I often see blog postings talking about white hat SEOs being on Kool-Aid. The argument goes that “the other guys are cheating and getting away with it, they have an unfair advantage over me”. I can’t afford to give them that advantage. The other tag line goes something like “don’t bring a knife to a gunfight”.
It can get you to think that you should bend the rules too. But, it’s a trap. For that reason, let me suggest the following “White Hat Kool-Aid test”.
- Are you trying to build a long term business?
- Is the “asset value” of your business concern to you?
- Do you want search engine algorithm changes to have a low likelihood of dramatically lowering your search engine traffic?
- Do you have investors, a board of directors, or employees that depend on you to execute a stable and consistent growth-oriented business?
- If your search engine rankings suddenly tanked, would your competitors be joyously letting members of the press and your customers know all about it?
If the answer to any of these questions is “yes”, then let me offer you some Kool-Aid.
You need a white hat approach to your search engine strategy.
It’s the only way that you can address the 5 questions above.
Learn what the search engines want you to do. Then do that exceedingly well.
