Comments on: Don’t Charlie Sheen Your SEO

By: Top 5 Reasons Your Blog is Useless

Top 5 Reasons Your Blog is Useless — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:29:54 +0000

[...] when it comes to developing clever and engaging titles that will attract readers’ attention. This post wouldn’t have received nearly as much traffic if it was simply titled “Black Hat SEO [...]

By: How Much Are You (Am I?) Like Charlie Sheen? - Brass Ring Multimedia, La Jolla, CA. – Effective Web Design, SEO, Multimedia & Graphics

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:04:48 +0000

[...] Optimization specialist Nick Stamoulis and he focuses on how “Black Hat SEO” is like doing a Charlie Sheen to your website. I’ll quote Nick here. “Black hat SEO tactics like buying links or being involved in [...]

By: Edward A. Sanchez

Edward A. Sanchez — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 19:42:44 +0000

Thanks, Nick for using Charlie’s divebomb as a useful metaphor for what we (white hat guys) are trying to avoid and discourage.

It is a shame to watch him…I really like the guy, but oy! I have my fingers crossed for him as I don’t anticipate a happy ending without him hitting a heckuva “rock bottom” first!

Cheers, Edward

By: Marguerite Fair

Marguerite Fair — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:29:26 +0000

Well, I think it is quite sad that Charlie Sheen is comfortable with the way he projects himself.

Two and a Half Men is my favorite show. I’ll watch the eposides even if I’ve seen then 20 times. I find the characters so comfortable to invite into my home….as a writer I appreciate the writing of the show. They are the best!

Charlie, as all of us, has lessons to learn. Right now he has chosen to act like a spoiled and out-of-conrtol three year old. I just hope that he comes out this and lands on his feet. He still has many lessons that he needs to learn to grow as an actor and a human being. Much luck Charlie, hope you learn to think more about the true spirit of who you are. Best of luck. Marguerite Fair, Writer, Los Angeles, CA

By: Monika@redhotwebhosting.co.uk

Monika@redhotwebhosting.co.uk — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:41:24 +0000

Comparing Charlie Sheen with the ultimate black hatter is correct in my opinion. So many people succumb to using black hat techniques that will eventually be picked up by the search engines and drop the site like a stone in the rankings. Using good white hat SEO is actually easier. Good PR (double meaning) while it lasts, then watch out, be careful what you ask for!

By: Jing Zhou

Jing Zhou — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 01:02:47 +0000

Great Post Nick
I have to believe Charlie has drug problems and other issues. One has to be stupid to throw 2 million a week down the drain. Even his last number of shows he didnt look the same..Maybe a little denial.
Black hat stay away. the effort for short term gain is not worth getting your site banned or delisted. Unless you like buying new domains and building sites.
Slow and steady is what google wants. Constant high quality relevant content. This new google helped me and kept my other sites at the top. The garbage went in the toilet. Give google what they want and you will get and stay at the top forever.
Jing

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:43:13 +0000

Charlie has certainly used up a bunch of good will in the last few weeks with all his bravado, but don’t forget that Angelina Jolie used to carry viles of Billy-Bob Thornton’s blood on a necklace and full-on make out with her own brother in public. Now she has turned into a do-gooder of the highest order.

Nevertheless, I, of course, agree with your premise as it relates to Search Engine Optimization. It’s VERY difficult to return from those kinds of black hat SEO “tricks”! Great analogy!

Here’s an article we wrote on a similar topic http://www.firstpagestar.com/back-links-inbound-links/ for you. Enjoy!

By: Adriana @ Cheap Marquee

Adriana @ Cheap Marquee — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:51:20 +0000

well.. great comparison, good example. I also think that when this Social Search will start to roll out, I wonder if this will bring about the death of black hat SEO somehow. I can only surmise that party’s will be over for them and they have to play by the rule once and for all. Thanks for sharing this.

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:38:21 +0000

Hi Nicky,

Thanks so much for reading and sharing your extensive thoughts and opinions.

