SEO used to be handy yet niche skill set that few possessed. Today these techniques are a rapidly becoming a staple feature of any online venture that is keen on being ranked well by the behemoth that is Google. But, as with any system, loopholes do exist along with an abundance of individuals willing to exploit them. After years of neglecting the world of SEO, Google turned out to be significantly awesome at penalizing unscrupulous users that gravitate towards the dark side and with that realization, black hat techniques slowly dropped out of mainstream favor.
Savvy netizens, hardcore analysts and SEO gurus have, however, discovered shades of grey in this increasingly compartmentalized world of ours, giving rise to a new breed of SEO techniques called grey hat tactics. This slightly off-kilter SEO methodology, while not in direct contravention of Google’s search guidelines, doesn’t quite conform to the spirit of them either. But for those waging constant war against algorithmic updates, grey hat comes as a boon that won’t get them delisted while producing immensely satisfactory results. And for those of you who haven’t the foggiest idea about what I’m talking about, here’s a few tips to get you acquainted with effective grey hatting!
Pay Your Way!
Paid links aren’t the best way to boost your rankings unless you just like burning through money faster than the government mints it, but that doesn’t you should pass up a chance to buy a really strong link. Although Google insists that users refrain from purchasing links, especially ones that heavily influence your ranking, I’m fairly certain that they can’t establish the difference between a paid link and an organically generated one – much less penalize you for it.
Syndication
Make sure you syndicate all your content. Whether you’re submitting articles, press releases, infographics or even .pdf manuals, it’s important to generate as many back links as possible. Don’t worry about being black-listed though - most content submission sites have a free pass to post duplicate content. This is because, in their capacity as resource hubs, Google allows them a certain degree of freedom when it comes to content aggregation.
Take Matters Into Your Own Hands
It’s hard not to overemphasis the importance of linking especially since Google relies on the quality and quantity of your inbound links to determine your “popularity” scores. But waiting for links to be accepted can be a long, hard and often frustrating experience. Instead, jump the queue by creating micro-blogs on sites like Tumblr or Blogger and then post links back to your site. Shore these efforts up and attract traffic by posting alt-tagged images on sites like Flickr and Pinterest, with links to your site within the descriptions.
Domain-Hunting
Like men and businesses, domains too come and go all the time. But if you’ve managed to isolate a domain in your industry that ranks well for the keywords that you’re optimizing for, I strongly suggest that you purchase it (if your get a good deal). Once you purchased it, simply redirect the domain to yours - preferably to a page that explains the redirect and carries links to other interesting bits of your site - and voila! Instantaneous increases in traffic!
Back Track To Trackbacks
Cultivating trackback links can be quite a rewarding enterprise when executed well – especially from popular content farms and well-known bloggers in your industry niche. But successfully acquiring a trackback takes more than just good grammar and cheesy wit and requires a working knowledge of the blogger’s topic of choice. Choose wisely.
