Do You Have To Be Black Hat To Be Relevant?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Aaron Wall has an uncanny way of keeping things interesting. In a recent post on SEO Book.com he says:

One of the biggest flaws with the field of SEO is the presumption some people have that there is only 1 right way to do things, everything should be free, marketing should be entirely organic, you have to keep it all above board or you risk losing everything, and other BS pitched by companies trying to minimize and regulate the field.

His choice of words here is very interesting and I’m going to attempt to break it down point by point.

Only One Right Way To Do Things
I agree this is a perception problem. I can think of several key areas of search engine optimization where you can accomplish the same goal in multiple ways. For instance, you can boost a website’s rank in the search engines for your keyword by adding a blog to the domain and consistently targeting the same keywords over and over again or you can build massive inbound links for your choice anchor text. Both ways have been successfully implemented by search marketers and you can even combine the methods for a more powerful punch. But if it’s a question of either/or, take your pick.

Everything Should Be Free
Well, if everything was free then none of us would be making any money. Individuals and businesses have a right to set the price for their products and services. Everyone else has a right to resist the urge. I’m glad everything is not free.

Marketing Should Be Entirely Organic
OK, well I may be biased toward the organic, but it isn’t everything. There are paid inclusion, pay per click, display advertising, and even link buying. All have been successful to some degree by Internet marketers for over 15 years now. No, online marketing is not entirely organic and if you think that it is then you have a lot to learn.

Keeping It All Above The Board
I’m not quite sure what Aaron is talking about here, but I suspect he’s alluding to black hat practices of some kind. I’m a big believer in everyone making decisions that they think will make them better marketers and business people, and more competitive. But if you are going to engage in risky behavior such as cloaking, link buying or peddling, and other black hat type activities then it’s important to know the risks. You can get your website banned for certain practices so if you do decide to go that route you’d better make sure that you do it with a web property that you find dispensable and that you understand all the risks before you begin. In other words, count the costs and don’t be surprised if you are found out and penalized.

Aaron does make a valid point when he says “The bigger risk for most businesses is being too conservative and thus remaining obscure, unknown, and unprofitable.” Obviously, you don’t want to be unprofitable or obscure. So what do you do? In our view, the key is to push and pull. Push your content out and push it out some more. Pull your customers in with can’t-be-beat offers and build your buzz. You don’t have to go to the dark side to be relevant.