Black hat SEO in my book is very simple:

Not following the Google and Microsoft (for Bing/Yahoo!) webmaster guidelines and trying to make SEO results to move faster by taking an unethical approach. Here is the webmaster guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/webmasters/?rfp=1617547730

Also, here is additional information from Google about white hat, “best practice” SEO:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35291

Here is the official black hat SEO definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_or_black_hat

Also, here are other blog posts I have written in the past about black hat SEO:
http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com/?s=black+hat+seo

I hope this clarifies what black hat SEO is and I really don’t think Charlie Sheen went crazy to help his personal brand in the search engines and his SEO efforts

Thanks for reading!
Nick

By: Nicky Papers

Nicky Papers — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:24:05 +0000

I’m struggling to understand your definition of “Black Hat SEO”. If you were to define that in your post it would make a lot more sense to readers when attempting to personify link building techniques.

In order to be effective with link building, having a creative strategy is key. SEO or any type of online advertising campaign doesn’t have to be a long or drawn out process if the goal is to come hard out of the gate. I agree with your point about maintaining link velocity but saying that SEO is a “slow process” is just wrong because you’re not comparing it to a niche, a set of keywords, or the status of the website you’re trying to rank.

If you’re relating Charlie Sheen’s recent media blitz to SEO, he did a fantastic job of going viral and would maintain rank, if a web property was the focal point of the campaign as authoritative website have been covering the story and citing happenings by linking to other sources. Oh wait, his Twitter account has 2.5 million followers? Are you aware of what that translates to in terms of linking authority?

Unless you have a crystal ball and can predict Charlie Sheen’s next moves, it’s really hard to compare SEO strategies to his recent actions.

I’m going to have to agree with Mindy Koch, the Charlie Sheen campaign was GENIUS from an SEO perspective.

I’m shocked that you’re seeing it the other way around and just a handful of people commenting on this thread have stepped up to question your logic with respect to defining “Black Hat SEO”.

I’m very curious to learn more about what you consider “White Hat” with respect to getting a website ranked, nonetheless for competitive terms.

Kind regards,

Nicky Papers

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:17:43 +0000

Hi Blake,

Thanks for reading and sharing your question. Any type of link building activity that helps build your brand, generates visitors is a good fit.

Here is another article that I wrote earlier this week that has some other typical type of link building activities (of course it is different for EVERY type of business):
http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com/2011/03/08/link-building-techniques/

Hope this helps.

Thanks & Take Care!
Nick

By: Blake

Blake — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:05:43 +0000

I totally agree with avoiding black hat techniques, but I am curious what you consider to be a “white hat” link building technique? Guest posting and solid content are the only two things I know of, but if you’re in a niche that doesn’t get a lot of link love (health – especially doctors etc) what d you do?

By: Mindy Koch

Mindy Koch — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:00:52 +0000

This was truly one of those /grabs popcorn weeks. I was fascinated by the media blitz. I was fascinated by the Twitter world record.

One thing I thought was GENIUS (which was more smart PR than SEO but still) was how he took control of the verbage. He introduced his ladies as “the goddesses” before the media/public could name them something else. Absolutely brilliant there.

Also loved how he gave the public a tagline, complete with hashtag. It was a fascinating week for #winning and #thataintwinning and I saw some #seo genius behind most of it.

I think the problem is – we KNEW it wasn’t organic. It was the equivalent of a Googlebomb taking over TV/Twitter/Internet Media. At some point, we want our organic search results back.

By: Nick@Cambridge Marketing

Nick@Cambridge Marketing — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:57:49 +0000

I actually applaud what you have wrote here as clearly your aim is for white hat seo links using current trending terms and I believe you have achieved it. As for black hat seo, everyone gets caught out in the end if you dont play by the rules

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:13:55 +0000

Hi Tim,

Thanks for reading and sharing this post…it seems they referenced one of my past comments on the Search Engine Watch blog, which is nice to see

Hi Matt,
I agree with your this is not black hat, but a good promotional PR strategy…there is a clear difference between good quality links that provide value, visitors and generate business, then links that are not relevant and have no authority…

Thanks for reading and your comment!
Nick