Black Hat SEO

A while back John Andrews wrote a post about trusting WordPress plugins and how that really isn't such a good idea. I agree with everything John wrote, but up until today I hadn't come across a plugin that actually did anything that "crossed the line".

For those who haven't heard of it, XRumer is software that automates link building by submitting links to blogs and forums. As with most short cuts, XRumer was successful at one point, but I'm forced to question its value these days. Of course, I'm questioning its effectiveness without having ever used it, but I did receive this blog comment not too long ago...

This is what SEO agencies would like you to believe it takes to get organic rankings. (Be sure to scroll down to see how it's really done.)

Every industry is filled with terms that are specific to that industry. Some industries have niches with their own terminology. Such is the case with black hat SEO. Despite having a solid SEO background, I continue to come across terms from the black hat side of things whose meanings I don't know. Every time I do, I make a mental note, but I figured putting them down on "paper" would be a good idea so here's the first batch.

When times are good, it's relatively easy for people and companies to succeed -- work hard and all will be good. But what happens when times aren't so good like when the supply of the service you provide exceeds the demand? In such cases it's not uncommon for the rules of behavior to change. Actions that were once ridiculed become acceptable as people quietly and oh so secretively acknowledge that everyone is doing it. Evidence of such change exists around us today whether it's students paying for consultants to help them claim one of the few spots at their college of choice; corporate executives embellishing their resumes to land scarce jobs; or So with a recession nearly upon us, what will happen to the SEO profession?

One good thing about sitting on a train getting to and from work is that your mind wanders. And today the question of why black hat SEO works popped into my head. I figured answering this question would be a good follow-up to a previous question I posed about whether you'd be a black hat if you knew how.

It's pretty easy for SEOs to take the high road and declare they are abiding by all of the optimization guidelines laid out by the search engines. Such declarations allow them to don the so called white hat and prance around with their heads held high (I try to keep my prancing limited!). But I question whether a lot of the white hats out there have chosen that path because they simply don't know how to do black hat SEO beyond the basics like having white text on a white background or keyword stuffing alt attributes.

I've been doing some research on black hat SEO (it's good to know the tricks when diagnosing competitors for clients). Yesterday evening I came across this and chuckled...

"Sign up below for your free chapter, Introduction to Black Hat SEO, delivered instantly to your inbox. I will absolutely never give away or sell your email address. I will not spam you."

Um... so you sell an ebook devoted to tricking and manipulating search engines, but we're supposed to believe you won't sell or give away the email addresses you collect? Yeah, right.

Note: This was an experiment that I tried for about a week. I'm not advocating this approach, but merely throwing it out there for discussion. A couple of web site owners (see the comments) have already voiced their opinion and I'd love to hear yours.

Anyone that runs a web site, big or small, should be checking some basic web traffic statistics. Web analytics software is an important tool to confirm that things are working correctly, but it's also a good way to learn more about a site's users. One report worth looking at is the referrer (often misspelled referer) report.