Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog

What’s your comfort level in shades of gray?

This afternoon I was consulting with a new client and going over our strategies with him. This client is in an ultra-competitive keyword industry and he was showing me how 6 out of the top 10 sites are using a counter program to gather tons of backlinks….shit, these guys have hundreds of .edu’s even using this damn stat counter program thing….

Then tonight I get another email from another client who sits at #2 for thier biggest phrase, when the guy at #1 is doing some serious blog "spamming".

Now I know the old advice is "Yea, yea, just hold on….Google will catch that stuff and boink it out one day"….but we all know that "one day" might be tomorrow, might be next month…might be next year…or might be never.

I know the first client told me the "counter stat" links have held these ranking for over a year. He also told me he told google about it last year, but my Don’t show your sites to Matt song wasn’t out then so Google also told him "hey you, stop buying those huge links next the gambling sites on those PR8 sites too" (this was not me….but once it could have been)….Google never did touch the listing for the "counter spammers" anyways.

Heck, there’s all shades of gray in the SEO world and just because their shade of gray is grayer than mine doesn’t mean I’ve got anything against them…shit it’s working…and for some of these phrases, I can hardly blame them for doing something that gets them to #1 today (if they’re not worried about tomorrow….when even that day comes).

Heck, I also know that some people are probably bitching about my work saying "those bastards are buying links!….their day will come too!"….I just figure my stuff smells better than most others, and that my stuff will stick longer….shit, if google’s going to bonk someone I’d think they’d take these guys out long before they’d touch my stuff….I figure (and I try to keep my stuff under the radar….and not to obvious to google…"is that really a link buy??").

So my advice still stays at "hey, if you’re thinking long-term, don’t play those games".

That the advice you give too?

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9 Responses

  1. I’ve been thinking/doing long term for about 7 years. I know all too well how bad it feels when the rankings are favoring the spammy sort. Despite that, It’s a great feeling when customers tell me that a friend of their’s recomended my business to them. (that is very comforting when the rankings are messed up)

    Self-inflicted-misconfigured servers, can really make for sad rankings 🙁 (forget what Spammy McSpammerton is doing; make sure that your rudder is pointed straight!)
    -I’m sure people have their stoires…

  2. Hi Jim,

    Whilst I buy links too, I am actually finding myself siding with the counters guy. I mean if the counter was a nifty script, for example say phpLD, VB or ArticleDashboard people wouldn’t be complaining.

    I remember the days when on site counters were considered to be cool things.

  3. I’ve always thought the same thing. It’s better to play it safe now. Like you said, eventually it will come back to haunt them but we don’t know when.

  4. I haven’t done any link buying up until now. I started to pay for paid posting, and a couple of site wide links. The results are amazing. Doing things the legit way isn’t the way to go 😉

  5. I have not yet brought links but was planning to do so, I feel your article explains things quite well and I will reconsider my approach. Great article. Thanks.

  6. As with all these shades of gray, it comes down to your appetite for risk.. knowing that their rankings could be wiped out tomorrow cant be good for sleeping at night. But I suppose the big players diversify with different shades of gray on different sites. In that sense its not unlike any other investment.

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