Are You A Black Hatter?

Are You A Black Hatter? If you are using these techniques, you are a Black Hatter (arranged alphabetically).

- Buying Expired Domains: Basically checking on expiring domain's DNS record and PageRank and later buy them when they expire and replace the pages with links to their pages. (I don't know if any isulong seoph entries are doing this, but where do they get their PR if they have just recently registered their domains? hmmm.)

- Cloaking: Presenting a different content to search engine spiders than you display to user's browser. This can also be used in ethical SEO (No known issue from any isulong seoph entry yet)

- Doorway Pages: Nonsense pages full of keywords for the purpose of sending a visitor to a page. Also known as landing pages, jump pages, gateway pages, entry pages, bridge pages, portal pages and many more. (Any isulong seoph entry using this method? let me know)

- Duplicate Content: Copying other site's written work with little or no changes. This usually depends on the content used, if it's freely redistributable or copyrighted. (Some isulong seoph entries use this method to have some content on their site and some prefer to write their own content to prevent Duplicate Content Penalty)

- Hidden Text and Links: Text that is the same color as the background or the font is too small to read. (We all know who used this method and this technique is only a short term solution to get to the top, since Google will eventually ban the site)

- Keywords that are unrelevant to the site: Optimizing keywords which are not related to your site (Some are submitting isulong seoph entries but the content are totally not related to the keyword, although the term isulong seoph could mean anything)

- Keywords Stuffing: Excessive and repeatitive keywords in alt tags, meta tags, content, etc. (isulong seoph, isulong seoph, isulong seoph, isulong seoph, isulong seoph, isulong seoph, all for the sake of 3-7% keyword density)

- Link Farms: A network of pages on one or more Web sites, with the sole intention of improving the search engine ranking of those sites. (Some isulong seoph entries are subscribing to these services to get their sites exposed to the rest of the link farm in no time flat)

- Multiple Domains without Redirecting: Using multiple domains and not redirecting to a single domain will cause duplicate content penalty. (Buying multiple domains for isulong seoph entries, for example isulongnaseoph.com,isulongnaseoph.net and isulongnaseoph.org all having the same content, instead of redirecting the other two domains to one site)

- Pages that contant spyware and viruses (Providing spyware, porn, and viruses. Who would do something like that?)

- Google Bomb - It's targeting a specific site by creating links to it using a specific keyword. (For example, promoting an isulong seoph entry site by creating links everywhere, adding this link: isulong seoph, no wonder there are over 500,000 results when searching "isulong seoph")

- Google Bowling: Also known as Google Sabotage, Submitting competitors sites to link farms to get them penalized (This is a way of black hatting an isulong seoph entry to remove him on the top spot. Be warned, someone might hire a cheap european hacker and sabotage your site)

- Scraping: Pulling information from other websites voilating copyright law and uses them mainly for monetizing the site using advertising. (This is when a site has no real content and uses a scraper tool to get content from other sites)

- Selling PageRank: Providing links to other sites is good, but selling for the sake of PageRank is not. (It's better to get links normally than to buy one)

- Using small images: Using blank images and stuff it with alt keywords or hidden links. (If you see a very small image on an isulong seoph site with an alt tag = isulong seoph, he is using this black hat method)

- Spam Comments: Posting fake and random comments on blogs and guestbooks with link to your site (This is the most common black hat method ever done by an isulong seoph contestant, check their backlinks to see the victims)

- Spam Emails: Telling everyone about your site knowing they are not interested. (Email spam is very common nowadays, I doubt any isulong seoph contestant would embarass himself by sending unsolicited emails)

- Spam Referer: Commonly known as Referer Spam, this involves involves making repeated web site requests using a fake referer url. Search engines base the importance of sites by the number of different sites linking to them. With this, a referer-log spam can be used to increase their rankings of the spammer's sites, by getting the referer logs of many sites to link to them. (This is already an issue on one isulong seoph entry)

- Spam Ping: Commonly known as Sping, this involves sending pings from blogs to a ping server excessively in a short span of time. (This is done by very excited isulong seoph bloggers who want to blog all the time and want their site listed on ping servers right away)

- Sybil attack: A spammer may create multiple web sites at different domain names that all link to each other, such as fake blogs. (Now, I am sure many isulong seoph contestants have set up their own blogspot,wordpress,blogsome,etc sites that all link to each other)

- Too Many Links: A page with more 100 urls will drain your PageRank (It is recommended to have less than 100 links since more than that can drain one's PageRank in the long run, unless all the links are good high PR and relevant reciprocal sites)

- Using unauthorized software to submit pages, check rankings and other automatic queries. (Lazy people use easy to use tools to do their job, unlike ethical SEOs who are working for days and nights promoting the site)

- URL Redirection: Redirecting to another site without a user's intervention. This is acceptable by using 301 redirect, but using Meta Tag redirect, CGI and Javascripts will be a SEO problem. (No known isulong seoph issue so far)

If you are guilty with any of these, you're in BIG Trouble dude. Black Hat SEO is very common to SEO newbies who have no idea what are the right methods to optimize their sites. They want everything done as fast and easy as possible. This is very understandable, but they should stop doing these illegal methods immediately.

REPORT A BLACK HATTER: Reporting a search engine spam is a legitimate means of eliminating unfair competition and making the search engines a more effective resource. Google: http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html

Yahoo: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_reportsearchspam

MSN: http://feedback.search.msn.com/default.aspx

RECOMMENDED LINKS TO MAKE YOUR SITE SEO FRIENDLY: By simply following these guidelines, you will have no problem getting properly indexed. The right way is usually the hard way.
Google Webmaster Guidelines: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769
Yahoo Content Quality Guidelines: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/basics/basics-18.html
MSN Guidelines for Successful Indexing: http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm

BANNED IN SEARCH ENGINES? VISIT THESE SITES TO BE REINDEXED: Don't lose hope if your site is banned in search engines, visit these sites to learn more.
Google Request Reinclusion: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35843
Yahoo Review Request: http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/ysearch/cgi_urlstatus
MSN Request Reinclude: http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_PROC_ReincludeYourSite.htm

So, will you still use Black Hat Methods? Don't tell me I didn't warn you. Good luck!

About the Author:
Visit this site to learn more about other SEO tips: Isulong SEOPH
Alfredo Palconit is an outsourced web designer from the Philippines. You can visit his portfolio site at Web Design Philippines and seo site at Isulong SEOPH
Added: 20 Sep 2006
Article Source: http://articles.simplysearch4it.com/article/37262.html