SEO Practices: Black Hat vs. White Hat SEO

Before selecting an SEO consultant you should that there are two sects
so to speak and are usually referred to as Black Hats or White Hats.

The difference between the two is a long discussion on ethics and risk calculation which I will try to summarize and provide additionally reading for.

There are numerous SEOs, blogs and websites that support the use of typically black hat practices. I personally am not one of them.

There are challenges when trying to measure the validity of using black hat practices when regarding a website. Jill Whallen at HighRankings.com as this insightful article.

I don't have to keep up with every tiny algorithm shift, or the latest technique that the engines haven't caught onto yet. It's completely irrelevant to what I do. In my biz, I simply have to be aware that search engines exist, understand how and why
people use them, and fix my clients' sites so that there's a good fit between the site, the user, and the search engine.

The above is true and poses two major problems for a small business that might be considering an SEO that is offering fast, simple results.

1. If the SEO is really that good this is going to cost you a bundle because their service is in high demand.
2. If the SEO is cheap, free or doing this "on the side" what guarantee do you have they are keeping up with all the latest algorithms? What is your recourse if a method they used today gets you banned in six months?

When selecting an SEO consultant you should take the time to follow up on what they've told you they know and what they will do for you. You should do as Google says and not only ask for references but, "talk to many SEOs, and ask other SEOs if they'd recommend the firm you're considering."

The consequences for not following the above suggestions as well as each of the ones mentioned here can be great.

Example #1: The High Cost Knowledgeable Black Hat SEO

The SEO: You've found the budget and land the best SEO consultant that knows the ins and outs, has the references and results, as well as respect though not agreement of practices from white hats.

The War: Six months after creaming your two competitors in the search results things couldn't be better. Until one of them hires another black hat to counter your ways. You can now add to your budget time for espionage and counter attacks. Additionally you can be certain that your competitor will use this, http://www.google.com/contact/spamreport.html.

Example #2: The Not So Well Known SEO

The SEO: You settle for the SEO that has had some success doing this on the side and was not able to answer all of your questions. This SEO will likely not discuss in detail the SEO practices they use and use the term Meta Tags often. They also will not provide industry information for you to review. But, they sounded knowledgeable enough and promise its only a few changes and you'll see some great results.

Banned: This not so well practiced SEO created a doorway page for your site that pushed you right to the top. What you did not know is this part-timer didn't check the site in all browsers and that the search engines don't see things the same as Internet Explorer. After a short time at the top the site was further reviewed and banned. This can be best illustrated by Google's Matt Cutts, here.

In conclusion there will be SEO's that can ague both sides of the coin, all I ask as a fellow full-time business owner is that you find an SEO that is willing to talk to you about the risks you will be taking with your business' Internet presence.

SEO Practices: Flash Websites

A discussion I regularly have with clients, potential clients and other website designers is how they can make their site(s) better with Flash.

Especially on the client side because they would love to have an intro movie that really highlighted their company before bringing the visitor to the actual website home page.

By default I suggest not creating a complete Flash website or even a Flash intro. Instead I suggest they use Flash sparing as on-page accents.

Supporting Points

Complete Flash websites are very cumbersome to design, difficult to update and extremely expensive to have developed if quality is one of your concerns. Flash websites are also make SEO more difficult and expensive as well, usually requiring a complete HTML website also to be built. They are best suited for the websites of movies and pop stars that have the budgets to support site creation and mass media advertising to drive traffic directly.

Flash Intros are short movie type presentations that highlight the great points of a company visually before bringing you to the regular HTML website. Problems posed by intros are long load times and customer dissatisfaction proven through the high use of the "skip flash intro" button that should accommodate any site with an intro.

This article from Idaho State University, Office of Web Communications gives some good supporting arguments to the above points.

My typical suggestion of using Flash as on-page accents is well supported by this Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Try to use Flash only where it is needed. Many rich media sites such as Google's YouTube use Flash for rich media but rely on HTML for content and navigation. You can too, by limiting Flash to on-page accents and rich media, not content and navigation. In addition to making your site Googlebot-friendly, this makes you site accessible to a larger audience, including, for example, blind people using screen readers, users of old or non-standard browsers, and those on limited low-bandwidth connections such as on a cell phone or PDA. As a bonus, your visitors can use bookmarks effectively, and can email links to your pages to their friends.

SEO & Flash Sites/Intros

In addition to all of the above arguments when considering the creation of an all Flash site or even just an intro you must consider that even if you get the site to rank well for desired keywords, that in doing so the site visitors that you get would never see the Flash site or intro.

So the visitors you are seeking will completely miss all of the time, energy and money that was spent on the Flash work.

Why is this so?

When someone searches to find something the search engine results do not direct the visitor to the home page (in the case of a site using an intro) or the Flash version (in the case of a full Flash site).

Take this Google search for, Constant Contact Tampa. In the results Dynamic Creations shows up (at the time of writing) on the first page with a link.

Notice however that the link directs people to the Internet Marketing page and not my homepage.

Had I had a Flash intro this visitor would never see it. Had the site been completely Flash the visitor would have not only have missed the Flash site, but would have been directed to the HTML site which likely would not have received the same design attention as the Flash version.

Using Blogs/Community for Career Advancement

I read the following WSJ.com article on "How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job" and decided it would be a good reference for some of the young professionals and business associates that I interact with to review or see in writing somewhere validation for what I try to have them do for their own business or professional career.

Utilizing Blogs such as this the one you are reading now is of value and a good start to getting your name out there for people to find you and learn more about you.

However, more powerful than that is to grow an active Blog for an association, charity or other community related organization that is bigger than yourself alone. The power of many is just as important in on the Internet as it is in the real world.

I have personally worked to put this to the test with the Blog projects started for Ad 2 Tampa Bay and the National Ad 2 organization. These two blogs, although currently new and maybe a bit anemic on content should prove to be a huge resource to the current and future board members who decide to fully utilize the voice that we have created for them as young professional leaders.

Article Summary & Link: WSJ.com - How Blogging Can Help You Get a New Job
Corporate recruiters have long surfed the Web to vet potential hires, but now they are also surfing blogs to unearth job candidates, expanding their talent pool and gaining insights they say they can't get from résumés and interviews.

Ryan Loken, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recruitment manager, says he spends one to two hours a week searching through blogs for new talent or additional information about the candidates he has interviewed. "Blogs are a tool in the tool kit," he says. Since he joined the Bentonville, Ark., retail giant three years ago, Mr. Logen estimates that Web journals have helped him ...

Here's a link to the entire article if you are a WSJ subscriber.

Google to offer more click fraud protection

Google to offer more click fraud protection
By Elinor Mills Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: February 28, 2007, 9:01 PM PST

From the article: Beginning next month, Google plans to give advertisers the ability to prevent their pay-per-click ads from being shown to competitors suspected of repeatedly clicking on the ads to drive up their cost.

The move, to be announced in Google's AdWords blog on Thursday, is an effort to curb click fraud, which involves generating clicks solely for the purpose of increasing the cost of an advertiser's pay-per-click ad.

I number of people that I talk to about AdWords always seem to have the same question about competitors clicking their ads and costing them money so this is an article that can help some of you understand how seriously Google is taking click fraud and working to avoid it.