Search Engine Optimisation Web Log (BLOG)
Editor: Matt Paines

| This News Blog is dedicated to bringing news, information and innovations targeting the Search Engine Optimisation industry.

BlackHat SEO.

BlackHat SEO is rife. The process of BlackHat is to spam a site to the top of the search engines, anyway possible. Whilst the rewards are obvious, the dangers are huge. The process relies on fooling the search engines in to thinking a site is more important than other sites competing with it for a search term. This is done very often by hiding content and/or by entering in to link spam.

Both practices are highly frowned upon and if identified will result in a URL being removed from a search engine. Needless to say this could be disastrous to your brand if you find yourself removed from a search engine entirely. However the heat has been turned up by Google specifically, with one SEO Company (Traffic-Power.com) being identified as using "BlackHat" techniques. The resulting penalty didn't stop at their own URL, the penalty was passed to all their clients as well.

Usually Google does not confirm or deny if a domain has been removed from the index, but in this instance they have broken with protocol and released the information.

So who is to blame? To be honest the Search Engines themselves. Delivering on expectations often means entertaining techniques that are neither WhiteHat, nor BlackHat - GreyHat. It's like turning up at the Olympics to do the 100metres, only to find that six out of the 10 runners are all on steroids. The pressure is on they are cheating you keep finishing as an also ran, and they keep getting away with it. We all know that sport is very well policed these days, maybe we are starting to see the search engines doing the same.

The temptation is there, but the Traffic-Power case should serve as a warning to everyone- SEO needs to be done properly and responsibly, beware you can be held accountable for those you hire.

M.P

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