Crossing the Line into Black Hat SEO - Linking
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An aggressive linking campaign is the second prong of every organic SEO strategy, and this is the cause of another set of gripes by our black hats to justify their unethical practices. To them "reciprocal linking is impossible" and good inbound links are hard to come by, so they buy text links, join link farms, and do comment spam on "A" blogs. In general, they try to get links without giving any value.
A site with a beautiful linking strategy is www.phpjunkyard.com. The webmaster gives out free scripts and requests that a link back to his site be added anywhere on the web page. Apart from this, almost every page on PHP resources lists PHP Junkyard as a resource for web masters. Combine this with great outgoing links, and you have a site which has close to three pages on page one of almost every major search engine online. All this with no adverts, and no products for sale.
PHP Junkyard is successful because the webmaster has built a valuable online resource, which fits in naturally no matter the algorithm a search engine uses. It attracts links instead of chasing them. The theories behind attracting links are similar to those of attracting moths: shine brightly and watch them come.
User Experience
Any technique that reduces the user's experience is an unethical practice. One such technique (which I personally despise) is pop up that won't close, a real mouse trap. These pop ups have no red x button and simply will not go away unless you do the required action.
Another way of reducing the user's search experience is by placing your links on a totally unrelated site and then luring the user to click through via deceptive means.
The Conclusion of the Whole Matter
The SEO expert must judge him/herself before being sucked up in the current wave of litigation and blacklisting which is flowing across the United States and the search engines.
Lest I have offended any one with my sometimes strong language, I have no apologies; reread the parts that got you riled up and examine yourself closely.
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