Home » Data Protection » Malware/Cybercrime

Black Hat SEOs: Is This the Future of Search?

Search Engine Optimization is the trick to winning online revenue. What happens when hackers start going after the prize? Part one of a two-part series.

By Scott Berinato

Page 3

(Our "SEO Glossary" describes the basics of search engine optimization.)

Still, clever types who've studied how the search engines behave can approximate what pleases the algorithms and then alter a site in ways that improve the site's ranking. Some alterations are as simple as adding verbiage to match the kinds of words people type into search engines. Change the phrase "cell phone rings" on your page to "ring tones," for example, and your traffic goes up, because while virtually no one searches on the former term, many type in the latter. Other techniques are complicated linking schemes that involve getting other sites to link back to your own site.

The hundreds of techniques like these, that used to boost a site's ranking, comprise SEO.

In ancient Rome, prior to important events, a college of priests called augurs would "take the auspices," meaning they would study the flight patterns of birds to understand the will of the gods. SEO is not so different from that.

In the hands of a good SEO, optimization works outrageously well. Naylor likens it to turning on a tap. He remembers a mattress company in England that hired him to get the top ranking for searches about beds. Naylor knew the company wouldn't be able to handle the bump in traffic he would provide, but the owner sloughed off his concerns. So Naylor delivered the number-one ranking, and about 25,000 new visitors per day. The company's 15 trucks and meager customer service collapsed under the demand.

SEO is flourishing also because many companies shifted revenue strategies to their websites without understanding that websites that don't get noticed by search engines don't get noticed. They underestimated search's dominion over their success, a grievous miscalculation. In order to reach their often aggressive revenue goals, companies found themselves in the awkward position of having to worship search algorithms that they neither understood nor controlled.

Desperate, they turned to SEOs and paid immoderate fortunes for their help. One SEO, Eric Ward, charges $1,000 for two one-hour phone conversations and a written report that details what your site needs to do to get juice--SEO slang for any tactic that boosts page rankings. Jeremy Schoemaker, known in the search marketing world as Shoemoney, hosts the Elite Retreat, an invitation-only weekend of SEO and marketing consulting. Neil Patel was making six figures as an SEO consultant by the time he enrolled in college, and he says his company, Advanced Consulting Services, cleared $1 million in revenue last year. His clients include HP and Samsung. "If I wanted to," Patel says with typical bravado, "I could go give a car dealership an hour of SEO advice in exchange for a free, leased car."
A whole community of upstart entrepreneurs has emerged. Guys like Michael Gray, QuadsZilla, Naylor, Ward, Patel, Shoemoney and Aaron Wall, among others. They are the augurs, priests interpreting the will of the search engines, and they're cashing in. On his blog, Shoemoney posted a photo of himself, with one of his SEO checks splayed across his face, leaving only two things to see--his eyes and the check's sum: $132,994.97.