I love that I have entitled this blog title! Titles like this sell books; drive user attention and this is what all website owners wants. There is no shortage of companies out there who claims that they can get you on the top but really can they deliver what they have promised? If your content is not relevant, no amount of clever Search Engine Optimization will get you on number 1 – the bottom line!

There are ways to trick Google which helps you rank on top, but few of them tricks break Google’s guidelines. Google comes down hard on websites who does not follow the guidelines. So, how can you distinguished legitimate techniques and those black-hat techniques?

Following are few practices to bear in mind being black listed:
1.) Beware of companies that guarantee a particular rank
Ask for more information. First question to ask the provider is to describe clearly how/what they use to get us to that rank? You can judge whether you’re in danger being black-listed or not.

2.) Hidden text and links or search-engine only content
These text or links are intentionally hidden in the page to improve ranking. Means, users cannot see it but search engines can.

3.) Automatically submitting to Google
This is specifically prohibited in Google guidelines. Avoid using software packages to automatically submit your website to Google.

4.) Duplicating content or keyword stuffing
Google understand the difference if there is a legitimate reason of duplicating content such as if you have specified separate version for print. But, it break the rules if websites which deliberately dump the content or stuff keywords repeatedly to manipulate the ranking.

5.) Doorway pages
Sole purpose of creating these types of pages is to rank well in search engines. By using certain keywords or poor content which no relates at all to the actual website does no good.

By using above techniques creates a negative user experience and may ultimately cause Google to take actions. So how you can improve your ranking? Following are number of techniques you can use.

1.) Improving your website’s build
• Avoid using content types such as flash which search engines cannot access. Also, it’s a good practice to stay away from flash intro which doesn’t have SKIP button anyway.
• Mark up your content and use appropriate attributes such as ALT and TITLE to ensure accessibility for search engines.
• Add a site map. Create a clear hierarchy of your web pages which is easily accessible.
• Deliberately use text links instead of using an image, flash or other interactive element to get to the other pages on your website.
• Use short URLs
• Submit your website. For Google, you can submit at http://www.google.com/addurl.html or using Google’s webmaster tools page. Doing so helps Google learn the structure of your site and increases the number of pages indexed.

2.) Improving your content.
No brainer, correct? Additionally, it is a good practice to incorporate search terms in your content; naturally into the copy/content, headings or in the image ALT attributes. Be careful not to use too many search words; preserve the value of the content. Two or may be three words is adequate. Don’t dump all words you can think of, because you may get penalized for doing so.

3.) Encouraging quality links
If you’re website owner, it’s not so hard to understand. You may be getting lot of emails from somebody wanting to exchange your links with them. It is truth that Google may rank you high if your WebPages are linked to other websites. But keep in mind that quality matters than quantity. It’s worthwhile responding to a link request unless it comes from high-profile website with appropriate content.

Although these techniques which I’ve explained here will help improve your ranking, but shouldn’t be your sole focus. In almost all cases, the benefit is temporary, because Google constantly works to close such loopholes. It might take months for your site to become listed on top and all these techniques to work to take an effect. It means that site with short span may or may not appear on top at all. Despite all these frustration, search engines can’t be ignored.