Here is Googles’ official line:

A lot of these options have been present (but somewhat hidden from view) up until now:

The new design really pushes the options making the Google SERPS look similar in style to Yahoo or Bing.

One of the most notable additions is that Google are now pushing the so called social search and real-time search results (see the screenshot below) which details a search for Gordon Brown (the morning after the night before) and shows the relevant Twitter updates.

New Google search for Gordon Brown shows Twitter updates

What this means for businesses:

• Businesses will have to update their sites and offsite content so that they appear under as many filters (options) as is reasonably possible including blogs, videos etc.
• Businesses will have to participate in the online community; it’s getting harder and harder to ignore Twitter by the day.

Now I’m certainly not saying that the companies that rank for the above phrases are in any way unethical or unprofessional the fact that they have selected these phrases at all is to their credit.  And yes I get the hypocrisy; this post including the title tag, page title and content are obviously focused on optimising it for the phrase Ethical SEO Company.

What I’m trying to get at here is that Google has no way of telling how a company operates or conducts itself, it simply returns the best results that it can given the available parameters.  Broadly speaking (and greatly simplified in order to explain my reasoning) there are 2 factors that dictate how search engines rank pages:

1. Onsite/Onpage SEO (Which can include Domain Name Selection as well as Optimised Title Tags, Internal Links, Visible on Page Text, Page Titles etc).
2. External Inbound Links (that are pointing at the site pages hopefully, but not always from relevant, respected or trusted websites)

The first factor is completely in the control of the webmaster in question; all it takes is knowledge of SEO to put the content in place to fulfil this part of the site optimisation.  The second factor is the external links coming into the site pages, to put it simply Google and the other search engines look on these links as one site voting for the other.

In an ideal world a company would set up a website, call themselves an Ethical SEO Company and create the onsite content that makes web site owners want to link through to them. In reality most companies (even ethical ones) will find it difficult to achieve this type of inbound link. Most companies have to build quality content and even then work on building links to their site.

So what makes an Ethical SEO Company?
Answer: “Some of the Above”

To find out what makes for Ethical SEO have a read of the following pages, these are Guidelines set out by the Search Engines to tell webmasters and site owners how to follow (or should I say how not to break) the rules:

Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html

Google Webmaster Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

Bing Webmaster Center Help:
http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters

Dmoz Guidelines:
http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/

If you want to hire an ethical SEO then do some research, you have been told that the company you have contacted is ethical (and they may well be) but don’t just take their word for it, understand what you are paying for.

“Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it’s best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to “help” you.” SOURCE: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

The image below shows a search in Google and highlights where the PPC advertising and the Natural (or Algorithmic) search results appear.  While Google is not the only search engine it is probably the one that most people use and the results of Yahoo, Ask, Bing etc. appear in much the same way.

PPC & Natural (or Algorithmic) Search Results

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic achieved through the Natural (or Algorithmic) search results.  The search engines are trying to return quality relevant content and the aim of SEO is to help make your site pages as relevant as possible for the phrases that you are targeting.  SEO normally involves keyword and competitor research in the first instance followed by input into both the site itself and also into offsite elements.

What is Pay Per Click (PPC)

To put it (very) simply PPC works by the advertiser selecting appropriate keywords that will then trigger their adverts. When a user types in the keywords the advert is displayed (there are other variables involved but this is a short article). If the user clicks on the advert then the advertiser pays, hence the phrase Pay Per Click.

What are the Benefits of PPC?

• You can use PPC to test your business ideas
• PPC can be set up immediately, SEO can be a slow burn
• PPC can inform your future SEO strategy
• It is flexible; you can turn off the campaign, reduce spend, refocus your adverts etc.

Further Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay_per_click
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization