Spammy Denver SEO – What Not to Do

I wrote an article on Black Hat technqiues not long ago. Black Hat SEO’s are always a step ahead of the game, and so when Google finds out that ’systems’ have been abused and locks them down, other doors become open so you will find that the chances are they will continue to do well.

Also, how will Google know what sites you have SEO’d? Unless you are a web developer / designer who hosts all their sites in one location there is absolutely no way to trace who has worked on the site to SEO it.

Be respectful – yes, by all means – but no one has ever got to the top of anything in life without taking a few short cuts along the way.

I’m not saying that Black Hat is the right way to go about your SEO business, but if it works and gets results………..

With respect, this blog smells a little fishy to me.

You are based in Denver right, and you are bad mouthing another Denver SEO Company. Stinks of Black Hat of the highest order – bring down the others so you get to the top!?!?!?!

Mighty defensive there Ian. Reporting of spam (by post or report) is “black hat of the highest order”??? Silly. Zack doesn’t need to do that to get to the top. I’ve dealt, persoanally, with many seo’s in Denver. The writer is far above board in character and talent. His post is true, and you offer an emotional response that is just stupid. I wonder why you’re upset….

@Knox, by the way – I’m not upset. I’m approx 4672 miles from Denver, and its safe to say I’m not competing in the Denver SEO key phrase market, but as I grew up before the Internet evolved I know how to engage with real peope.

What a sad state of the Internet has turned our latest generation into!

To Ian – Defamation is when something published is not true, your premise is off. Zack pointing out the spam is not “unethical” either. What’s bizarre is your reaction to some simple truths and your ability to ethics. Even more bizarre is your interest in this local matter. If I had my own site I’d leave it in the signature. Ian, you’re a loud guy who can’t reference the article you posted or leave a site in the signature box but feel free to inject you very wrong assumptions. I’m a bit amused. I like that the post points out what BUSINESSES IN DENVER SHOULD KNOW. If this isn’t done, then they get in trouble.

GOOD JOB TO ZACK.

@An amused reader – Good, I am glad you are easily pleased!

Sorry, I found this article on Twitter – I didnt realise that Twitter was only available in Denver. It’s on the Internet, its not only a local issue, its a public document. Isnt the Internet amazing – you can view web sites in the USA here in the UK!

All the same, I’m quite happy to carry on growing my business by making clients happy, not by slagging off the compeition.

Also, I’m not loud, I just have a few basic values when it comes to business. It really is that simple.

I’ll post a link to that article when I’m back in the office on Wednesday. Basically, its a 360 degree look at White/Grey/Black SEO and how some people see black hat SEO’s as innovators and some see them as a danger to the industry.

Mr. Katz,

I regret that you published this post but at the same time I am grateful as you have definitely pointed out some oversights on our part. Although our industry is not officially regulated it is imperative that all white hat SEO firms (or at least those posing as white hat firms) abide by the guidelines set forth by Google. We were definitely in violation of TOS for local business listings and we have corrected our mistake.

The reason for so many listings in the Google Local section was all of the submissions made by myself and those that work with me. I guess you could say we were not on the same page on this project versus our regular paying clients’ projects. We only spend a couple of hours per month on our site and it is not our major focus versus our clients which are the priority. I did not realize we had made that many submissions until most recently when we had 5 local listings showing on the first page. On a side note, many of those directory submissions were made several months ago and through some of the most recent changes made by Google they started to surface to the top ten. I was pretty excited about this at first but then after having read your post I decided that you were correct. It would be great if we could hang on to five local listings on the first page, but soon enough I know that Google would not appreciate our aggressive attempts to be listed on the first page which would not be a good thing for us.

I don’t think you should be frustrated at Google as stated in your post, they cannot be entirely responsible. It is up to the SEO community to be responsible with the fiduciary responsibility that Google has granted them. I am saying that it is important that we regulate and assist each other. The market is efficient on its own and in this case you have pointed out our inefficiency on this project. I am grateful because if you did not do this, we could suffer some severe consequences that we did not consider and I hope we will never have to.

In regard to the “mirror site”, this was a mistake when we migrated servers and that site is under the old server that is still active. We would never have a mirror site or endorse the use of a mirror site as it violates Google’s guidelines. We have corrected this issue as well as the local listings. The local listings have been suspended as we have gone through everyone’s accounts and removed all but one listing. I see that these changes have taken almost an immediate effect in the search results.

