Comments on: Digital Marketing Parasites

By: Captain Blackbeak

Captain Blackbeak — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:32:45 +0000

@Juha

Yes an even older method to Spam the engines. And it doesn’t surprise me you heard a prominent parasite talking this shit up.

What’s worrying though is that the media companies listening seem to have been taking notes.

By: Juha

Juha — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:01:32 +0000

You forgot “SEO consultants”, who promote the use of such fine methods as background-colored headings etc., nice keyword placement techniques that Google will have a fit about, once found out. I’ve heard one quite prominent Finnish SEO guru speak about these sort of dubious methods very openly a year back, at a seminary for media representatives.

By: Captain Blackbeak

Captain Blackbeak — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:50:22 +0000

@Thomas; That doesn’t make it right nor mean that they won’t get banned if they are engaging black hat tactics.

By: Thomas Fjordside

Thomas Fjordside — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:31:48 +0000

You seem to think that so called “black hat” tactics are connected to low standard sites. You might want to have a look at the top 10 sites in, lets say, hotels. risky marketing isn’t really connected to bad content.

By: Captain Blackbeak

Captain Blackbeak — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:29:21 +0000

@Thomas;
I disagree on both points. Firstly, In Finland when I began working in this industry I quickly found out about the names in the SEO industry in particular and most in the digital marketing industry were honest. Now there are a glut of so called SEO professionals that not only engage in BlackHat practices but don’t tell their clients there is any risk. In the past 12 months I have seen these guys ripping companies off where they didn’t 2 years ago.

Secondly, I simply don’t think there is anything good about BlackHat tactics. I admit they can work and you can outsmart engines temporarily. It’s also not illegal. The downside is that one day you will get caught and then you have to start all over again. There is also very little skill to Black Hat SEO so why pay for it?

If you are a serious marketer then you need to get serious. The BlackHat mindset is all wrong. The mindset encourages the quick fix rather than encouraging driving more targeted traffic that converts highly. I would urge clients to concentrate on creating compelling persuasive content that converts the traffic it was designed for. Concentrate on that and you have a solid business to build upon rather than a temporary parasitic piece of spam.

By: Thomas Fjordside

Thomas Fjordside — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:05:26 +0000

I don’t really think this is a trend, there are a lot of bad apples out there and I don’t think that’ll stop. Just like there’s a lot of bad publications trying to sell their advertising space for way more than it’s worth.

The only way to get rid of it is to keep educating clients but you can’t educate everybody, so this will stick around.

@Delfin As for blackhat tactics, I don’t see a problem as long as the client is aware of the risk involved.

By: Captain Blackbeak

Captain Blackbeak — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:01:34 +0000

@DJVassallo
Could be that the economy is just forcing agencies to earn where they can but it’s very short term thinking and if they can’t do a decent job they should do something else in my opinion.

By: Delfin Vassallo

Delfin Vassallo — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:40:08 +0000

I think all those bad tricks/SEO black hat tactics/SM gurus bluffs will always exist. The amazing thing is that established agencies are using them.

Excess of crisis and lack of talent provokes to give ethics up? HUM!