Site Reference Forums

Dave,

Well, yeah, I did know that the overall question being asked was, “Do you do black hat SEO?” And I knew that no SEO company would openly admit it to someone they think is smart enough to know that it is not good. But, I came on this board and started reading the SR articles for the last couple of years understanding the same amount of info about SEO and SEM as I know about Geisha girls (not much.) I constantly feel like a seventh grader in a college course, like I’m way over my head here, but I’m still catching some of it here and there, just because I really want to learn it.

I’ve learned the following very well: White hat good. Black hat bad. Black hat likely to kill rankings and probably will kill integrity.

BUT, the assumption on this board is that everyone knows all of the white hat and black hat techniques, and I highly doubt that I do. I found out, through that article, that simply having a site that I want found on search engines, automatically, makes me commit to search engine TOS (even if it’s not a formal contract) or get “TOSsed!” And also, I never knew that it was wise to keep up with the changes of TOS for the different search engines. (And, this coming from someone, who generally ignored all the “Google has a new Algorithm” articles, because I simply don’t understand them.) I didn’t even know part of the service offered by SEO companies is to get links to your site. (OK, when I read that, I have to admit I gave myself a “duh now!” for not figuring that out before. LOL)

Coming on to this board to learn SEO and SEM is probably quite a bit like deciding to learn how to create stained glass, and, for the first lesson, learning how to attach the hook to hang the freestanding piece. Fortunately, I have learned how to do stained glass by ignorantly jumping into it, without starting at the beginning, so, at least, I know I’m able to learn things the hardest way – without a good starting foundation. So, thanks to this article, I just played a little catch up on that foundation I missed. Thanks to people on this board like you, I do have that critical mind to wonder also, about some possible missing information from the article, and, yup, like you, I’m holding off to Part 2 and 3, before asking those questions, in hopes he answers unasked questions.

BTW, thanks for the link. Hopefully, I’ll actually remember what “ROI” means. Now, maybe I can figure out how to coordinate!