what to do with black hat seo

Blackhat is not a good business model for affiliates (or affiliate programs) to follow because this industry is all about trust. The moment you enter into the shady area of rigging search engine results is when you start to lose integrity and lose out financially in the long run.

Sure, there are immediate financial gains from Black Hat SEO but it’s better build quality content and a respectable informational website and then ask people to reciprocate your links to them, yes, I know it sounds boring and I know that reciporical links are not as valuable as one-way links etc. but it does help.

I will also be a little less inclined to work with a “Black Hatter” because I know they are short term investments and I’d rather help smaller affiliate build their website(s) and client base.

As for posting at Matt’s blog. You don’t mean Matt Cutts from Google by any chance? Hrm, I am not sure what CAP’s policy on “outing” affiliates or webmasters. Perhaps you should get an official response from Professor!

I disapprove of any methods that steal from the work of others.

A lot of blackhat does that, and that’s where the buck stops with me.

Other than that I don’t much care what people do with their sites. IMO, google will come to getcha sooner or later anyways.

So far I haven’t known any, I guess that’s the point though, right? After all, if you were caught, it wouldn’t be very sneaky or stealthy :roflmao:

@damiandunlap 129011 wrote:

I like black hats over white hats, white hats get dirty faster :wink-wink

Black hats fade in the sun and if you have to clean them they fade. Go gray hat! Or check out this one: :hattip:

Hi all,

sad to say I have learned from someone (whom I can’t say and can’t even say why so you’ll just have to trust me or choose to ignore my post) … but I was very surprised to hear this name associated with bh

because I cannot name the accuser nor give specifics (as I didn’t ask because I wouldn’t understand it anyway) … I’ll never have anything to do with this person.

damn i wish I could elaborate but it would compromise my promise to always keep anonymous whom i am talking about and they have excellent reason for staying so….

so yes, … I do believe there are those that bh which are fairly regular posters ….. and the person whom was named had me completely fooled.

Man I wish I could explain in further detail but there is excellent reason to not …. and it would break the trust that I am lucky enough to enjoy because this person (at least at one time .. don’t know about now) .. was at the top of the game and for all I know ….. used bh tactics …. to some degree to get to the top.

I can say that my contact in this endeavor has never stolen content or anything. But I’d guess has hit the grey area at the very least at one time or another.

personally I believe in just building a website with content but I can say from experience that … that alone won’t bring much traffic.

so where is the line? I cannot say. but I do feel if YOU feel its crossing the line …. you’ve answered your own question before you’ve begun.

I’m no newbie – but do we even really know what we are discussing?
I cannot accurately categorise a black hat.

What and who is black hat?
A few things that come to mind :
– Scraping other peoples sites and using them.
– Posting those pathetic links in blogs and forums.
– active cloaking where you present different views fo search engines.
– spam mail and email harvesting techniques ?

But what else? Can you elaborate ?

I ask because I’d like to know – and don’t really want to go nosing around black hat sites – as I don’t know what I’d catch.
:tongue:

What and who is considered white hat?
– Really basic websites with only a minimum of SEO optimisation ?

As soon as you start thinking about search engines does your hat start turning a shade of grey?

What and who is grey hat? (probably most of us)
– advanced SEO optimisation ?
– use of web2.0 social network sites?
– creation of mini-sites or small specialist niche sites that link to each other?
– variation of site displays depending on IP address or previous cookies ?
– active monitoring of SE keywords and stats ?

---

You see I do all the things listed in my GREY hat section.

When I create content I am aware that you need to get everything – and I mean everything – just right if you are going to get any penetration into the search engines.

So when does the person turn from white to off-white to light grey to dark grey to black ?
:wink-wink

This could be a fascinating discussion …

Way too much to write to answer this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hat