A bin for my favorite articles
SEO
30 Black Hat SEO Techniques You Can Use Ethically
Jul 28th
Black hat SEO is both a myth and a reality we have to face sooner or later as SEO practicioners. While I abide by probably one of the strictest SEO codes of ethics around and SEOptimise is a clean white hat SEO company company itself we still can’t deny that there is black hat SEO.
The sheer existence of black hat SEO techniques must be acknowledged for several reasons.
As Rishi Lakhani noted on his new SEO blog: You need it at least to know what to avoid or to know how competitors who perform worse than you still manage to outrank your site.
The good news is: Most black hat SEO techniques can be used in a clean, ethical white hat way as well.
They are like knives: You can slice bread with a knife but you can kill with it as well. It’s your decision how you use the knife. Also consider the problem with overall perception of the SEO industry. Your hat can be whiter than snow and still people will treat you as the guy with the virtual knife.
Personally I think black hat SEO is for the weak.
The black hat logic goes: When you can’t win the game you have to cheat. It’s the same dilemma as in sports though: When everybody cheats how are you going to win? That’s why reputable and successful SEO experts don’t have to use it.
OK, long story short, here are the 30 black hat techniques you can use ethically as well. Take note how I am explaining only the positive way of using each technique. I do not advocate the use of it in it’s original black hat context. Use these knives as kitchen knives.
- Hidden text – Create modern CSS based websites with JQuery effects. They often hide large portions of text in layers to display them on click or mouse over for usability reasons. Example: CSS pagination.
- IP delivery – Offer the proper localized content to those coming from a country specific IP address. Offer the user a choice though. Shopping.com does a great job here.
- 301 redirects – Redirect outdated pages to the newer versions or your homepage. When moving to a new domain use them of course as well.
- Throw Away Domains – Create exact match micro sites for short term popular keywords and abandon them when the trend subsides. Something like tigerwoodssexrehab.com
- Cloaking – Hide the heavy Flash animations from Google, show the text-only version optimized for accessibility and findability.
- Paid links – Donate for charity, software developers etc. Many of them display links to those who donate.
- Keyword stuffing – Tags and folksonomy. Keyword stuff but adding several tags or let your users do the dirty work via UGC tagging (folksonomy) every major social site does that.
- Automatically generated keyword pages – Some shopping search engines create pages from each Google search query and assign the appropriate products to each query. You can do that as well if you have enough content.
- Mispsellings – Define, correct the misspelled term and/or redirect to the correct version.
- Scraping – Create mirrors for popular sites. Offer them to the respective webmasters. Most will be glad to pay less.
- Ad only pages – Create all page ads (interstitials) and show them before users see content like many old media do.
- Blog spam – Don’t spam yourself! Get spammed! Install a WordPress blog without Akismet spam protection. Then create a few posts about Mesothelioma for example, a very profitable keyword. Then let spammers comment spam it or even add posts (via TDO Mini Forms). Last but not least parse the comments for your keyword and outgoing links. If they contain the keyword publish them and remove the outgoing links of course. Bot user generated content so to say.
- Duplicate content on multiple domains – Offer your content under a creative Commons License with attribution.
- Domain grabbing – Buy old authority domains that failed and revive them instead of putting them on sale.
- Fake news – Create real news on official looking sites for real events. You can even do it in print. Works great for all kinds of activism related topics.
- Link farm – Create a legit blog network of flagship blogs. A full time pro blogger can manage 3 to 5 high quality blogs by her or himself.
- New exploits – Find them and report them, blog about them. You break story and thus you get all the attention and links. Dave Naylor is excellent at it.
- Brand jacking – Write a bad review for a brand that has disappointed you or destroys the planet or set up a brand x sucks page and let consumers voice their concerns.
- Rogue bots – Spider websites and make their webmasters aware of broken links and other issues. Some people may be thankful enough to link to you.
- Hidden affiliate links – In fact hiding affiliate links is good for usability and can be even more ethical than showing them. example.com/ref?id=87233683 is far worse than than just example.com. Also unsuspecting Web users will copy your ad to forums etc. which might break their TOS. The only thing you have to do is disclose the affiliate as such. I prefer to use
[ad] Empty ad slot (#1)!
