Google removes thousands of malware sites

Funny stuff guys/gals.

This certainly proves Christina's point. LOL The blackhats sure do love to blur the lines. .... just read all the above posts. If you think for one minute that blackhats are only hurting Google because they do not follow their guidelines, you are totally lost and very naive. This is exactly what I mean by blackhats hurting our industry and NO ONE speaks out about it, nor puts a damn stop to it.

Christina knows more about what is going on in this industry than the people in this industry.

Perkiset; Anyone who is a member who participates at digitalpoint is NOT a whitehat. Period. You used that place as an example of whitehats? You must be joking.

Further; you state that Google changes the rules/guidelines... well Duh? Of course they do to combat the damn blackhats who do their very best to trick Google. Some things never change however. The current pagerank fiasco that so many out there are worried about is quite naive considering that Google warned you all about 4 years ago now when the massa law suit happened. I know "my circle" discussed it a bunch. NONE of my clients were affected by the silly green bar, nor did they receive any penalties. Some of us just use our common sense about things.

Let me just say this; if you build a website that follows the guidelines and is a good site for your visitors, believe me; your site will NOT have to keep reading those guidelines. It makes no difference how many times they may change.

@ DHeil: So you’re saying that Google changes the rules just because of blackhats? Let me ask you: when (yeah, right) everyone out there adheres to the guidelines perfectly, yet (my client) is not in the top 10, what does he want me to do? Find a way to get there! He/she feels that he has WAY more business being in the top 10 than other people – he has a better service, or a better price or "dammit [he's] just paying enough that he feels he should be in the top 10." So there’s a business called SEO. And SEO is by definition a competition. And being a competition the entire game is to figure out how Google (et al) applies significance and beat the others to it. As soon as everyone figures out how I did (x) trick and is doing it, Google has to make some changes again. Notice that in none of that did I describe guidelines, blackhat, whitehat or any of that drivel – I’m describing simple and ancient business competition.

I’m pleased for you that none of your clients were affected by the various PageRank shuffles, and pleased for you that you’ve found success for your clients. I have as well. I also know Bob very well and understand the reason for that suit perhaps better than most. I have a wide range of absolutely pristine (what you would call) WH sites and I have deep and enormously capable BH skills - the latter being borne from the requirements of my clients, and my ability to advocate for them in the new public forum which is the Internet, and the index keepers known as the search engines.

So who is really being naïve here, if we allow the rules of business competition to be defined by the way Google wants to construct their index? Or for that matter, are even physically able to construct their index, given the enormous technical hurdles and games that ALL OF US, you included, play to try to get our clients to the top?

You see, yet again you fall into the mold of “You’re Right” and “Those over there using tricks I neither understand, can implement or think are fair” are wrong. This Pollyanna notion of business competition is what separates people who come to the internet with some basic skill and want to have a business called SEO, and those that really are involved in business and have been for a great many years. When I’ve got my SEO hat on, my job is to advocate jealously for the betterment of my clients – not to tell them why we must do this or not do that because some other for-profit business entity has described it so.

I think you’re just upset because if Pfizer came to you and said "Since we manufacture Viagra, get us to the top" you couldn’t do it. The skills and discipline necessary to get there are probably beyond you. Ergo, you’ll scream at the people who have done it, claiming their skills "evil" and "damaging the fabric of the internet" rather than simply understanding and getting stronger yourself.

Hi perkiset; Funny how many blackhats never show their true identity. :-) Is perkiset your first name or last name or how about neither? lol My name is Doug Heil, and I'm damn proud of it. You can find me on a Google search... funny how that works.

You wrote this:

"what does he want me to do? Find a way to get there! He/she feels that he has WAY more business being in the top 10 than other people – he has a better service, or a better price or "dammit [he's] just paying enough that he feels he should be in the top 10."

