Comments on: Do I need to know Blackhat SEO?

By: crockstar

crockstar — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:44:16 +0000

For what it’s worth I agree with @rishil for the most part but totally see your point John Ray.

There are obviously exceptions to the rule: sometimes good content does somewhat “naturally” take off. Some content is just made to be shared and it truly doesn’t take much to get the ball rolling. Outreach through a newsletter formed the old fashioned way, or uptake on Reddit or another community is most likely not a manipulation of the link graph.

I’m not saying this type of content is common… but there are occassions where literally “if you build it, they will come.”

Clearly this is the exception to the rule and I doubt anyone who refers to themselves as an SEO relies solely on this theory/type of behaviour. I just wanted to point out that there is such a thing as “whitehat SEO” (aka onpage optimisation coupled with luck) but it usually requires a seriously talented marketing team to create something that needs very little help in attracting links.

By: rishil

rishil — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:32:05 +0000

cre8tedtweets
Via Twitter @rishil he talks some sense…imo white hat SEO’s are off-white to various degrees? nobody links to content they don’t know about

By: rishil

rishil — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:26:11 +0000

Via Twitter: supernaut76 @rishil it's all manipulation - so call it white/black/grey...whatever, there are 2 types of SEO, effective and ineffective

By: John Ray

John Ray — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:09:24 +0000

The black hat/white hat argument is indicative of the youth of the SEO industry. There are no white hat SEOs. If you do anything other than write “great content that people naturally want to link to” to achieve ranking, then you are black hat. Anyone who thinks that writing great content alone is enough to get ranking is naïve. If no one ever sees your great content because it isn’t ranking, how will they know it exists, if they do not know it exits, how will they link to it. It’s called a Catch 22 children.
The definition of a white hat SEO is someone who is too much of a self righteous hypocrite to admit they are bending the rules in one way or another. It doesn’t matter if you take one dollar or one thousand dollars for your affections, a prostitute is a prostitute.
You can find all the White Hat SEOs in one place, the unemployment line. Get over yourself already.
Over 30 Years ago when I was an under grad one of my ethics professors defined business ethics in the best manner I have ever heard “Ethics are what the rich use to keep the poor, poor”. He further explained that the powerful in a give industry are the ones that set the ethical standards, who do you think they will set those standards to favor.
As someone who has been successful in business longer than most of my fellow SEOs have been alive, I find the black hat/white hat arguments childishly amusing. It will be interesting to watch this industry and those in it grow up and go through the cycles that all industries go through as they mature. Capitalism is evil my nature, it works because humans are evil by nature.
“ Like virgins to the alter the veil will be drawn and the children will be forced to see their own reflection”. If you know the origin of this quote you most likely already agree with me.
Yes, I am an arrogant jerk, but I am not a naïve hypocrite.

By: Social Content – Sharing and Responsibility — Explicitly Me - Rishi Lakhani (Rishil)

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 14:05:19 +0000

[...] you are aware of the whole Autogenerated content and Black Hat industry, you will probably have come across blogs littered with youtube videos and flickr images. [...]

By: Malinda

Malinda — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:33:21 +0000

That’s a really cool post. I loved reading it and those quotes are too good. Keep up the good work.
I also found some nice information regarding black hat on this website: seositecheckup.com/articles/43 and found it interesting too. More you learn better it is.

By: Domain Research Plugins and Add-ons for Firefox — Explicitly Me - Rishi Lakhani (Rishil)

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:50:55 +0000

[...] you are into Black Hat SEO, or into Affiliate Marketing, domain purchasing is potentially a daily business. I am not going to [...]

By: Create, Seed and Grow Your Blog Socially — Explicitly Me - Rishi Lakhani's Home on the Web

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 21:18:59 +0000

[...] was ripe for it. But I am no Aaron Wall, and to be honest I was getting a bit bored about writing on Black Hat SEO and Content [...]

By: Richard Petersen » Blog Archive » Weekly Search & Social News: 01/26/2010

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:31:49 +0000

[...] Do I need to know Blackhat SEO? – Rishil makes a debut in the newsletter (really? Took this long? I must be slacking) as he asked the search community about how black hat fits into the greater scheme of things. [...]

By: Weekly Search & Social News: 01/26/2010 - SeoAlchemist - How to make gold with SEO.

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:06:51 +0000