[vilcot44]

Hmmmm... did you check where the increase in traffic was mostly coming from?  I mean if your Google traffic remained the same and your referral and direct traffic increased then maybe it's not white hat SEO that got you there.  I'm all for white hat SEO but I think we should give credit where credit is due, which might be due to the blog comments, guest blogging, and viral ebook you were doing.

[Dan]

angelus, on 26 December 2011 - 10:48, said:

Writing good content and expecting real people to link to you is an awesome strategy if you have a year or two worth of patience. It could work relatively fast for generic keyword sites. But who talks about, "cheap toyotas for sale in Wisconsin" and link to you with that anchor tag. It will take years before Google clears the black hat "crap" out of the way before carrying you to the top as a "respected" web site. Not to mention some of those guys write good content too, so the only difference will be off page.

thats true, but the obvious answer is to not build a site about "cheap toyotas for sale in Wisconsin" - such a website doesnt strike me as something that can achieve long term free search engine traffic and is better suited to ppc.

[dewaz]

Dan, on 25 February 2012 - 06:25, said:

thats true, but the obvious answer is to not build a site about "cheap toyotas for sale in Wisconsin" - such a website doesnt strike me as something that can achieve long term free search engine traffic and is better suited to ppc.

that's true, unfortunately "cheap toyotas for sale in Wisconsin" will bring some money regularly.

[Giorgos Ferentinos]

Hi there,
I am doing the same thing in one of clients, he has a travel agency and comparing last February's and March analytics we got 200% more than last year.
I believe in Greh hat but I love White Hat.

Georgios Ferentinos

[runlkepre3]

I'd like to hear how this method has held up over the test of time (Oct 14th - April 22nd).

How is the site still performing? How are things going?

Love to hear.

Thanks!

[thepresence]

I might argue that there is no "white-hat".  For example, a company claims that they only do "white-hat" SEO but then they require that their employees go "like" pages and blog about them.  Almost 90% of "white-hat" is "grey-hat" and 50% of "grey-hat" is "black-hat"  

[TerryKyle]

aramyus, on 23 October 2011 - 01:42, said:

This post refers to this other post

http://trafficplanet.com/topic/253-why-im-turning-my-back-on-blackgreyhat-seo/page__p__2140#entry2140




White hat actions performed during the summer:

- a viral ebook (10-20 semi-competitors sharing one of their best tips. The ebook is then distributed by all partners)

- (sincere) blog commenting on high traffic sites. About 1 comment per day for 2 months. Most blogs were nofollow

- Guest blogging - about one per week.  We failed to be in high trust rank blogs, only in medium-low trust rank

- Boosting all external links obtained with about 3/5 links from a blog network (that's grey hat)

Results:  traffic doubled overnight from 500 to 1000 visitors per day during an algo update (14 october)

A, did you track where the bulk of that traffic boost came from and if some traffic types converted better than others?

[Fraggler]

thepresence, on 24 April 2012 - 05:55, said:

For example, a company claims that they only do "white-hat" SEO but then they require that their employees go "like" pages and blog about them.  Almost 90% of "white-hat" is "grey-hat" and 50% of "grey-hat" is "black-hat"  

Spending your time/money towards creating a piece of link bait (such as a viral video) is just one example of how white hat SEO can work.  You need to think of ways to get exciting content in front of the right audience.  It doesn't even need to be exciting.  It could be controversial or even just plain useful.

Liking Facebook posts and making fake blogs is hardly white-hat and I'd also say inefficient.  Why not get the employees to work together and create something worth linking back to?

[markoseo]

aramyus, on 23 October 2011 - 01:42, said:

This post refers to this other post

http://trafficplanet.com/topic/253-why-im-turning-my-back-on-blackgreyhat-seo/page__p__2140#entry2140




White hat actions performed during the summer:

- a viral ebook (10-20 semi-competitors sharing one of their best tips. The ebook is then distributed by all partners)

- (sincere) blog commenting on high traffic sites. About 1 comment per day for 2 months. Most blogs were nofollow

- Guest blogging - about one per week.  We failed to be in high trust rank blogs, only in medium-low trust rank

- Boosting all external links obtained with about 3/5 links from a blog network (that's grey hat)

Results:  traffic doubled overnight from 500 to 1000 visitors per day during an algo update (14 october)

That is a great tip, but not sure it still affects on SERPs since google just updated new version of Penguin. Some methods seem not to work at all.

[kotis]

I guest the main reason for this boost in traffic is guest blogging, guest posting is by far the best marketing method, not just for backlinks or even traffic but mainly cause it helps in building relationships with the bloggers and their readers on your niche which can really help making a new site popular in just a few months...

[markoseo]

kotis, on 16 May 2012 - 06:10, said:

I guest the main reason for this boost in traffic is guest blogging, guest posting is by far the best marketing method, not just for backlinks or even traffic but mainly cause it helps in building relationships with the bloggers and their readers on your niche which can really help making a new site popular in just a few months...

Well, you have point htere, but I think articles also can bring better traffic to websites. I used to have some great traffic from doing articles submission.

[Logan Sargent]

I think a lot of people "that are actually making good money online", will attest that you have to get in that grayish area. I'm a big fan of creating quality, clean, and safe tier 1 links, but then crossing over to the dark side to boost up those tier 1 links.

However viralizing your content can bode well for creating an organic buzz around your site, most people are just too lazy to do it, or do it well enough to actually realize any benefit from it.

Edited by Logan Sargent, 18 May 2012 - 20:04.

[ARVolund]

kotis, on 16 May 2012 - 06:10, said:

I guest the main reason for this boost in traffic is guest blogging, guest posting is by far the best marketing method, not just for backlinks or even traffic but mainly cause it helps in building relationships with the bloggers and their readers on your niche which can really help making a new site popular in just a few months...

Getting traffic from related blogs and sites is a good tactic but the problem is that it does not really work all that well for all niches/keywords. It works great in the hobby or craft type niches but there are a lot of products where you do not really have that kind of community.