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All businesses can benefit from making use of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. This leads to your business popping up more often on search engines like Google. In this era of the internet, most people consult Google when they have a question or need a service.
People are frequently looking up reviews, definitions, articles that have to do with things they need or areas they’re interested in. SEO can help you improve your business by improving the traffic that goes to your website, and therefore the number of customers you get. The more people that see your site, the more that know what you’re about and can reach out to you when they’re in need of your services.
What Is Gray Hat SEO?
First off, what exactly is Gray Hat SEO? There are three kinds of search engine optimization techniques that focus on using different tactics to improve a website’s internet traffic.
White Hat SEO uses content creation and website performance to boost website traffic. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Black Hat SEO tends to get quicker results by focusing only on the search engine, not the website itself, usually in ways deemed unacceptable by Google terms. Black Hat practices focus on making sure that your website appears on a Google search; but not on optimizing your website, which could ultimately be penalized by Google.
Gray Hat SEO is the most ambiguous of the three because it isn’t rigidly defined, though some say that it lies somewhere on a spectrum between White Hat and Black Hat. It can be said that this specific brand of SEO revolves around techniques such as duplicating content, cloaking, automating social media, and purchasing old domains.
Avoiding Duplicated Content
Content itself is a large part of SEO practices. A ‘Gray Hat’ process of content creation specifically refers to taking an article (or articles) and fully rewording them in a way that supports the views of your website. This reworded article is then posted on your website so that it and all of the keyword terms within it are searchable. If a user researches a specific keyword, they’re more likely to go to your website because of the relevant article posted on it. However, be sure to run it through a service like CopyScape before posting – duplicate content will penalize your SEO, not help it. This practice is considered Gray Hat because while it helps your SEO, ‘stealing’ and rewriting content is unethical to the original producer.
Cloaking
Cloaking is a difficult and debated practice. Some believe it falls under the Black Hat category, but the jury is still undecided. When you’re cloaking, you’re showing a user a different result than what the search engine originally showed. In a nutshell, by tricking a search engine, you can change the way users interact with your website. Sites like Google don’t approve of this practice and using a tactic like this could potentially result in your website being banned from certain search engines.
Social Media Automation
Managing social media can be a chore and can have little return on investment. There are services that allow you to relinquish this responsibility and have a greater chance of increasing your social media presence. These tools focus on auto-following and unfollowing different social media users with the intention of showcasing your business to more people and gaining more followers yourself. The best thing about it is that you don’t have to do any of this yourself. The whole process is automated. For as little as five dollars, you can have this tool for your business.
How Does It Help Your Business?
As you can see, there are numerous techniques that can help increase the number of people who know about your business, and there are more techniques being developed all the time. By keeping on top of the SEO practices, you can really help your business grow. You can generate more traffic to your website, more interest in your social media, and more content for search engines to pick up on.
There’s a hiccup though. Quality SEO assistance can be hard to find, and it’s difficult to do on your own. If you’re interested in utilizing SEO for your business, there’s a company near Plano, TX that specializes in just that. Reach out to professionals nearby you for even more advice and guidance on how you should go about utilizing SEO to benefit your business.
