Leave Black Hat SEO Alone
By scott gallagher
People spend hours trolling the internet for the latest internet marketing strategies, and most of what they read has to do with SEO. Sure, people devote lots of articles and blog postings to other methods of online marketing such as managing PPC campaigns and social media marketing, but most people realize that most of the traffic online still comes from natural search, and as such people always want to know the latest and greatest methods for making their site rank well in the search engines.
However, there is always a lure to try some of the more controversial search methods which are being bandied about the internet. Anyone who spends enough time searching will come into contact with some SEO that is probably deemed ”black hat” which is to say that the majority of search engine marketers condemn it as unethical, and usually against the terms of service of the search engines. This doesn”t stop many from using these internet marketing strategies because they are sure that they are the key to getting good search traffic.
However, the use of controversial or black hat strategy is actually a really large trap. These methods, when they work, if they work at all, only work for a short period of time. By attempting to trick the search engines or to manipulate the latest search algorithms they find ways to artificially inflate the value of a site in the search engines eyes so that it will appear sooner when people search for your targeted keywords. But there is always a price to pay for using this type of search engine optimization.
If Google or the other search engines discover that you have been using any of these controversial search engine methods, and they always do in the end, your site will be penalized in the rankings for doing such. Not only that, many times the sites will be removed from the index altogether so that no one will be able to find your site via searching for it again. Then, all your work has actually left you further behind than you were before. Besides, the search engines change their algorithms all the time for the purpose of defeating this type of behavior, and as soon as they change them any benefit you gained will likely be lost even if you”re not penalized. There is no long term reward to be gained by using controversial SEO.
About The Author
Scott Gallagher is an expert in local seo. With exceptional knowledge of small business marketing, Scott also owns a courier marketing company and contributes to a National Courier Service blog.
