claimed marketers using risky SEO tactics now may find they are penalised by Google in the future if it retrospectively reviews web content.
He made his comments to online resource Search Engine Land, arguing that in the long run, the "pearly white hats", which have always kept to Google's rules, could be the only sites with a high search presence.
