Every day I get email from marketers selling black hat SEO products that will teach me how to game the search engines by tricking them into ranking my websites higher. Sometimes, they’re selling software they say will automatically improve my rankings and help me make more affiliate sales. I don’t even have to do any work!
Since I’m naturally pretty curious, I often take a longer look at their sales letters to see what new twists they’ve put on black hat techniques, and how they’re going to tell me that it’s really ok to use these techniques or systems in my business.
But, in the end, I always end up in the same place. I’m building a real business online, and I don’t believe black hat techniques have any place in a real business. It’s true that it’s not always clear whether a technique falls into the white or black category, but I try to err on the side of caution. If it doesn’t feel right to me, I don’t do it.
I may not make as much money in the short term, but I will in the long term, and not get banned by Google or any of the other search engines. I’ll also continue to keep my good reputation intact, and retain the trust of my customers and visitors.
There’s a great article in the November 2008 issue of Affiliate Classroom eMagazine about black hat versus white hat techniques for affiliate marketing. The article describes the pros and cons of black hat techniques and lets you decide for yourself if you want to try the techniques.
You can download the free Affiliate Classroom eMagazine here by right-clicking this link and saving it to your computer.
My advice is to use black-hat techniques with a great deal of caution. Think about whether or not you’re really trying to build an affiliate business or are just looking for the quick hit. Remember that your reputation can be ruined very quickly on the web, and it’s very difficult to a poor reputation around.
I never use any software for SEO, excpet SEO Elite. And even then, it’s just to help me analyze keywords and who’s linking to who.
Black Hat SEO is a scam and should be avioded at all costs. Even if it did work, then it will more than likely get your site banned from Google.
Yes, being cautious is the right approach. Best to do it right in the eyes of Google, since there are penalties. Also, you won’t have pangs of guilt about it afterwards!
And moral considerations aside, I suspect that black hat techniques aren’t nearly as effective as they used to be anyway. Google is becoming so sophisticated now that attempts to manipulate it to gain quick benefits are becoming less and less affective.