(on Twitter for example) or [partner-link] elsewhere. This way you can strip the annoying “ref” ids and achieve full disclosure at the same time. - Doorway pages – Effectively doorway pages could also be called landing pages. The only difference is that doorway pages are worthless crap while landing pages are streamlined to suffice on their own. Common for both is that they are highly optimized for organic search traffic. So instead of making your doorway pages just a place to get skipped optimize them as landing pages and make the users convert right there.
- Multiple subdomains – Multiple subdomains for one domain can serve an ethical purpose. Just think blogspot.co or wordpress.com – they create multiple subdomains by UGC. This way they can rank several times for a query. You can offer subdomains to your users as well.
- Twitter automation – There is nothing wrong with Twitter automation as long as you don’t overdo it. Scheduling and repeating tweets, even automatically tweeting RSS feeds from your or other blogs is perfectly OK as long as the Twitter account has a real person attending it who tweets “manually” as well. Bot accounts can be ethical as well in case they are useful no only for yourself. A bot collecting news about Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake would be perfectly legit if you ask me.
- Deceptive headlines – Tabloids use them all the time, black hat SEO also do. There are ethical use cases for deceptive headlines though. Satire is one of course and humor simply as well. For instance I could end this list with 24 items and declare this post to a list of 30 items anyways. That would be a good laugh. I’ve done that in the past but in a more humorous post.
- Google Bowling – The bad thing about Google bowling is that you hurt sites you don’t like. You could reverse that: Reverse Google bowling would mean that you push sites of competitors you like to make those you dislike disappear below. In a way we do that all the time linking out to the competition, the good guys of SEO who then outrank the ugly sites we like a lot less.
- Invisible links – You’d never used invisible links on your sites did you? You liar! You have. Most free web counters and statistic tools use them. Statcounter is a good example. So when you embed them on your site you use invisible links.
- Different content for search engines than users – Do you use WordPress? Then you have the nofollow attribute added to your comment links. this way the search engine gets different content than the user. He sees and clicks a link. A search bot sees a no trespass sign instead. In white hat SEO it’s often called PageRank sculpting. Most social media add ons do that by default.
- Hacking sites – While crackers hack sites security experts warn site owners that they vulnerabilities. Both discover the same issues. Recently I got an email by someone who warned me to update my WordPress installation. That was a grand idea I thought.
- Slander linkbait – Pulling a Calacanis like “SEO is bullshit” is quite common these days. Why don’t do it the other way around? The anti SEO thing doesn’t work that good anymore unless you are as famous as Robert Scoble. In contrast a post dealing with “100 Reasons to Love SEO Experts” might strike a chord by now.
- Map spam – Instead of faking multiple addresses all over the place just to appear on Google Maps and Local why don’t you simply create an affiliate network of real life small business owners with shops and offices who, for a small amount of money, are your representatives there? All they need to do is to collect your mail from Google and potential clients.
SEO Tips to Shorten Time to The Top 10
Jul 25th
Need a way to curb frustration while you are waiting for your SEO and rankings to kick in? Try implementing any of these 20 basic SEO tips to cut down on time to market by building pages right in the first place.
1. Select a page for each competitive keyword you target.
Sounds simple enough right, ironically, so many sites do not have a sufficient array of landing pages or supporting pages to rectify the range of traffic they anticipate from keywords. If your website lacks (a) enough content to cross the tipping point or (b) significant internal links (since your own website can rank itself), then how can you expect to surpass competitors who are using vast amounts of topical content to tip the scales of relevance in their favor.
2. Link to pages from other pages with the “keyword” you want the target page to rank for.
Just like Wikipedia, by linking to a “champion page” with a designated keyword consistently through using keyword-rich anchor text, you elect the target page to appear in the search engine result pages like votes in a democratic hierarchy.
3. Optimize the page for at least 3 variations of the keyword, singular, plural and a potential synonym.
Why waste time, effort or energy? If you are going to optimize a page anyway, why not get 3-5 alternative keyword rankings while you are at it. Try the main keyword in “exact match” first in the title, then a plural and / or alternate keyword modifier to reinforce relevance.
4. Map out how many internal links you can implement from within the site.
Each keyword has a tipping point. Some keywords need 10 pages of content with internal links, others need 1,000. The key is to not look past your own website for ranking factor and pass the link flow within your own pages first, before building external links.
5. Determine how many deep links are needed over what period of time.
Some pages need 5-10 deep links to capture their keyword objectives, others require hundreds to gain enough authority. Your on page and off page SEO must intersect with relevant or related keywords in order to steer which pages rank for what terms.
6. Don’t keep changing things like titles and tags until the page or site has authority.
The title tag is one of the most primary indicators of relevance that search engines use to identify the context of that page. I have seen rankings rise or drop 30 positions from just one rookie or expert move of changing this important metric. Its better to set it and forget it and build it right from the start than going back to undermine trust which is the precursor of rankings.
7. Rankings are based by the page, not by the site, so optimize EACH page in your website for something unique.
Why do you think you can see two pages from one site in one group of top 10 results? Because there was more than one page that qualified for that keyword. With a sub domain or RSS feed as a sub domain, you could potentially capture a few more positions in the top 10 or increase conversion by 200% by having more landing pages for consumers to select from.
8. Add fresh content to augment crawl rates and trust.
Crawl frequency indicates the degree of authority your website has online. If search engines crawl your pages daily, then you have an opportunity to devour competitive niches by constantly chipping away at themed keywords that are part of a keyword cluster. The more pages you have indexed, the more rankings you can funnel to your website. Pages equate to power over time.
9. Use Google webmaster tools to check crawl rates and site stats.
Thanks to Vanessa Fox, Google webmaster tools has tons of great website diagnostic tools to assess crawl frequency, 404 errors, the ability to determine what keywords you rank for, observe the link graph or deep links to your site or the ability to upload sitemaps to expedite crawl rates.
10. Acquire trusted links over time rather than lots of low quality links quickly to master link velocity.
Every website has what is considered a natural rate of acquiring or losing links. If you lean into link building blindly impetuously for results, you could penalize your website and end up on the 6th page indefinitely. Take your time and focus on quality over quantity when it comes to building links.
11. Observe analytics to find which keyword patterns arise first.
Consumer behavior can change in an instant. You will need analytics to determine which keywords are converting and which to leave behind. Measuring your progress by setting goals and identifying local, regional or national patterns for keywords will allow you to make real-time adjustments to your campaign to capitalize on website authority as it develops.
12. Once movement occurs, then build on those miniature keyword victories and ball roll them into the next tier of competitive keywords.
Start with keywords within your reach, acquire them and then move after the next branch. Only go after the low hanging fruit until your site is strong enough and trusted enough (as a result of the top 10 rankings) to topple more competitive terms.
13. Make major changes over time to avoid tanking your rankings, trust and page integrity matters.
Trust, meaning consistency is another metric search engines use. This is why it is possible for aged websites that are grandfathered into the search results to rank very easily; even if they are optimized or not. The takeaway here is to leverage trust by leaving older pages alone with the exception of building a few internal links) to harvest their inherent ranking power.
14. Makes copies of pages so, if something breaks, you can upload the previous version.
If I had a dime for every time something broke and I wish I had backed it up. Trust me on this one, always keep a copy, just in case. Especially when your changing .htaccess files or other sensitive settings.
15. A website can only rank for keywords once the pages are indexed, it’s better to build them right than have to fix them and wait to get re-crawled and indexed.
Why operate from the “broken page” mentality? If the code is dated, 301 redirect it to a clean new template or just start fresh with an optimized content management system. This way, as the site grows, you don’t have to “optimize it”, you already did when you published the page as a result of SEO web design.
16. Give SEO time to kick in, crawl rates and rankings are based on popularity and site structure. If your site lacks either, expect changes to take longer to make impact.
If you want to rank faster, do something remarkable. Trigger a social media stampede, get a trusted link from an authoritative source “software directories, widget creation, create a useful online tool, etc.
