The art of robbing a bank – and how it relates to Black Hat SEO

Illegal activities require extreme caution; otherwise, you’ll get caught. And that can have more or less serious consequences. This applies to both bank robbery and SEO.

The main difference is that most people can easily figure out what not to do when robbing a bank, whereas far too many still dive into their SEO efforts without the slightest sense of such “details.”

So let’s start by looking at some of the things you definitely shouldn’t do when planning a bank robbery…

Top 10 list of things not to do robbing a bank

1. Don’t advertise your robbery in advance.
2. Don’t refer to yourself as a “bank robber” – it might raise suspicion.
3. Don’t be naive enough to think that the bank won’t have any guards.
4. Don’t assume that the guards (who are indeed present!) speak a different language and won’t understand you, thus exposing your plan to rob the bank.
5. Don’t disclose your full name before asking the bank to empty the vault.
6. Don’t write your demands on papers with your own name on them (yes, a bank robber actually did that once!) or show them your credit card.
7. Don’t wear a name tag around your neck.
8. Don’t brag about successfully committing a bank robbery, if you manage to escape with the money!
9. Don’t rub it in the faces of the police that you got away with the heist!
10. Don’t go out and buy a new red Ferrari the day after the bank robbery if you don’t have a legitimate income to justify it.

Interestingly enough, the above list is almost identical to one that could be made for SEO. But clearly, many people fail to understand that.

Top 10 things not to do in SEO

Link directories, article databases, and link competitions have become the obsession of many web merchants. Most of these projects fully satisfy the aforementioned list, but with the reverse sign.

Many of the ones who execute these strategies do exactly what you shouldn’t do if you want to “get away with the money”…

1. They advertise their “SEO Catalog” or “SEO Article Database” in advance.
2. They make no attempt to hide what they’re doing – they try to manipulate search engines’ analysis of links.
3. They assume that search engines don’t pay attention to such things – that they have no “guards.”
4. They assume that search engine personnel (because yes, there are people behind search engines!) don’t understand your language, so they won’t notice what they’re doing.
5. They don’t hide who they are.
6. They provide detailed descriptions of how links from these irrelevant directories and article databases can increase the link value for participants’ sites.
7. They reveal their identities in debates and on their websites.
8. They boast about the positive results achieved through their manipulation.
9. Their bragging about the results is a direct challenge to search engine personnel!
10. They recommend sending these manipulated links directly to their brand websites.

Personally, I have no issue with bending search engine guidelines a bit. Go as “black hat SEO” as you want. Contrary to robbing a bank most Black Hat SEo is not illoegal. Google just don’t like it.

Often, it’s necessary to achieve the desired results. However, it’s just foolish to be so extremely careless, as I often observe.

The best tip for a secure SEO strategy: KEEP QUIET!

I love discussing SEO, but there are limits to what it’s wise to talk about publicly. Yes, Google’s personnel can also read what’s written in public forums and blogs.

Lately, I’ve seen people coming to forums and wondering why some of these link directories and article databases are suddenly not indexed in Google anymore. If you’re one of them, I hope the above has shed some