Is SEO Risky?

Right now a marketing manager who is considering search engine optimization is starting to become afraid. They think that SEO might risk their website and put their online marketing efforts in jeopardy. Let me reassure you- SEO is not risky, but some tactics and methods employed by SEOs might be risky.

What is risky about some SEO techniques?

  • Getting banned by Google
  • Getting penalized by Google
  • Not improving your website's traffic or conversions at all. Yes, that's right! Sometimes an SEO technique might be risky because it doesn't have any benefit whatsoever.

What makes an SEO method risky?

An SEO method is not risky when it:

  • It is recommended by the Google guide to Search Engine Optimization
  • Benefits the user of the website while helping the search engines understand your website
  • Helps a search engine spider better crawl your website

Who cares about your hat color?

This site is a result of my thoughts after attending an SEO meet-up in Charlotte, NC. While there, something snapped and I became fed up with the useless label of "black hat" or "white hat" when applied to search engine optimization. I couldn't help but vent in a post on my Tumblr blog. Now, there is a big difference between good and bad techniques to SEO but labeling these by a particular color of headgear has become a pejorative and unproductive.

Instead, I think the SEO community should begin talking about "risk." Instead of applying a term to an SEO (you are an "X"), we should take time to determine which specific search engine optimization techniques or methods are the most or least "risky."

Let me invite you to rate these SEO techniques for how risky they may be.