now listen, you will read the best, most powerful, most valuable SEO tip you can ever find anywhere in the world. it has been working for millions of web sites for years. and it will continue working forever, as long as web sites and search engines are still with us.

come closer, closer, it’s priceless.

do NOT try to fool search engines. do NOT even think of it.

take it seriously. it’s truly the best SEO technique you can have.

the reason that i have to share this point with my visitors right now is that, it might be too late when you realised how important it is.

for years, i’ve been following the “never fool search engines” rule, and will do the same in future. it’s not because i’m a good guy, although i really am :-). it’s because fooling search engines will get you into trouble, sooner or later.

there’re tons of web sites using blackhat SEO techniques or dirty tricks, many of them have been doing well in rankings. and that’s exactly why many new web marketers would want to try these blackhat tricks. hidden text, cloaking, doorway pages, keyword stuffing, etc.

but, do NOT do these blackhat SEO tricks just because some web sites escape from the radar. you will be better off using whitehat techniques, or no special SEO techniques at all.

search engines are tightening up their algos to identify and kick out spammy web sites. from what i can see in last few updates of both Goolgle and Yahoo in the past year, one thing in common of sites dropped in ranking, or completely booted out, is many of them use techniques in doubts.

some webmasters may not realize they’re using techniques that search engines do not like, some may not agree with me that the techniques they use can be a problem.

for example, looks like Google started booting out many directory web sites from 28 July. some are scrapping sites with no real content, some are good, human edited directories. think about it, what’s wrong with building a human reviewed and edited industry directory? nothing, if you do not consider search engines.

if you do want traffic from Google, you have to be very careful while building directories: manually built static pages or script generated page? what sites to be listed? require a linking back? paid listing or free for everyone? any other contents besides the listings? use ODP feeds? use re-direct script to count outgoing traffic? etc.

count all these factors, and most probably more factors, if your directory looks spammy to Google, your gone.

conclusion: keep away from any blackhat SEO techniques, keep away from even SEO techniques in grey area, whenever in doubt, do not use it.

best way is, do not think of SEO at all.