Utah Valley University’s Center for the Study of Ethics and its College of Technology & Computing are presenting “White Hats and Black Hats: An Ethics Conference on Computing, Search Engines and Security.” The two-hour conference, set for March 8 at 11:30 a.m. in UVU Library’s fourth-floor Lakeview room, features a keynote presentation by Ash Buckles, the president of SEO.com.

1. The Ethics of Black Hat vs. White Hat
Search Engine Optimization
Ash Buckles | President

2. What’s In A Hat Color?
• Search engine guidelines
– Google: http://goo.gl/EsRmf
– Bing: http://binged.it/guadRe
– Yahoo: http://yhoo.it/x57zxY
• Marketing initiatives
• Search engine optimization tactics
• Business ethics
“Ethics is knowing the difference between what you
have a right to do and what is right to do.”
- Potter Stewart
Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/ethics.html#ixzz1oXU0S5an
#SEOethics

3. What’s In A Hat Color?
1. Read the chapter 1. Read the cliff 1. Pay someone to do
2. Complete your notes your homework &
homework 2. Copy odd answers go skiing
3. Turn in your from the book
assignment on 3. Turn in your
time assignment
Sources: White (http://bit.ly/wqhioE), Gray (http://bit.ly/xvaXWs), Black (http://bit.ly/wlZ2ph), Skiing (http://bit.ly/y6d3zL)
#SEOethics

4. Examples of Black Hat SEO
• Fake business listings
• Keyword stuffing
• Hidden content
• Cloaking for search engines
• Content scraping (plagiarizing)
• General deception
• Links from link farms
• Many more
#SEOethics

5. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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6. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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7. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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8. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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9. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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10. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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11. Examples of Black Hat SEO
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12. Risks of Black Hat SEO
• JCPenney
– Knocked out of top rankings for about 90 days
• Overstock
– Dropped for about 60 days
• Forbes
– Penalized for selling paid links
• BMW
– Penalized for about 30 days
#SEOethics

13. Examples of White Hat SEO
• Business listings matching your company information
• Related content, links, and news releases
• Unique content produced just for you
• 3rd party supported content & links
• Social media presence (harder to fake)
• Schema.org
• Structured markup
– Title
– H1, H2, H3, etc.
– Text
– Alt attribute
– Internal links
– etc.
• Many more
#SEOethics

14. Search Engine Experience
#SEOethics

18. Black Hat Activity Detected by Google

19. Purpose of the Search Engines
• Regulate guidelines through
algorithm changes
• Crawl & index web pages
• Build trust among users
• Provide the best results
• Sell advertising
$
#SEOethics

20. Winning with White Hat SEO
• Keyword research
• Blogging
• Link attraction
• Architectural updates
• Social media
• Infographics
• Press releases
• Viral articles & videos
• Badges & Widgets
• Many more
#SEOethics

21. White Hat Content
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22. Keywords & Content
2012 $3.7 billion in revenue
IPO
Facebook underwriters
stock
Facebook IPO 2011 credit line
estimates
Google banks
Yahoo
Wall Street
legal dispute filing
patents
advertising dollars
social network
initial public offering
hedge fund
845 million users new credit
#SEOethics

23. Keywords & Content
2012 $3.7 billion in revenue
IPO
Facebook underwriters
stock
Facebook IPO 2011 credit line
estimates
Google banks
Yahoo
Wall Street
legal dispute filing
patents
advertising dollars
social network
initial public offering
hedge fund
845 million users new credit
#SEOethics

24. Ranking Like Wikipedia
“Wikipedia ranks for 92%
of the 100 most searched
terms on Google. Imagine
if you ranked in the top
listings for 92% of your
industry terms.”
– Matt Tuens
#SEOethics

25. Ranking Like Wikipedia
Home
Business
Marketing
Internet
Marketing
Search Engine
Marketing
SEO
#SEOethics

26. Ranking Like Wikipedia
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27. Take Aways
• Google tells us exactly what they expect
• Bing does a pretty good job
• Search engines control the guidelines
– “The standards of 1997 do not match the standards of 2012. Ideally, a
search strategy is established and the work performed thereafter
improves visibility without risking your brand through deceptive
techniques.”
• Businesses have a reputation to protect
– Risks associated with tactics
• Different algorithms focus on different objectives
• Web pages are living documents
#SEOethics

28. The Ethics of Black Hat vs. White Hat
Search Engine Optimization
Ash Buckles
President, SEO.com
ash@seo.com
@ashbuckles
#SEOethics