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There is still a case for consultants who understand how to make websites genuinely more useful and relevant. Then it's win-win. Their motives might be their ra

by rlpb 14y ago

There is still a case for consultants who understand how to make websites genuinely more useful and relevant. Then it's win-win. Their motives might be their rankings, traffic and profit, but if it improves the web for Google users, then that isn't necessarily a bad thing. But the tone of this "article" makes this guy sound like he wears a black hat.

a5seo 14y ago
Not to mention helping sites avoid crawl suicide like massively duplicating content across sites, implementing faceted nav and pagination wrong, putting core content in AJAX, generating thin pages, making Google guess which page is the canonical one, and product managers who think "hey let's republish this database of millions of items on our site with generate millions of pages."
explicitlyme 14y ago
I don't really. I do believe there is value in learning the dark side of this profession though. There aren't enough genuine SEOs that really understand both sides of the equation.
- a5seo 14y ago
  I used to agree with this, but lately I feel like any learnings are going to have a short shelf life. With the EMD updates and on-going refinements to Penguin, how long can any truly effective hack really be expected to work? I'm glad Google is cleaning house b/c it became annoying trying to counsel people to not violate the Webmaster Guidelines when they could point to successful competitors or some backwater infomercial claiming they could shortcut their way by spamming. The best strategy I've found is just to not shoot yourself in the foot in terms of site structure and IA, and invest in long-term value through link building with PR and content that naturally attracts links.
  - skulquake 14y ago
    I wish some of the "real" black hatters could come on here and speak. These guys are the ones putting together massive strategies/campaigns to rank across a wide variety of thousands of key terms. And there not writing about it. The techniques many people are talking about now were done maybe 2-3 years before this whole mess. They are so far ahead of what the "industry" is focused on it's not even funny.
    - thenextcorner 14y ago
      You know there is a reason they don't participate on these forums... It's a waste of their time! They are so busy working their strategy, making money on the web, that any time spent on a discussion like this, while no money is made, is very low on their priorities.
      - illuminate 14y ago
        I doubt they're making a ton on the hustle, but I agree that they're probably not the type to waste time discussing points with other, likely more hostile crowds.
        thenextcorner 14y ago
        What makes you doubt that? If there was no money to be made, these wouldn't be spam, Viagra Wordpress hacks or Phishing attempts. You have no idea...
        a5seo 14y ago
        I've seen what some of them do, and it's not as impressive as you'd think. Most of it breaks and stops working inside of 24 months. Then it's on to the next scam. Not a lot different from fly-by-night snake oil salesmen. Just the existence of spam doesnt prove it's a big oppotunity, just that it's better for some people than their opportunity cost.
        explicitlyme 14y ago

by rlpb 14y ago

a5seo 14y ago

Not to mention helping sites avoid crawl suicide like massively duplicating content across sites, implementing faceted nav and pagination wrong, putting core content in AJAX, generating thin pages, making Google guess which page is the canonical one, and product managers who think "hey let's republish this database of millions of items on our site with generate millions of pages."

explicitlyme 14y ago

I don't really. I do believe there is value in learning the dark side of this profession though. There aren't enough genuine SEOs that really understand both sides of the equation.

a5seo 14y ago
I used to agree with this, but lately I feel like any learnings are going to have a short shelf life. With the EMD updates and on-going refinements to Penguin, how long can any truly effective hack really be expected to work? I'm glad Google is cleaning house b/c it became annoying trying to counsel people to not violate the Webmaster Guidelines when they could point to successful competitors or some backwater infomercial claiming they could shortcut their way by spamming. The best strategy I've found is just to not shoot yourself in the foot in terms of site structure and IA, and invest in long-term value through link building with PR and content that naturally attracts links.
- skulquake 14y ago
  I wish some of the "real" black hatters could come on here and speak. These guys are the ones putting together massive strategies/campaigns to rank across a wide variety of thousands of key terms. And there not writing about it. The techniques many people are talking about now were done maybe 2-3 years before this whole mess. They are so far ahead of what the "industry" is focused on it's not even funny.
  - thenextcorner 14y ago
    You know there is a reason they don't participate on these forums... It's a waste of their time! They are so busy working their strategy, making money on the web, that any time spent on a discussion like this, while no money is made, is very low on their priorities.
    - illuminate 14y ago
      I doubt they're making a ton on the hustle, but I agree that they're probably not the type to waste time discussing points with other, likely more hostile crowds.
      - thenextcorner 14y ago
        What makes you doubt that? If there was no money to be made, these wouldn't be spam, Viagra Wordpress hacks or Phishing attempts. You have no idea...
        a5seo 14y ago
        I've seen what some of them do, and it's not as impressive as you'd think. Most of it breaks and stops working inside of 24 months. Then it's on to the next scam. Not a lot different from fly-by-night snake oil salesmen. Just the existence of spam doesnt prove it's a big oppotunity, just that it's better for some people than their opportunity cost.
        explicitlyme 14y ago