Search engines use traffic and engagement time to validate which websites are hubs and have high crawl and index frequency. Our website can rank in the top 10 in less than 15 minutes from the time we publish a post. This is the result of years of building rapport with search engines.
If you want to expedite the process, be innovative or simply allow the process of the multiple layers of SEO to overlap to produce the desired effect.
17. Make sure your website has selected a default index page as well as dealt with any canonical issues. For example, being able to find http and www versions of your site are not acceptable. Choose one or the other and use a .htaccess file to consolidate the page preference on the server level.
Why hemorrhage link flow or ranking potential from canonical and / or duplicate content issues? Set the server header defaults to resolve to either www or http for your domain. Also, don’t forget to 301 your index.html or default.htm page to the main domain name to get maximum effect for positioning by consolidating the aggregate flow of page rank.
18. Build links evenly to both the homepage and using deep links (meaning linking to specific pages with specific keywords).
The proper deep link ratio depends on which keywords are more important. Less diversity to rank for specific keywords, more deep links to deep pages in the site to promote keyword stemming. We typically employ 60% of the links to the home page and 40% to the rest of the site via deep links, however, each situation is different.
19. The fastest way to get into the top 10 for a keyword is to get a link from someone already ranking there. This is called ranking by affinity. Similarly, you can pull other pages in your site up once your individual pages start ranking in the top 10 for specific or related terms.
Think of this like the buddy system, each page that ranks in the top 10 for whatever keyword is now an authoritative page. That page can now rank other related pages and pull them into the spotlight.
If you understand the implications, then sky is the limit on this tactic of ball rolling pages like a juggernaut to crash through the boundaries of your competitors relevance score and inherent barrier to entry.
20. Never give up, never give up, never give up…
In other words, spread your execution over time; don’t try to overcompensate for getting started late. Slow and steady wins the race, but targeting the proper terms in the first place is the more important and critical SEO technique.
All of these tips may seem redial from a distance, however, using each one at the appropriate time, in the appropriate context can either leave your competitors in the dust or give you an added boost when you need it.
6 Tips for Long-Term SEO Success
Dec 11th
Anyone who has ever meddled with SEO has asked themselves a ubiquitous question, “How quickly can I rank for [insert keyword phrase here]? More and more, I’m finding the word “quickly” and “SEO” don’t belong in the same sentence.
We want to believe there’s a magic SEO tactic that, if used, will revolutionize our results. On the contrary, a sound, long-term strategy consisting of great content combined with long-term SEO will win out. Below are 6 tips for ensuring long-term SEO success.
- Build links steadily, not suddenly: We’ve known for years that overly aggressive link building can trigger ranking penalties. If Google sees optimization happening too quickly, they may penalize you for what they consider unnatural link building practices. Even successful link-baiting campaigns can sometimes backfire, resulting in too many links in too short of time. In reality, the safest bet is slowly developing high quality links over a longer period of time.
- Focus on long tail keywords first, then broaden your approach: Suppose you were trying to rank for the keyword “ipod”. With the competition you face, its unlikely you rank for this word anytime in the next 5 years, even with aggressive SEO. Rather than shooting for the stars and landing on the moon, consider taking a different approach. By starting out optimizing for your primary keyword in addition to a modifier (e.g. color ipod, ipod 60GB, etc), you’re more likely to rank in a reasonable amount of time. Since this modified keyword phrase contains your primary keyword (ipod), you will also slowly start gaining ground on your original target. In a way, you’re shooting for the moon with the intention of gradually working your way to the stars.
- Diversify your Target Keyphrases: Sure, your top keywords may be performing well today, but what about a few years from now when your competitors catch up, Google changes their algorithm, or some other external factor pops up? Rather than keeping all your eggs in one basket, begin researching now what you’d like to rank for a year or two down the road.
- Create landing pages before you need them: Ever get an idea for a new keyword, but don’t have time to build a page? You may not have the time to fully create and optimize a page at the time, but why not at least create the page, throw a few internal links at it, and come back and optimize it later? I’ve found that this strategy gets the clock ticking with Google, since they obviously place value on the age of the page itself. Even if you can’t get to it for 3 months, you’re better since the page has now been given time to age in the index.
