3 ms·

Is there a good way that us white-hat folks can report our black-hat competitors? Almost all of the sites ranking higher than us for key terms use obvious black

by pitdesi 15y ago

Is there a good way that us white-hat folks can report our black-hat competitors? Almost all of the sites ranking higher than us for key terms use obvious black-hat techniques... backlinks from strange sites. I'm recording them all in a spreadsheet and have reported them https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en&pli=1 https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/spamreport?hl=en&#38... here but I don't think it does anything... thoughts?

sliverstorm 15y ago
Only solutions I'm aware of at this point is to A) Inform Google or B) Beat them at their own game
- mattmanser 15y ago
  They are mutually exclusive you can't beat a black hat at their own game without becoming one yourself. I'm so torn about this ongoing debate, on the one hand I understand Google's need to stop this kind of stuff, but on the other google game their own rankings with extremely poorly marked adverts (very, very light yellow barely distinguishable from the white of the search with an absurdly small 'Ads' in the top right corner). No newspaper could get away with that and yet people scream about newspapers using outmoded models. The truth is that it's a lot more complicated, there's a lot of laws governing newspaper behaviours while Google can get away with murder. Google have recently done a lot of very, very underhanded and nasty advertising in recent years in my opinion. Their monopoly really stick in my craw. It's like having only one high street in the entire world ruled by the Americans. Given the ever more extreme stances american political parties are taking, it's not going to be a good high street we're forced down for very long. My only consolation it that at least they started from a fairly moral position so their gradual corruption is one from a good position. At least they're not Zynga.

3 ms·

Is there a good way that us white-hat folks can report our black-hat competitors? Almost all of the sites ranking higher than us for key terms use obvious black

by pitdesi 15y ago

sliverstorm 15y ago
Only solutions I'm aware of at this point is to A) Inform Google or B) Beat them at their own game
- mattmanser 15y ago
  They are mutually exclusive you can't beat a black hat at their own game without becoming one yourself. I'm so torn about this ongoing debate, on the one hand I understand Google's need to stop this kind of stuff, but on the other google game their own rankings with extremely poorly marked adverts (very, very light yellow barely distinguishable from the white of the search with an absurdly small 'Ads' in the top right corner). No newspaper could get away with that and yet people scream about newspapers using outmoded models. The truth is that it's a lot more complicated, there's a lot of laws governing newspaper behaviours while Google can get away with murder. Google have recently done a lot of very, very underhanded and nasty advertising in recent years in my opinion. Their monopoly really stick in my craw. It's like having only one high street in the entire world ruled by the Americans. Given the ever more extreme stances american political parties are taking, it's not going to be a good high street we're forced down for very long. My only consolation it that at least they started from a fairly moral position so their gradual corruption is one from a good position. At least they're not Zynga.