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Another reason to stay whitehat that Rand doesn't mention: it can screw your acquisition prospects. Anyone in the business of buying SEO-driven sites (Demand M
by a5seo 16y ago
Another reason to stay whitehat that Rand doesn't mention: it can screw your acquisition prospects.
Anyone in the business of buying SEO-driven sites (Demand Media, Internet Brands, Quinstreet, Specific Media, WhaleShark Media, etc.) looks VERY closely at the backlink profiles of acq candidates. They aren't going to do it unless they're clean, or if they sense there were blackhat links, they're going to discount the price massively.
I've watched several acquisitions go down the drain on account of perceived spam.
- pitdesi 16y agoTotally agree with you for the most part, but there is one counterpoint: BeatThatQuote was bought by Google for $61million and had all sorts of blackhat stuff http://www.theadmen.com/seo-info/beat-that-quote-google-hypocrisy-at-its-best/ http://www.theadmen.com/seo-info/beat-that-quote-google-hypo...
- jonkelly 16y agoHaving been part of one of the M&A teams mentioned, I'll second that. We used to talk a lot about "real" sites vs. those that were built around practices that made them rank quickly. I'll note that none of those teams are perfect (nor are any sites that I looked at), but black-hat tactics are a huge part of the deal analysis.