- Use Reactive vs. Proactive keyword research: Even the best keyword research will never yield perfect results. That keyword phrase that you thought would be easy to rank for sometimes ends up being more work that its worth. Or worse yet, once you are ranking you discover it isn’t converting to sales. A reactive SEO keyword research method would take a different approach. Rather than doing a perfect job of keyword research upfront, you analyze the traffic you are currently getting and re-optimize your pages accordingly. As I analyze the top keywords bringing traffic to my blog, I’ve realized 90% of the keywords I never intended on optimizing for, it just happened. But once I see it happening, I reoptimize the posts, adding some internal links and on-page tweaks.
- Content first, SEO second: Yes, it sounds trite, but if you focus on your content good rankings will follow. Quite frequently, potential clients contact me and ask them to review their website, believing they have an SEO problem. On the contrary, they have a content or usability problem, and SEO is the last thing they should be paying for. It’s important to not get caught in an SEO tunnel vision mindset. SEO will help good companies be better. SEO will do nothing for sites that have nothing to offer in the first place.
Don’t Even Start Link Building Until You…
Dec 11th
Far too often, SEOs spin their wheels obsessing about link building. (I myself included) It’s easy to forget that classic on page and site-wide SEO still works.
I was recently reminded of this. While working on a landing page on one of my sites, I carelessly left a link pointing to a page that was irrelevant to the actual anchor text in the link. In other words, the keywords in the anchor text had nothing to do with the actual text of the page. Despite this, Google quickly picked up the page for the target search phrase, replacing the page I intended to optimize for. Despite having at least a dozen good quality, keyword specific external links pointing to the page I intended to optimize, the other page now replaced it in the SERPs because the weight from the 1 internal link trumped all the external links.
This situation reminded me that good SEO starts on-site. In my opinion, you shouldn’t even start link building until you:
- Build Several Internal Contextual Links: Search engines care immensely how webmasters categorize and label their own content. The best way to do this is with one time occurring links within a body of content. In my opinion, 1 relevant contextual link from your own site can be worth more than 10 good external links. In Sugarrae’s great link building interview, Andy Hagans recommends having at least 5 internal links to every landing page.
- Mold Your PageRank Flow: SEO Fast Start has a great explanation of using the no-follow tag to sculpt your PageRank. Basically, the idea is to cap off the flow of PageRank using the no-follow tag to pages that are unimportant from a search point of view. For example, while your Privacy policy page may be important to customers already on the site, it’s probably getting little to no action from the SERPs. By capping off PageRank to pages like this, you will increase the relative importance of your product pages and product category pages.
- Do On Page Optimization of your Landing Pages: Title tags, H1 tags, keyword rich content, alt tags, and even Meta tags should be optimized before worrying about external links.
Since many experts think effective link building tactics are going underground, I believe on page and site wide SEO will become increasingly important.
3 Effective Link Building Tactics for 2008
Dec 11th
Obtaining good quality backlinks without paying for them is becoming increasingly difficult. In this short post, I thought I’d share 3 link building tactics that have been working for me lately.
- Hubpages: Hubpages is a community of articles, or “hubs” on various topics. Their unique system discourages spammers by slapping no-follow tags on outgoing links if your “hubscore” falls below 75. You can increase your hubscore by participating in forums, commenting on hubs, and most importantly, submitting high quality, completely original articles. It takes some work to maintain your hubscore, but the high quality links are worth the effort. I’ve seen some of my hubs picked up by Google in less than 2 hours.
- Work.com: Work.com specializes in business related guides and tutorials. As long your guides are high quality and pass the approval process, they can contain as many followed links as you’d like. In addition, I’ve received decent traffic from the guides I’ve submitted so far.
- Ebay Blogs: Who doesn’t want a link from ebay.com? Ebay blogs are a great way to showcase your ebay products, or just provide useful content to the ebay community. Links posted within your blog are followed, so the potential SEO benefit is huge. My first ebay post was indexed in less than a day.