SEO 2.0

There are Black SEO methods and there are White Hat SEO methods. Why they are called that way have a lot to do with the good and the bad; and sometimes the consequences can be ugly.

Black Hat SEO methods are generally the best way to ensure your site gets nixed by the search engines. **In fact, if you would like your site to be ranked right up there with the Black Hat giants such as BMW and RICHO in Germany, go ahead and blatantly use some of the available Black Hat SEO methods available.

“Spamming” is the mantra of Black Hat SEO.

A typical Black Hat SEO would stuff a website with keywords to increase its relevance and cloak the content by setting it in the same color as the website’s background. Another method of Black Hat SEO is to create a web site, stuff it with keywords, and then re-direct the link to another website, one that is user-friendly. If your venture is to have any long-term value, Black Hat should not considered a viable option.

In fairness to Black Hat SEO, results are quick and in many cases have great short term benefits. There are many people making their fortunes using unscrupulous methods. However, these ventures have no long-term value proposition. You will just be promoting one empty scam after another. Black Hat SEO is still not worth risking for many reasons. A few of them include:

1. Getting Removed By Search Engines: Google recently dropped many websites for using black SEO methods. Website owners better keep in mind that Google does not hesitate to remove websites on its index for black hat offenses.
2. Short-Term Results: Being illegal, at least where the search engines are concerned only means that black hat SEOs must constantly change tactics or be caught in the long-term, and for your website to removed from the index of search engines.
3. Incoherence: Cloaking (one fo the methods used to subvert the search engines) is not meant for website viewers to see, but there are times when viewers see what is actually on the website. Viewing a “spam” website is not the best experience any one can have. Imagine those keywords getting repeated over and over on a web page. Yes, they sound gibberish and look like garbage. But Surprise… Surprise!!!… they are not for you to see anyway. They are for Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Get caught and you’re screwed.
4. Being in the Dark: Black hat SEO involves deceptive methods that are invisible except only to the programmer. If you are a website owner, you risk the chances of being in the dark as to what is being done to your website on your behalf. You might get the surprise of your life when you can’t find your website anywhere in the search engines.
5. Black Hat SEO May be Unlawful: Black Hat SEO might get flagged for violations of deceptive marketing laws found in the United States, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere around the world. Some of these laws were implemented even before the invention of the Internet, and it would not make sense for the industry not to comply with these laws.

A case was filed before the FTC against the search engines in 2001 for listing paid advertisers high on search engine results, making them look like they were part of organic results. Interpreting these laws so that they cover Black Hat SEO is inevitable.

** If your website is caught using these methods, expect to be removed from the index of search engines, like what happened to Ricoh Germany and BMW Germany in February 2006. (Both companies promptly apologized, fixed their pages, and were restored in Google’s index.) Keep in mind that it is doubtful that Google will be as receptive to your apologies.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 7th, 2007 at 1:10 am and is filed under Search Engine Optimization, Variety Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.