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Black Hat Vs White Hat SEO by Matthew Wood

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Gaming Vertical, SEO on 08/05/2007 at 11:42am

The Casino Affiliate Convention (CAC) took place last week in Amsterdam, a thoroughly enjoyable affair. 

A goldmine of ideas and knowledge was brought back by those who attended.

One session that raised eyebrows, was a panel discussion on Black Hat Vs White Hat SEO techniques. 

SEO is becoming more and more important to gaming affiliates, as PPC channels are no longer viable for the mainstream affiliates, the debate and the opportunities have opened up.

The notion at the conference that 80% of traffic generated to casinos, poker and bingo sites is through Black Hat techniques surprised me to an extent, whilst some on the panel namely the knowledgeable Jason Duke of Strange Logic , stated that SEO is a question of Morals.  Others did resign to the fact that creating a new ‘gaming’ related portal via white hat methods almost certainly was not a particularly viable solution in the short to medium term.  A comment backed up by event the affiliate managers on the panel. Interesting, the power some affiliates have in this sector.

The debate however is ongoing; though where do things stop? Is it resigned to people who attempt to ‘steal domain names’ through devious means or people who upload their affiliate links / client links to .edu sites through ftp software loopholes? Or are we all guilty, as in anyone who attempt to deviate from G’s webmaster guidelines jump into the big bad black hat!

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6 Comments

  • Comment added by John Smith on 07/10/2007 12:44:20
    Hi,

    This is very usefull information by Black Hat Vs White Hat SEO.

    Thanks
    John Smith
    http://www.place1.in
  • Comment added by Mark on 11/10/2007 10:54:18
    When you are in a competitive industry such as gambling then it is a natural response to bend the rules a little just to get an advantage. The problem with Blackhat techniques is they are short term and the search engines (especially Google) are getting very clever at locating these techniques. In one second you could see all of your blackhat web sites deleted.

    For other search engines such as MSN then blackhat methods can be quite successful. But how long will it be before MSN catches up?

    Blackhat marketing is fine as long as it is done totally separate from your main whitehat efforts. The two can never be connected in any way. Domain ownership, DNS and footprints to name a few.

    If you are happy with bending the rules and can take your efforts being wiped out at the click of a mouse then thats fine. Most blackhatters know this and simply build mores sites on a daily basis. When one site dies another is born.

    I still think there is a place for blackhat though the clock is ticking as the search engines get smarter. I personally prefer to build an affiliate marketing business on solid foundations that reap benefits long into the future.

    http://www.gamblingaffiliatemarketing.com
  • Comment added by penny slots on 06/02/2008 23:05:00
    One thing I wonder about the white vs black hat debate is whether some things that are seen (by google etc.) as white hat today will be seen as black hat tomorrow?

    One example would be posting huge numbers of comments in forums purely to get links up in the signature and create vast numbers of back-links. It seems fine, but one day google may see this differently. They may also see link=exchanges as black het at some stage, only recognising one-way links - who knows?

    I was at the CAP euro a couple of weeks back and some prominent website owners say that they no longer do anything for SEO other than produce content. Not sure about that, but very Interesting nonetheless
  • Comment added by Aspirin on 07/02/2008 09:13:09
    User avatar
    Looking forward to Amsterdam again in April, its probably the best Gaming conference to attend.
  • Comment added by gregdpowell on 10/05/2008 00:39:12
    User avatar
    Hey Matthew, thanks for the article topic, albeit a little older now it's still a hot topic amongst affiliates. At Poker Conference we're going to hit on this a little more and explain what exactly black hat is and where (if ever) it's a useful marketing tool.
  • Comment added by Concord Softech on 12/06/2008 08:54:52
    New SEO Techniques


    Latest seo new says that having good quality and unique content always
    drives a larger traffic. The content used should be well focused on the
    topic having a good ratio of keywords and text. Writing enticing title helps
    users to get attracted to the website. The title should be such that anyone
    who is looking for the topic gets a overview of the website.

    Rss feeds are also very important. Contents submitted in RSS feeds are
    Syndicated content and crawlers find them easily. Since Rss feeds are written
    in xml language they are readily accepted. RSS feeds also have a great
    impact on a site's search engine ranking. It is therefore important to
    submit your site or blow to RSS feeds.

    Writing unique and good quality content is not a hard task. All you have to
    do is keep in mind what the user is looking for. There should be ability
    to communicate it clearly and effectively. There should be a well-planned strategy to submit links and make a site
    Popular.

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