A Lesson in “black hat” optimization, the dark art

[bobsilber]

What a SEO expert found suggests that the digital age’s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue. And the intrigue starts in the sprawling, subterranean world of “black hat” optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.



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[Steve Faber]

Originally Posted by bobsilber

What a SEO expert found suggests that the digital age’s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue. And the intrigue starts in the sprawling, subterranean world of “black hat” optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.



Click Here to read

Interesting article. It makes you wonder exactly where g does draw the line, and how much it changes for different companies, if any. Does G consider links from things like guest blog posts "spammy" links? Given that they recently implemented a new algorithm aimed specifically at devaluing the link juice from, and the search results of certain kinds of sites, it will be interesting to see where it leaves niche marketers trying to get a traffic boost. Obviously some current SEO techniques will continue to be effective, while others will need to be rethought, and new ones will be developed. It seems clear though, that having plenty of high quality content will never go out of fashion in G's eyes.