

Whitehat SEO is a Joke - a5seo
http://www.krisroadruck.com/rants/whitehat-seo-is-a-joke/

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michaelpinto
This sums up everything that is wrong with folks who limit themselves to a
narrow focus on SEO hat tricks: "It’s easy to preach great content when you
have a great subject. But no one gives a shit about non-clog toilets or pulse
oximeters or single phase diode bridge rectifiers."

The missing ingredient that the author can't figure out is CREATIVITY. If
you're an advertising creative you can make non-clog toilets sexy to their
intended audience (who will be building contractors, architects, etc.). This
is the sort of 101 problem that any average PR or advertising person tackles
in a day -- how to make the product a hero.

The problem with many SEO folks is that they're so obsessed with gaming
algorithms that they forget that it's really all about creating content that
your audience cares about. Honestly if you can't make insurance or
incontinence products sexy you're in the wrong game. Folks from David Ogilvy
to copyblogger have spent years documenting how to make the mundane
interesting. If you can't so it yourself, then hire someone who can...

PS Radio Shack made a solid business for years by cramming a geektastic
catalog with products like a diode bridge! The key is knowing your audience
and knowing how to engage them.

~~~
a5seo
There's a big difference between what you're critiquing (marketing messaging)
and what blackhats are focused on manipulating (links).

Your diagnosis, "if you can't make insurance or incontinence products sexy
you're in the wrong game," would be correct if Google had a function called
getSexiness(URI uri, TargetAudience audience, String strKeyword). But they
don't. Google uses citations/links instead.

I think what Kris is saying is that it's harder to drive "earned" LINKS for
insurance or incontinence products than it is to astroturf your way there with
blackhat techniques.

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trotsky
If anyone who read this was like me and generally unfamiliar with how SEO
people self select into hat color I did a bit of googling. It would seem that
some techniques considered "grey" would be paid link building, cloaking - the
act of showing the crawlers one thing and visitors another, and purposely
duplicating your competition's content so that all locations of it rank worse
due to unoriginal content filters. I'm sure that's no where close to a
complete list, but it gave me a sense of where he's coming from. I would have
thought that stuff would have been "black", but apparently that's just
reserved for SQLi's, comment spam and what not.

~~~
dhimes
_purposely duplicating your competition's content so that all locations of it
rank worse due to unoriginal content filters_

I've been a victim of this. I would have classified it as "black" also.

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krisroadruck
Wow I cant believe this little post made it all the way to HN. TBH I do
believe in most of what I said but the post was intentionally over the top. It
was a bit of rantbait. The irony which sadly only one commenter seemed to
figure out was that it was a post on how whitehat doesnt work which
demonstrated it does. That post got tons of links in a very short time.

That being said my real point was don't limit yourself or the client because
you believe google guidelines somehow translate to ethics. Instead do an
honest evaluation of the clients expectations, budget, and risk tolerance.

Provide service based on that information. Google is in it for google. SEOs
should be in it for the client. Even if that sometimes means bending googles
rules.

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DocSheldon
I think the post makes an excellent point, if you're willing to take the time
to understand what the author is saying, rather than bristling at his rant.
Google makes ITS rules, but they're made for their benefit, not that of our
clients. It's up to SEOs to guide their clients through the process of an
educated risk/reward assessment, and implement a campaign according to their
wishes. If the client wants me to do something I'm not comfortable with, I
walk away. But if I'm going to stick around and take their money, they deserve
my best effort, regardless of what the search engines might say.

