Unethical SEO techniques are punishable

Although search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly changing, there are a number of techniques which are constantly viewed as against the rules, it has been claimed.

Barry Hurd, president of Social Media Systems, reports that "unscrupulous" SEO methods will result in punishment from the big search engines.

"Making sure that your company is aware of certain basic standards and not accidentally infringing on discouraged techniques is essential to making sure your online brand is a flourishing asset that is building value," he said.

Dishonest- or "black hat"- techniques include hiding a wealth of irrelevant keywords on web pages or page cloaking - showing search engines visually unappealing but maximised keyword pages that it would not intend for consumers.

Submitting identical content on different pages and providing multiple pages with a particular phrase for SEO is also frowned upon, alongside misspelling common words, brands or websites in order to appear when a web user submits a typo to a search engine.

Leading search engine Google has also publicly penalized websites which pay for reciprocal links, branding them unethical.