You are currently watching my old blog - the new is located at: blog.theundersigned.net

The undersigned

SEO contests - good or bad?

10/08-2006 | 10:15
82 comments

Is it just me, or does the Internet seem flooded with SEO contests lately? I just have to write this, since within the last couple of weeks, I feel that my blog has been spammed with comments from websites with e.g. ambatchdotcom seocontest or carcasherdotcom seocontest in their URL. Both trackback spamming and also people “honestly” writing comments to my blog posts, but with the clear intention of promoting their website and get a lot of backlinks, just to win the competition.

The contests

This quotation from Wikipedia explains in a few sentences what a SEO contest is:

  • In simple words, a SEO contest invites webmasters to trick the search engines. Some webmasters resort to spam, while others use white-hat optimization techniques (like providing good content covering the competition, or optimizing page titles).
  • While there are many search engines around, they all seem to focus on Google in particular. Google is known to be a difficult search engine to rank well on, especially for new web sites.
  • Most SEO contests expect people to optimize a single web page for a non-existent phrase of two silly words. The main reason for this is to keep existing web sites from getting a head start. But at the same time it makes sure that regular internet searchers won’t be bombarded with “spammy” results when searching the web for “regular” information.
  • Blogs seem to do well at these challenges, indicating in a way that pages with valuable content are preferred by search engines over regular websites, especially when it comes to newsworthy and fresh information of a temporary nature.

A few examples of SEO contests:

Dirty tricks?

SEO has become a more well known word amongst (upcoming) webdevelopers and -designers, “Search Engine Optimization”, but what is it exactly? Optimizing a website to get a better search engine placement. Since the first search engines were launched the technology behind has increased rapidly over the years, and has made the engines way more “intelligent” - in this process backlinks has begun playing a very high factor - popularity and quality of content equals (almost) amount of links to your website.

But does SEO really only mean “Search engine optimization”? It is easy to be confused when reading hundreds of articles about SEO, but the answer is simply, yes. The different articles on the Internet simply offers tips and tricks on how to do SEO. There is no easy way. But in these contests, the things I experience, is that many people use “dirty tricks” (read: e.g. spamming in form of trackback spamming, commenting with the only purpose of promoting a website …).

Let us take a look at what wikipedia has to say about good and bad maners (white and black hat methods). White hat methods:

White hat methods of SEO involve following the search engines’ guidelines as to what is and what isn’t acceptable. Their advice generally is to create content for the user, not the search engines; to make that content easily accessible to their spiders; and to not try to game the system. Often, webmasters make critical mistakes when designing or setting up their websites, inadvertently “poisoning” them so that they will not rank well. White hat SEOs attempt to discover and correct mistakes, such as machine-unreadable menus, broken links, temporary redirects, or a poor navigation structure.

Because search engines are text-centric, many of the same methods that are useful for web accessibility are also advantageous for SEO. A detailed case for this common ground, cited by the W3C with respect to Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case, is SEO A Positive Influence on Web Accessibility. Google has brought the relationship between SEO and accessibility even closer with the release of Google Accessible Web Search which prioritises accessible websites.

Methods are available for optimizing graphical content, including ALT attributes, and adding a text caption. Even Flash animations can be optimized by designing the page to include alternative content in case the visitor cannot read Flash.

Some methods considered proper by the search engines:

  • Using unique and relevant title to name each page.
  • Editing web pages to replace vague wording with specific terminology relevant to the subject of the page, and that the audiences that the site was developed for will expect to see on the pages, and will search with to find the page.
  • Increasing the amount of unique content on the site.
  • Writing quality content for the website visitors instead of the search engines.
  • Using a reasonably-sized, accurate description meta tag without excessive use of keywords, exclamation marks or off topic terms.
  • Ensuring that all pages are accessible via anchor tag hyperlinks, and not only via Java, Javascript or Macromedia Flash applications or meta refresh redirection; this can be done through the use of text-based links in site navigation and also via a page listing all the contents of the site (a site map).
  • Allowing search engine spiders to crawl pages without having to accept session IDs or cookies.
  • Developing “link bait” strategies. High quality websites that offer interesting content or novel features tend to accumulate large numbers of backlinks.
  • Participating in a web ring with other quality websites.
  • Writing useful, informational articles under a Creative Commons or other open source license, in exchange for attribution to the author by hyperlink.

