If you think there are easy ways to trick Google into improving the search engine results for your business website, here’s a tip from Google: “We know what you are doing.” (There’s another tip at the end of this post.)

Specifically, here is how Ben Gomes, VP of engineering, explains it:

“In addition to trying to organize information, our algorithms have always had to grapple with individuals or systems seeking to “game” our systems in order to appear higher in search results—using low-quality “content farms,” hidden text and other deceptive practices. We’ve tackled these problems, and others over the years, by making regular updates to our algorithms and introducing other features that prevent people from gaming the system.”

While the topic Gomes was addressing is the use of “fake news,” Google is constantly looking for patterns of usage that are “fake” in other ways. Fake links. Fake keywords. Fake articles scraped off other sites.

In other words, if your reason for blogging or keeping your website up to date is just about trying to outsmart Google, you will never beat Google’s engineers.

However, if you use the content you create for the web as a means to inform, educate and help your current and future customers, it is likely that Google will reward you.

Bottom line: Helping customers is a better approach to SEO than trying to game Google. Indeed, it’s the only approach that stands the test of time.

Tip: If you want to learn correct ways to help improve your search engine marketing efforts, check out Google’s Webmasters website.

Illustration: Google.com