There's black hat SEO and white hat SEO, but as Stephen Shankland notes, there's a huge swath of gray in-between that can snag you (or your client) either stellar results or severe search engine
penalties, or some random combination of the two.
"Earlier this year, Matthew Inman had achieved the notable distinction of vaulting a Web site called JustSayHi high into the results
for a search on 'online dating,'" Shankman says. "But after he expanded his effort to new areas, Google obliterated the site from its search results. Inman had used an aggressive technique called
widget bait to get good search results, but had to scrap a site that had been used for years and start from scratch."
Shankman touches on widget bait, link baiting, buying links and
even the recent FindLaw "scandal," and includes commentary from SEOs on both sides of the fence. He also pulls commentary from Google's Matt Cutts, who argues that gray area isn't so gray after all,
and that the majority of reputable SEOs and firms fall under the white hat category.
Read the whole story at Cnet News »