Black hat methods:

“Black hat” SEO are methods to try to improve rankings which are disapproved of by the search engines, typically because they consider such methods deceptive, and unrelated to providing quality content to site visitors. Search engines often penalize sites they discover using black hat methods, by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from the SERPs altogether. Such penalties are usually applied automatically by the search engines’ algorithms, because the Internet is too large to make manual policing of websites feasible.

Spamdexing is the promotion of irrelevant, chiefly commercial, pages through deceptive techniques and the abuse of the search algorithms. Over time a widespread consensus has developed in the industry as to what are and are not acceptable means of boosting one’s search engine placement and resultant traffic.

Spamdexing often gets confused with white hat search engine optimization techniques, which do not involve deceit. Spamming involves getting websites more exposure than they deserve for their keywords, leading to unsatisfactory search results. Optimization involves getting websites the rank they deserve on the most targeted keywords, leading to satisfactory search experiences.

When discovered, search engines may take action against those found to be using unethical SEO methods. In February 2006, Google removed both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for use of these practices.

Cloaking is the practice of serving one version of a page to search engine spiders/bots and another version to human visitors.

What to learn?

As mentioned, the search engines is getting more and more intelligent, and are more and more capable of sorting quality from non-quality or spam. You cannot take any website and get it ranked high on search engines, without having anything to offer.

Using bad methods might give you a result right away - everything seems great! But beware, using the black hat methods will hit back at you at some point - it is not real SEO’ing. The “art of SEO” is not to get a website ranked high on search engines at any cost - it is getting a website ranked high with the legitimate tools and a clean confidence.

SEO contests might bring some good with it - and some of the competitors might also do a great job - but in my honest opinion, I really think that the people behind the contests should slow down and take the time do write down some easy understandable rules - exclude people who uses black hat methods etc. It is just like doping in Tour de France - but this is just way easier to administrate.

Open for discussion

I hope you will join in on the discussion and comment on my thoughts. Have you entered a contest like this? How do you do SEO? Have you noticed the contests on your blog (trackback and comment spam)?

82 comments

Lim Says:

Some of us (SEO) might not agree with you. Some say SEO is something that manipulates search results, which will put every form of SEO (black hat or white hat) under the “Black Hat” category. I think white hat SEO simply do “what search engines wants you to do”; while black hat goes a step (or several steps) more on crossing the line.

To me, the contest is just a place for showing the black hat technique, as white hat will never outweight black hat in short term.

10/08-2006 | 11:35

The undersigned Says:

“white hat will never outweight black hat in short term.” - I totally agree on that, but on long term, either black hatters will be removed from google or they will simply fade away, because google lay more weight in quality content and legitimate SEO. :)

“To me, the contest is just a place for showing the black hat technique”
But if SEO contests simply are to use black hat techniques, what are the purpose with them? It’s not doing any good at least :)

10/08-2006 | 11:48

Jon Says:

SEO is definitely an interesting beast. Joe Average Client is starting to love that they’ve learned the phrase and it seems that everyone is asking for it. What’s not so great is that most of the time they’re believing the ad campaigns that state “Get your website in the top 3 at Google inside 6 weeks for $8,000!”. These scam artists really make a bad name for White Hat SEO advocates.

As with anything, contests bring about innovation. I’m just not so sure how well White Hat techniques can fare in such a thing given the time it takes to show their true potential…

10/08-2006 | 12:27

The undersigned Says:

Jon> But in the contests, aren’t black hat techniques allowed as well? That doesn’t (in my ears) ring the innovation-bell :/

10/08-2006 | 12:48

Marc Says:

I think the bottom line boils down to the fact that White Hat SEO revolves around content and Black Hat SEO revolves around spam. All the SEO spam can get really frustrating for any blogger that attempts to leave their site available to open comments. Our blog has only been open since June 1st, and I have to sort through at 15 spam comments every week. Oddly enough, in that short time our blog also achieved a Google PageRank of 5, which I thought was pretty good for such a short time frame. The only SEO we did was submit our blog to a few of the more reputable blog directories.

Either way, thanks for sharing the information, and keep it coming. I check your site on a weekly basis. ;-)

11/08-2006 | 17:57

jozzua Says:

I’ve joined a Philippine based SEO contest myself. (Isulong SEOPH). At first I tried to catch up with the initial SEO contest leaders by posting at blogs/forums where they posted as well. Basically, it was spamming (blackhat). I honestly don’t know if those were effective.