I appreciate Ian, Knox, and everyone’s comments here. Officially we do not support black hat SEO or any tactics that are closely related to “black hat SEO”. It’s not that we judge those that use black hat SEO, we just believe in marketing for the long term and white hat SEO has been a proven method to achieve this.

I regret that you feel you needed to “expose” us as we are simply your local competitor. We feel that you are a strong competitor and we have even recommended your company when a prospective customer asks us what other Denver SEO firms are worth checking out. We might as well refer our prospective customers to those companies and individuals that we know do a good job. We follow your projects very closely and see that you are a very talented professional. Unfortunately we have not had the opportunity to meet you or your colleagues at the local meetup groups, I expect that one day we will meet you. In the meantime our opinion of you, your company, and Knox has not changed. We continue to believe that you are some of the most talented SEO professionals in the area.

@No longer an amused reader – The document isnt on a URL, it was written for a magazine publication and not on the Internet. So what the hell as a URL got to do with it?

You will have to excuse the sarcasm in my posts, unfortunately I felt that was the sort of reply your post deserved.

Your mentatilty sums up your views. Great little dig regarding the ‘Island’. Well done, you must be so proud of yourself.

On the official response – great job. Its good to see that other companies have a like minded approach to myself. Working together is much more constructive than working against.

I’m obviously not above calling out competitors’ shady SEO techniques (i.e. Trulia) in order to make a personal gain. If you’re going to practice grey/black hat techniques, it’s best to cover your trail much better than iniquitous has done here. I actually respect many of the top level blackhatters, for their creativity and foresight (read: ability to cover their trail.) Iniquitous’ techniques here are very tired, and I don’t think it will be long before Google algorithmically takes care of the manipulation.

With that said, they’re manipulating the local results b/c it’s riciulously easy to do so. Google Local is many years behind the organic results, and it’s not nearly as competitive.

As far as their “official response” that it was due to overzealous employees submitting the company multiple times – this is laughable. http://screencast.com/t/ZwXyjTgVL They’re advertising the local results they’ve obtained as “for sale.” There was definitely intent behind the submissions.

Good call out of a competitor. I’m sure you’ll rank for their company name with no problem.

While I think sometimes talking directly to people when you are going to write about them is fine – it’s not a requirement on the internet. Personally I don’t see anything wrong with pointing out things that are wrong – hopefully other people can learn from it. The average business owner looking to build a web presence beyond a website that is a glorified business card often does not know what to look for and at least people should be aware that the company’s reputation can be a long term factor. Personally if I were a Denver business owner looking for SEO or web design services I would be turned off by the graphics on the Iniquitous site and even if I felt that company was “everywhere” on the internet – I would not use them. Maybe one other tactic to take would be to use several sites as examples when pointing out spammy behavior – since this was another Denver company some people will see it as self-serving no matter what. Making a topic more general takes a little bit of the edge off while still getting a point across.

To me seems like it is more important to make sure consumers know what to look for in a web design and SEO company. I think you did that well on a post you wrote from your main blog a few months ago.

I came across this blog around the beginning of the month. Since I am new to SEO and I am just looking to opitimize my website I did not know much. I certainly appreciate you warning us about companies like this, I was about to call this company to help me with my SEO campaign. So thanks for your advice, I will be avoiding them.

Thanks

This is worth taking a look at… http://seanhakes.com/files/backlinks/thisisiniquitous.html

Thought I would throw my two cents in.You should probably look up the definition of “black hat SEO” and then make certain to look up “sissy”. I don’t think you get either of these terms very well. First off, if these guys were indeed Black Hat SEO experts, they would not be beating you in the rankings more than six months later. Secondly, if these guys were getting away with some type of something, why wouldn’t you shut your mouth and learn from what they are doing? You are honestly trying to build traffic by ripping on the creativity or gumption that your competitor has and you don’t. Attracting negative attention to SEO only hurts your business and the reputation of all of your comrades. I don’t see you doing anything differently than these guys except you don’t quite have the aggressive nature that these guys do. So at the end of the day, if I were to hire a SEO Professional, it would not be you. You are way too conservative and like to play it “close to the vest”. That is great in Cribbage, just not in business.

Good luck with your passive aggressive nature.