Comments on: Spammy Denver SEO – What Not to Do

By: SEO Fascist

SEO Fascist — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:48:43 +0000

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.

By: Sean Hakes

Sean Hakes — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:01:25 +0000

Zack,

I had the opportunity to meet these guys today. Cool guys with a lot of good ideas.

Try to make it out sometime if you can.

By: What does White Water Rafting and SEO have in common? | Sean Hakes

What does White Water Rafting and SEO have in common? | Sean Hakes — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:41:07 +0000

[...] a lot which is why Google still has not found a solution to penalize irrelevant spammy links and farms like this. I won’t say the company name but I am sure you can figure it out. Here are a number of [...]

By: Sean Hakes

Sean Hakes — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:50:31 +0000

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

By: Sean Hakes

Sean Hakes — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:34:53 +0000

Good post Zack,

I see nothing wrong with pointing out shady SEO tactics. I myself have tried about everything under the sun and have to agree its only fair to play by the rules.

It looks like there are a lot of SEO firms not just in Denver who all play by the black/gray hat rules… I would be willing to bet most do.

Have a good one,
Shakes

By: Denver’s BlackHat SEOs | Sean Hakes

Denver’s BlackHat SEOs | Sean Hakes — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:17:22 +0000

[...] Alright – not sure where to start with this one but seriously… fellow SEOs – please don’t preach about black-hat SEO when your doing EVERYTHING you say NOT TO DO – you haven’t exposed anything except for additional attention to yourself. [...]

By: B. Mathers

B. Mathers — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:13:58 +0000

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

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:56:16 +0000

Zack, I think that is an excellent reply and I am really glad that you will consider contacting the company first before posting. I think that this can only do your own reputation and the reputation of your blog more credible.

At the end of the day, some companies wont even realise that they have, whilst I also admit that many companies do know they are playing the system.

Black Hat is a pain in the backside, and its very hard to explain to my clients sometimes why our white hat techniques arent as effective – when they are paying good money to get good results. We do get the results in time – but clients don’t want results in 6 months time, they want it now. It’s a communication game.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:53:31 +0000

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.

By: Zack Katz

Zack Katz — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:02:03 +0000

@Official Response (Iniquitous),
I appreciate your official response. I understand the potential of the mirror sites being a mistake, but as @Eric Bramlett pointed out, I don’t believe the multiple local listings explanation.

I have learned from this post, and from now on, I will alert people that I will be writing an article and give them time to respond and rectify. It is not my intent to hurt SEO companies, it is my intent to expose practices that are not above-board.

I feel that the methods used by Iniquitous cross the ethical line. What that means is that people could hire your company instead of my company based on these unfair practices….then those people get the same tricks implemented on their websites, and will one day discover their site punished by Google. Lose/lose for good SEO.

It is is my best interest to keep a level playing field in Denver SEO, so when I see unfair SEO, I will call it out. I encourage others to do the same. The result will be a more ethical industry, even if it means stepping on some toes.

SEOs use whatever methods we can to help our clients rank better. We go as far as we feel is right. Most SEOs stay within a normal range of working the system. Some SEOs go much further. I wish Google would get smarter and adapt more quickly to manipulations of their systems so that using poor practices is not rewarded.