WHat I eventually focused on was to create a link bait (White hat). I made a humorous SEO based comic strip called SEO comic. I think this worked. Sinced I’ve adopted this method, the site has been on first page.

However, my site is not at the top spot since some blackhatters are using referrer spamming to edu domains. They suddenly popped out of nowhere to get the lead.

For a first time SEO contestant, this is all rather new to me. I just got lucky with my comic strip idea. Try searching for ‘isulong seoph’ on Google. My website should be the one with the comic strip.

16/08-2006 | 10:59

Andrew Says:

For me, search engine rankings are an organic thing that comes from actively running a website.

If you keep adding good content, linking to reliable, popular sources and getting lots of quality links back to you then you will no doubt beat the blackhats within a month or so.

I guess that in a way linking and ensuring good content is a white hat method, because that is what search engines look for, ultimately they end up ranking say the top 10 sites for a certain search term on the quality of the content and site.

Having semantic, accessible XHTML always helps too!

16/08-2006 | 15:18

The Undersigned » 9rules Network Official Blog Says:

[…] The internet is a great discussion tool when used properly. Thomas from The Undersigned tries to start debates on a wide range of topics along with providing resourceful articles that educate readers. […]

16/08-2006 | 18:36

kobak del.icio.us könyvjelzői » Blog Archive » links for 2006-08-16 Says:

[…] seo contests good or bad Jók-e nekünk a kereső optimalizációs versenyek (tags: article seo) […]

17/08-2006 | 14:18

NZ Logo Design Says:

Never use black hat optimization!!!

16/09-2006 | 16:38

WD Milner Says:

I have a very suspicious attitude towards most supposed SEO endeavors. If you build a decent site tricks shouldn’t be necessary, and in the end that’s what they are, black hat or white hat is tricks. Just different levels of trickery.

A fellow I know has managed to make the SEO contest work for a good casue though. He raised a few thousand on the last one for celiac disease research, and is working on the same for this contest.

At least the contest is serving a good purpose in one capacity.

01/10-2006 | 1:34

ambatchdotcom seocontest Says:

I was offered assistance from a black hat seo to “take out” the top entries in the ambatchdotcom seocontest competition. I seriously considered it but that’s not the point of the contest in my opinion. If my entry comes in fourth honestly, then it’s better than coming in first by cheating.

16/10-2006 | 5:26

Chetan Says:

SEO Contests have nowadays become a great source for people to learn black hat tricks and they try these tricks on other competitors.

I have been experienced to it.
In the ambatchdotcom seocontest i was on 3rd. for a first few days and was making many backlinks but one of the competitors did something and my site was gone out of 100 first positions the next day :(

25/10-2006 | 3:35

mapa warszawy Says:

Yea… and this is a question what is he did:)

20/11-2006 | 21:20

Jackie R. Says:

I am late to read this but I just add my views. Yes, search engines are very intelligent today especially Google. New sites or blogs can get sandboxed anytime. Also, what is the ranking for you today may not be the same tomorrow. It’s quite unpredictable for newer sites unless you sites are old and have some strong backlinks.

Good content, linking and right keyword density are the keys for me.

30/01-2007 | 17:56

learn seo Says:

There are actually quite a number of sites online that blatantly even use the name “black hat” seo.

I wonder if google or any of the other search engines place a red flag against these sites in regards to ranking? Maybe a bit like they do with the link text buying sites.

In my early days I actually tried a few black hat techniques but soon gave them the boot after being penalized by google… so definitely white hat all the way these days.

Plus as Jackie comments above, search engines are getting way too intelligent these days anyway.

Regards, Chris.

09/02-2007 | 19:30

emanuele Says:

I think that seo contest are a loss of time…spamfights that give notoriety to organisator…nothing more.
I prefer to spent my time working on some project of mine..
Good post undersigned…

16/02-2007 | 14:44

PS3 Says:

black hat seo is good for a little time…like a seocontest…
A serious project need white hat seo…no way

10/03-2007 | 10:40

Montenegro Says:

Soon or later black hat seo method will result as penalty on major SE.

