Welcome to Black Hat (SEO)

By Vlad Zablotskyy February 2, 2007 Bookmark and Share

Black Hat SEOThat was not exactly what I expected to read in the comments after blogging about unexpected redirect page rank. But I guess one of the best and fastest ways to learn is from your own mistakes. But in my mistake there may be a lesson for any one.

It started with me trying to implement .htaccess redirects for links on one of my website, which is also powered by WordPress. As a result of implementing these redirects, I ended up with few that matched exactly the permalinks that have been on the website for about four months. Here is an exampple:

www.mysite.com/widget- existed before I started to implement the redirects.

Then I have created following .htaccess redirect:

redirect /widget http://www.myaffiliatelink.com

So as you can see this created a problem, because the redirect was created after my page was indexed in Google. Visitors who found my page in Google or other search engines, were being directed straight to a merchant site as soon as .htaccess redirect was created. This also explains why a link redirect had a page rank next to it when I checked the visual page rank. But this also a practice that falls into so called “Black Hat SEO”, and should be avoided.

I guess anyone using WordPress can run into a similar problem. Just make sure when creating .htaccess redirects you do not duplicate already existing permalinks and you will be fine.

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  • Lee
    Why do you think this is a mistake? Ultimately, it's how you implement it and utilize the traffic is where it becomes grey. Hurry up and make sure the link ranks for something in the natural rankings and make some money from it. BTW, the PR you see in the G toolbar isn't real anyway... just a reason for you to download their toolbar. At the end of the day it's all about traffic -- if you don't have it, you might as well go home.
  • You are right Lee, traffic is what makes you money. To be honest, I really do not understand this white/black hat stuff. I do hear though that black hat techniques do not last and when se catch up they will penalize you.... So you've told me it's black hat, it was good enough for me. I am getting good traffic to that site, and to be penalized for something that niether way makes much difference is not worthed to me.
  • Lee
    Vlad -

    I still think you are looking at it incorrectly. There is so much rubbish out there when it comes to SEO -- one of those things is black hat vs. white hat. Somewhere black hat got equated with bad/evil practices and white hat as noble do-gooders. That's crap. SEO is an art with a little bit of science to it. If it was pure science then everyone would be doing it. Do what works for you and if it mucks up, then learn from that lesson and try it again.
  • >> SEO is an art with little bit of science to it.

    Agree. As with each science there is a learning curve. I am just at the very beginnig for that learning process. :)
  • First off Search Gator is clearly comment spam. Secondly SEO I find to be more of a science than an art really, not to disagree with above comments, but it's technical, daunting, and tedious. I suppose tho, anything could be described as an art if you enjoy it and feel that sense of creative accomplishment.
  • @W3 Edge,

    Thanks for heads up on Search Gator. I am using Spam Karma plugin on this blog and sometimes spam slips through.

    Thanks for stopping by. SEO for me is neither an art nor a science, it just what it is SEO.
  • Hi lee, well you have said that PR appearing in Google toolbar is not real, ho do you know so, is it true ? please tell me the meaning and difference for black hat and White hat.
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