black hat « Christopher Ross

Posts Tagged ‘black hat’

25
Aug
2009

Top Five Myths of SEO

Here’s my list of the top five myths of SEO and some suggestions for how to work past them.

Meta Tags are Dead

There’s absolutely no proof that major search engines ignore META data, in fact my experience is that well used meta tags are almost always rewarded while horrible meta tags are almost always punished. Make sure that the meta tags you use on each page are specific to that specific content and relevant.

Multiple Domain Names Help Your Business

There’s some truth to this rumor but only if you use them right (Marketing With Sub Domains and Other Neat Tricks). If your business has 100 domain names and they all reproduce the same content, you’ll actually hurt yourself because Google will confuse content as repetitive. Instead, install a copy of WordPress MU (multiuser) and host 100 completely different websites, each with valuable information and resources specific to those domain names or redirect your domain names using .htaccess level redirects to tell Google your domain is pointing to another.

Doorway Pages Help Your Ranking

This is a big one, but it’s completely untrue! Doorway pages are special pages designed as landing pages which are specifically programmed to appeal to visitors but more importantly override major search engines understand of what your website is all about. Doorway pages are only linked from external websites and use a series of ‘black hat SEO’ techniques to override the search engines …. why doesn’t it work? Simple, major search engines such as Google hate being tricked. Remember, Google isn’t a company it’s a culture and the people who make up that culture want to be the best search engine in the world. If they believe you’re lying to them, they’ll kick you off their search engine.

Search Engine Friendly URL’s are Critical

No so fast, they make look great and even show up highlighted in result pages but there’s no concrete evidence to suggest making your URL’s pretty vs. database generated strings has any impact on your rankings at all. In fact, Matt Cutt’s (Google’s voice to the people and all around SEO guru) makes it clear that Google’s smart enough to ignore SEO friendly URL’s. So should you stop using them? Not a chance, they don’t hurt and they make the site easier for people to use.

SEO is a One Time Fix

Hiring a reputable SEO consultant isn’t a one time fix, there are many aspects to building a great search engine ranking and it takes time, effort and patients.

Tags: best search engine, black hat, Concrete Evidence, domain names, Doorway Pages, External Websites, google, major search engines, Meta Data, meta tags, Multiuser, Myths, neat tricks, Proof, Right Marketing, Search Engine Search, seo, Truth
Posted in Blogging, Business Advice, Make Money Online, Web Site Advice

01
Feb
2009

Five Articles by Matt Cutts You Should Read

14 Comments

For those of you who don’t know who Matt Cutts is, here’s a snippet from his Wikipedia bio:

Matt Cutts works for the Search Quality group in Google, specializing in search engine optimization issues.He is well known in the SEO community for enforcing the Google Webmaster Guidelines and cracking down on link spam. Cutts also advised the public on how to get better website visibility in Google

Simply put, he’s a guy that knows exactly what he’s talking about when it comes to Google and if he doesn’t know it … he knows the people to ask. There’s a lot of great stuff on his website but there are a few articles that I think anybody who wants to have a successful website should read:

Google Bombs

By the very nature of what Google is and how it works, it’s possible to overwhelm the search engine giant to force it to assume a website is about something other than what it is. Obviously, this isn’t a good thing and Google works hard to avoid the dreaded Google Bomb. Matt talks about the Algorithm to reduce Googlebomb impact.

Halloween Fun

So we all know that Google changes it’s logo for special occasions but just to remind us all that Google isn’t a faceless group of robots, take a look at how Google protects itself from zombies. I point a lot of my clients to this one when they start talking about black hat SEO tactics because I think it’s really important to remember that Google is a robot but it’s also a company with hard working people who take pride in their work.

Junk Email

Some of you have asked me why I have my email address on the footer of every page around her, well it’s simple … people like to email me. Oddly I don’t get a lot of SPAM and I put that down to Gmail but Matt has some other ideas for those who are caught in SPAM hell. and some cool tips on Gmail.

Impressive Stats

One of the things that I like about reading Matt’s blog is that he reminds me how small my website is and how popular I could become if I keep working at it. When I went to my job interview for Corel, I told them that I would take the job but only if I could use Adobe software. To be honest, I expected them to turn me down but I was surprised to find out the whole design team at Corel uses Adobe products. I like that Matt is an all powerful Googleneer (I just made that up) and that he uses the tools his company creates.

Tags: black hat, gmail, google, google bombs, halloween fun, junk email, matt cutts, optimization issues, quality group, Search Engine Optimization, search quality, snippet, special occasions, website visibility, wikipedia, zombies
Posted in Business Advice