Before we start, let's just clarify that BWDP does not endorse black-hat SEO.
The best SEO is white-hat, ethical, moral...etc. White-hat SEO produces long-lasting results. Black-hat SEO is against the terms of use of search engines, and is likely to get detected, and the relevant sites are likely to get penalised. SERPs hackers (spamdexers, search engine spammers, black-hat SEO experts) know this though, and therefore take measures to evade detection & penalisation.
The purpose of this article is somewhat to debunk myths about black-hat SEO. While classic onsite techniques like heavy keyword-stuffing and silly redirections may work to some extent, they are much easier to detect and much less impacting than extensively-cushioned, heavily-resourced, off-site, black-hat SEO as described below. Below is an example of top-level black-hat SEO. We do not endorse it, but we do draw attention to how it works in the hope that popular web search engines may become more familiar with their own security needs.
The trick is in cushioning the penalty and camouflaging the game, by setting up a network of doorways (satelite sites).
| Tertiary Doorways | Secondary Doorways | Primary Doorways | Main Site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paid-links point directly to these sites. Maximum risk, minimum credibility. Lots and lots of these. As they mature, if they avoid penalisation, the author typically works to increase the quality of the site to increase credibility and decrease risk, to capitalise on increased ranking potential thanks to the trust factor that comes with age. When they get penalised, they are often ditched, and the author moves on to other sites, making new sites and improving the unpenalised old ones. The oldest or most developed tertiary doorways will become secondary doorways, and risky purchased inlinks are repointed towards new tertiary doorways. The least risky inlinks may be kept pointing at the promoted site (promoted from tertiary to secondary level doorway status), so as to capitalise on the age factor of the inlinks, because search engines look for spam where links are regularly repointed. | Medium risk, medium credibility. For each secondary doorway, there should be a few tertiary doorway sites linking in to it. Each primary doorway may have two, three or four dedicated secondary doorways linking to it. | Maybe two or three of these in total. Minimum risk, maximum credibility. Lots of time is spent developing these sites, and they have even become more important than the "main site". | This is the one where the entire campaign is indirectly focused. This site ranks very high and remains stable in the SERPs even when distant doorway satelite sites are getting regularly busted. |
