The abundance of search engine marketing professionals, companies and individual consultants pushing various magic formulas and services that can push a business to the top of the search engine results can be extremely overwhelming. But while there are many different tactics and methods that may push a website to the top of the major search results, but they don’t always come without detrimental or long-term negative effects that can really hurt a business over time. Understanding white-hat SEO methods of pushing results up naturally can help differentiate quality tactics from the quick fixes that can, ultimately ruin a site.

• Follow the Rules

One of the most effective ways of separating good, white-hat search engine optimization from the magic wand approach is clear comprehension of what search engine giants are currently looking at. The bigger search engines are not secretive about what SEO efforts are viewed in a positive manner. Similarly, their blog posts, tweets and articles are often filled with information about what site managers and webmasters should not do in regards to search engine optimization. By staying on top of what the major players look at, can be much easier to spot a quick fix that could eventually hurt a site.

• Take Time

It’s no secret that search engine optimization can be a time-consuming, painstaking efforts that requires patience. Because of the time necessary to see legitimate, organic, white-hat results with less risk of being penalized, time is a big indicator of whether efforts might be too good to be true. If SEO promises involve very little time, they may not be worth the risk and may, in fact, be too good to be true.

• Natural is Better

When the search engines, “Google, Bing” release information about what the algorithms many marketers look for ways to complete those tasks or achieve the noted goals, without taking the time and effort: using short cuts. Paid links are one example of efforts that may have completed the purpose proposed by search engines. But while paid links helped boost results with linking, the short cut prompted algorithm updates that brought some sites and marketers to their knees. Achieving results in a natural manner is always better than the purchased, quick methods.

• Pay Attention to Notifications

Major search engines provide webmasters with important information about their sites and whether efforts might be outside the lines. By paying close attention to such notifications, which can be found in webmaster tools, can help marketers and managers spot potential SEO disasters before your website incurs a penalty.

• Fresh is Always Best

One of the most important pillars of SEO success lies in the importance placed on content. But while content is a vital aspect of SEO, duplicate content can hurt a site’s efforts and ranking. New, well-researched, relevant content is more important than updating a site or blog with duplicate page and post content that is taken from other sites. Not only does this hurt a writer or business’ credibility, it’s no-no in the eyes of major search engines and can result in penalties. Instead, expanding on ideas and creating content born of other articles and content can offer audience members new information while signaling authority to search engine algorithms.