Incase you guys forget, Overstock.com was knicked by Google for using some blackhat methods to gain .edu and .gov backlinks. Google recently reprieved this penalty and overstock is unfortunetly back in all its seo glory: http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/overstock-back-on-googles-good-side/ goes to show you, you black hat's, will NEVER be successful in a real career!
Ohh "you black hat's"...such a loose term. Honestly the term SEO suggests black hat. So what is an SEO...someone specializing in ranking on SERPs. Well with the algorithm leaning so heavily toward links...be it social or article based or just plain interlinking between sites you, the "SEO" are basically "black hat" even if you are providing benefit for visitors. I say this because if you are an SEO you are manipulating links (no matter where they originate). This means any manipulation is a not "truly" organic link. So be easy using this term because I see a link to your site on your signature that is not a truly organic link...making you, yourself in essence a "black hat"....lol Also...about Overstock...I remember seeing many of their links and honestly they were fairly clean by many people's standards. I mean...they were on strong college edu site but the anchor text was directed at the visitor...click on "bed sheets" and you go to their bed sheet page. So...IMHO Overstock was pointed out just as an example to everyone. Their tactics were clever...but they were the example made to everyone...right behind JC Penny's (who was a bit more black hat with their link network). -chris
LOGICALLY that makes sense, but in reality you know damn well the difference between REAL BLACK HAT methods and white hat methods. Lets not try to be all Jesus Christ here on me if SEO in general was black hat, White Hat would not exist. think about it. But maybe I was quick to accuse their seo team of using direct dark blackhat methods. Chris, I didnt research too much into it, but what type of websites were the links on in general? and these links were IN the articles on the website? -chris (im chris too)
I am about to head to bed...but tomorrow I'll try to find them again or a screen shot of some presented on google. Basically they found some good strong EDU sites and came up with an ingenious way to get a good anchor do follow link off them. They contacted many schools that had strong sites and offered there students discounts if they use their edu email address. But the problem was in the ads...the ads stated something like "Get 10% discount on your <anchor>bed sheets</anchor>, <anchor> book shelves</anchor>...etc from Overstock" So technically they didn't buy links and they were directing students from the edu site to the page that had the products where they could get a discount. I don't know...I understand black/white and it was more grey-white in my opinion. But...Google went on a rampage that month...lol JC Pennys, Forbes, Overstock....it was nuts. -chris