As I was on my way to work today I was driving down the motorway and it began to rain. Now we all know what happens on a motorway when it rains; everyone forgets how to drive properly. If you do not know how to drive properly then how are you going to reach your destination in one piece?

So as an SEO Programmer it is much like knowing what techniques to use when optimising a website. Only White Hat, ethical techniques are only ever going to give a website consistent rankings and improvements. Using unethical techniques means that rankings may be achieved quickly but are never sustained and can get the website penalised or banned. Much similar to the guy speeding past me at 90mph+ when there’s spray all over the road. He may get to his destination quickly; but there is a much higher chance of him losing control and hitting a brick wall…

I continue driving and then I hit a traffic jam; not one of the best parts of driving by far. I was reduced to a slow crawl but at least it was safer - and eventually i got going again. Within SEO there are always going to be ’slow’ points within a campaign. you may achieve ranking improvements for 3 weeks and then suddenly it’ll stay consistent until 2 weeks later rankings start to climb again. it doesn’t mean the website is doing something wrong, it just means that ranking gains are not always consistent.

I finally arrived at work in one piece (and who knows about the other guy) but I got here safely and that’s the most important thing. There is no point racing down the motorway and potentially causing an accident; especially in rainy conditions. Slow and steady is always the best option and this is also true for SEO.

SEO takes time and should not be rushed - ethical techniques provide ranking improvements that stand the test of time and search engines love ethical techniques; which can not be said for unethical techniques.