Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been defined as the art of manipulating the search engines. That is false. SEO does not manipulate search engines. If you set out to place a web page on the first page of results for a target keyword or phrase thinking you are manipulating the search engine, you are doomed to fail.

Thinking you are forcing the search engine to do anything is a mistake. Thinking you are hiding anything from a search engine is a mistake. The only answer to top placement is recognizing what a search engine does, assessing the potential rewards and risks and working within those confines.

The only ones who can manipulate a search engine, are the people with access to the admin panel, and/or source code, of that specific search engine. If you can't get to the admin panel, you can have no effect whatsoever on what that search engine does. All you can do is construct data that you feel is most likely to fall within the parameters of the algorithm.

That is not manipulating a search engine, that is learning how search engines work and then manipulating your page. No matter how vehemently some may disagree, that is a fact! No one can "help" a search engine find what it's looking for anymore than anyone can "make" a search engine do what they want. Search engines just do what they do. They are only machines. This is the fallacy of SEO.