v7ndotcom elursrebmem ... come again?

[thejenn]

Authored by: Jennifer Laycock

Full text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/laycock/006553.html

A Snippet:

Years after Nigratude Ultramarine made news, v7ndotcom elursrebmem is storming the net with a slew of new pages by SEMs entering a new contest. This difference this time is that there are two competing factions aiming to attract contest entrants.

[BKCB]

Bill Hartzer said in his comment on the WebGuerrilla blog:

"I'm sure it (the SEO Contest) will be very informative for the engineers at Google and
the other search engines-all they have to do is analyze the results and
find all the tricks SEOs are using. Furthermore, I'm sure it will be
fairly easy to identify all the SEOs out there involved in the contest."

As a non-insider, but observer and advocate for the healthy growth of the SEO-SEM industry since 1997, I'm
curious how true Bill's statement is? I'm not questioning Bill's vast
knowledge and experience. I'm just wondering if Matt Cutts (who I
respect) isn't going to suggest to someone in Google that they should
use this "contest opportunity" to do exactly what Bill suggests? Matt
certainly has the right (and maybe "personal obligation") to do that.
For all SEO's following the Google Webmaster Guidelines, no problem.
But, how "competitive" will this get?

Was the 2003 contest used by the search engines to do the same?


http://www.webguerrilla.com/seo-contest/ Bill Hartzer's comment is #16

[Robert]

For all SEO's following the Google Webmaster Guidelines, no problem.
But, how "competitive" will this get?

Just as you said, those who don't go "black hat" won't have a problem.

My guess is anyone attempting to use black hat techniques in this contest is probably an amateur.

The really good black hats are very intelligent and are smart enough to fly under the radar. They aren't going to get involved with this because they don't want their work put under a microscope and there isn't enough money involved for them to do so.

I know what Bill is saying but I don't think this will be terribly valuable to the search engines because I think it's unlikely they will find any new tricks.

I have no problem with the contest and it will probably be a lot of fun for the participants. John Scott, the owner of V7n, is already a winner in all of this due to the amount of publicity he will and already has received.

I do find it strange how worked up some people (on both sides) are about this contest. Oh well, makes for some interesting reading in various blogs and forums.

[BKCB]

Originally Posted by Robert

"Just as you said, those who don't go "black hat" won't have a problem.

My guess is anyone attempting to use black hat techniques in this contest is probably an amateur.

The really good black hats are very intelligent and are smart enough to fly under the radar. They aren't going to get involved with this because they don't want their work put under a microscope and there isn't enough money involved for them to do so."

I agree Robert. However, if the contest (or contests) do get competitive from an "ego" point of view vs. a "financial reward" perspective for many "amateurs", so as to have "bragging rights" be the "carrot", maybe Google WILL learn something? If it does (like Google probably did from the past SEO contest), then I think that it will be good for the "White Hat" search marketing industry (I dislike using "Hats" to catagorize, but that's what's evolved).

The hype over "how worked up some people (on both sides) are about this contest" may fuel the fire of competitiveness?

The really good black hats probably will stay away, but there are many shades of "Grey Hats" that may want those "bragging rights", so they can "jump for joy" and gloat .

[Robert]

"bragging rights"

You're right, I shouldn't underestimate the ego in all of this.

[thejenn]

There's no doubt that some new to the game grey and black hats will try to get the ego boost or build a reputation through it, but the reality is as Robert said. The really skilled black hats can make more money in a week running affiliate sites than they can make winning this contest. Why would you risk it?

I think what we're going to see in this contest is a lot of fresh new faces looking to see what they can do in an artificially competitive environment.

[St0n3y]

I've always been amazed at the number of people who do these contests, and I guess in a way its exposure for the winners... but what about possible negative exposure by those who try to win but fail. Does this say anything about their SEO ability?

[thejenn]

Dunno, I've got to think that in a game like this one, you can be pretty far down the list and still be worthwhile...

For example...let's say you rank 40th...

It's easy enough to say 'well geeze, that's lame!' and write that person off.

But then consider this... when was the last time you hired the 40th best direct mail company in the WORLD? (yes, I know tons of great folks aren't competiting...but still.)

I think this harkens back to my article last week that points out the folly of this whole "top ten" thing. In what world do only the top ten service providers survive? PR? No... Marketing? No... Advertising? No... Clothes? No... Cell Phone Providers? No...

See where I'm going with this?

[BKCB]

Originally Posted by thejenn

There's no doubt that some new to the game grey and black hats will try to get the ego boost or build a reputation through it, but the reality is as Robert said. The really skilled black hats can make more money in a week running affiliate sites than they can make winning this contest. Why would you risk it?

I think what we're going to see in this contest is a lot of fresh new faces looking to see what they can do in an artificially competitive environment.

Last night, Greg Boser of WebGuerrilla went on record as saying that he will win the contest and do it in a way that nobody will be able to figure out how he did it! I don't think he was kidding, but I'm not sure.

I'm not judging Greg personally (although I am against very aggressive so called "Black Hat" SEO techniques as they can cause other SEO's to do the same to compete, besides being risky), but does anyone here, who is a "rubber meets the road" SEO (unlike me), know for sure if this is really possible to do?

It will be interesting to see if other SEO's try to go with "undetected techniques" vs. what I think Greg said it took to win the last SEO contest = many inbound links from bloggers.