Yes perkiset; that's a classic case of EACH website out there, right? Don't they all think they are the very best? It's your job to make sure YOUR client is educated. He hired you to make that happen. You are NOT educating your client if he/she thinks that SEO is ALL about a rank. You are also not educating your client if he can talk you into doing "what it takes" to get a rank. Matter of fact; you should have hired him as it appears like you are taking orders from him and doing whatever he wants. Is that professional? I think not. You should be educating him as to the risks involved with SPAM.

You wrote this:
"I have enormously capable BH skills."

That's so nice. You should be very proud. LOL

And you know Bob Massa and understand the reason for the suit? ah; that's so sweet. Well, many of us KNOW him as well..... he's a blackhat who got caught by Google and was pissed that Google dumped his sites because of it. Too damn bad. LOL

Your arguments hold absolutely zero water. Matter of fact; they are seeping out the bottom and can't hold one drop.

"Techniques to make sure your relevant content shows up in corresponding searches is one thing ..." Yes, and that "one thing" is typically called SEO. The rest is called spam.

/sigh

"Techniques to make sure your relevant content shows up in corresponding searches is one thing"

That seems to define SEO right there anyway... whether it's *good* SEO or *bad* SEO is another issue.

I was a bit ticked off after I read this article and now I'm even more pissed after reading the comments. Yes, we all know who you are Doug... congratulations to you! I'm not a big time celebrity SEO such as yourself but you can bet my opinion about you has changed after watching you come to the author's rescue here.

How can you honestly defend someone who has blindly (and ignorantly) dumped all SEO's into one "slime covered" category? Furthermore, how can you claim this author knows more about the industry than those of us that are actively battling in the trenches each day? She barely got it right for heaven's sake!

I always thought you were a classier guy than that.

Thanks to graywolf for his blog post regarding this "piece". I completely agree.

Get a clue people. If you are going to trash an entire industry due to the actions of a fraction of that industry, you deserve to be slapped upside the head by reality.

I've been working in the SEO business for years and I know more about Black Hat SEO methods than most Black Hatters do. Why you ask? Because ignorance is a dangerous thing. I've tested Black Hat tactics on dummy sites just for the hell of it to see the results they could generate. Works beautifully. The bottom line here though is that they VIOLATE SEARCH ENGINE GUIDELINES. It's quite simple folks, SEO is about long-term exposure on the internet. Black Hat methods can get you banned. What is long-term about that?

It is easy to be tempted to take the quick and easy way. Utilize some Black Hatter methods and go for #1. I sincerely wish you the best of luck. You may beat the rest of us, but not for long.

White Hatters... You guys just plain piss me off. Little SEO zealots who think they know whats best for everyone in the SEO community. Just shut up. Your methods are outdated and often ineffective.

The SEO World isn't just divided into What Hatters and Black Hatters. No no no. There are millions of us Grey Hat SEO guys, and guess what... We are slamming all you White Hatters & Black Hatters in the SERPs. Why? Because we evolved with the search engines. You guys didn't.

We skirt the edges of both worlds, taking a bit here and a bit there. We use tactics that while not directly prohibited by the search engines guidelines, White Hatter's view as dirty or underhanded.

Reality check. This is just a job. Plain and simple. You can even think of it as a game if you'd like. I do. Guess what... The name of the game is success. Don't piss and moan because you're losing. Try and duplicate the other guy's methods and beat him at his own game.

White Hatter's are too rigid to truly succeed in the SEO World. Face it fellas... You are obsolete. A dieing breed.

Black Hatter's... well, you guys just suck now don't you? You manipulate the SERPs to make money off AdSense and sidetrack an entire demographic from finding the porn they are one-handedly searching for! You should be ashamed...
Your tactics pollute the web with garbage.

To all you other Grey Hatter's out there. You know where I'm coming from. Success doesn't lie in a rigid set of protocols or methodologies. Success lies in being flexible and changing along with the industry. It's about doing what it takes without having to directly violate search engine guidelines.

Best of luck to you guys.