Why Black Hat SEOs Never Go White - The Thin Line
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It seems the black hat SEOs have this much in their favor: most of them tacitly discourage e-mail spamming. A lot of these black hat practitioners actually live very transparent and open lives, claiming they are CAN SPAM compliant so they are not doing anything illegal. There are seminars, forums, and blogs with the real names of the owners. They distribute the technologies and take no responsibility for how they are used. Basically unethical SEOs dance with Google in mind and keep one eye on the law, endeavoring to bend the rules but never actually doing anything that could get them convicted and sent to jail.
Most of them build sites for themselves and only serve clients with software applications to use in link building, so cases of litigation against a transparent "black hat" are not as common as you'd think. The problem of litigation from aggrieved clients is faced mostly by the SEO professionals who mix organic and black hat techniques when faced with the pressure of getting desired results. As some speakers will say, pressure is good. But when it makes you violate your internal value system, you are in trouble.
Who Is to Judge?
In previous articles about black hat SEO, I stressed the need to examine your practices, and not think the material is meant for another individual or company. Most people who practice black hat techniques did not grow up in crime ridden neighborhoods; they were probably college graduates or at least individuals with clean slates who got tempted when the pressure came on. Most of the criminal teens who have renegade mindsets and a contempt for the rule of law are the ones on the Spamhaus list of most dangerous spammers. Most criminal elements continue as criminals, get locked up a few times and become bigger criminals.
Your average black hat practitioner could have been me or you if he had made a few other choices rather than the ones he made, but once those choices are made, it's far easier to continue down that road than to stop and make a U-turn. As they they say, "the leopard never changes its spots."
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