11/03-2007 | 16:02

Amit Patel Says:

Iam into these SEO Contests but i personally feel they are bad because they just bring crap/unrelated pages in the search engines.

18/03-2007 | 5:55

Suchmaschinen Optimierung Says:

We have a small summary with us about Seo

21/03-2007 | 7:38

Thomas Says:

I dont like this kind of Contest, because normaly many people works with Black Hat Strategies. For a good SEO you need a lot of time, an while a contest you havn´t it. Sorry about my english.
Best Regards

30/03-2007 | 12:06

quicklode Says:

Thomas I agree with you totally. The idea of a ‘contest’ is that there is a ‘finish date’ and the time restriction forces ‘contestants’ to use SEO techniques that work in a short time - ie potentially a lot of black-hat techniques. This kind of makes the competition pointless because ‘real-world’ SEO is in fact an *ongoing* process. .. if you do it right, it can take a long time but you can build a solid presence for your website in the natural search listings.

31/03-2007 | 0:18

Thomas Says:

Yeap, so it is.

01/04-2007 | 16:36

Liara Covert Says:

This is the kind of initiatives that contribute to why SEO gets a bad reputation. Any activity that seeks to trick robots will likely come back to bit the website in a less than desirable way. Short-cuts don’t always pay off even if they tempt you away from hard work needed to boost your site rating in other ways. Look what has happened with web farms. Website rankings may be lowered in search engine listings if the sites are found to be linked with farms. At times, sites are removed altogether from search engine listings as a penalty.

02/04-2007 | 22:16

Esta Says:

The competition between SEO is good because of the future growth in the market demand.

04/04-2007 | 3:52

Camille Says:

I agree Quicklode where contest is out-of-mill trend. Now there a lot techniques in the actual world.

04/04-2007 | 3:56

Caton Says:

There is no need of contest to see whether it is good or bad beacuse everything is the same.

04/04-2007 | 4:05

SEO contests - good or bad Says:

[…] Source and More : www.theundersigned.net Share This […]

05/04-2007 | 14:40

Pablo Villas Says:

I think, this kind of contests makes no really sense. Good guys have no time to waste it. so in the end there are much more useless sites around…

07/04-2007 | 12:05

Garry Says:

SEO contests bring too much attention. It’s bad.

21/04-2007 | 21:44

delinetciler Says:

Good content, linking and right keyword density are the keys for me.

25/04-2007 | 16:42

SEO Hong Kong Says:

I don’t see much of a problem with SEO contests, although I haven’t participated in it so far. It could be for SEO awareness or source of personal pride. I personally choose to skip joining these contests.

26/04-2007 | 8:47

Alan Says:

SEO-Contests are for SEO-Kiddies. It improves the spam in guestbooks and blogs for nothing.

Thank you for your engagegement and great help !!!

27/04-2007 | 2:04

shopautodotca seocontest rookie Says:

I am currently entered into a seocontest and utilizing white hat tactics alone, I am still in the running. The contest itself has been a learning process and it remains to be seen if I can hang in and compete against the black hat entries, although I am enjoying the challenge and learning some, I agree that the time limitation does give the black hat entries a distinct advantage.

01/05-2007 | 22:28

Directory Says:

Black hat methods cann’t make the site getting the best values.For my opinion,i’ll not consider any Black hat methods.it’s no any use to a site.

16/05-2007 | 12:23

Web Hosting Review Says:

I would agree with you, nothing good comes from blackhat methods

21/05-2007 | 2:56

pwind Says:

I think it’s bad!
becouse i’m

30/05-2007 | 9:19

Köpekler Says:

thanks for the tricks.

30/05-2007 | 16:16

Joe Says:

i don’t think that a seo contest invites anybody to trick searchengines. they do it for their websites and not for the contest.

02/06-2007 | 23:14

adhee Says:

I think this event is very good.We can know who is the best in SEO expert?

06/06-2007 | 17:33

Tom Says:

A good SEO dosn´t like, if people know about his projects and strategies. He works in background. SEO contests are for semi-seo, but not for profis. Profis haven´t enough time for it.

Regards

08/06-2007 | 23:11

hotele Says:

I would agree with you, nothing good comes from blackhat methods

14/06-2007 | 16:16

podnośniki Says:

I think, this kind of contests makes no really sense. Good guys have no time to waste it. so in the end there are much more useless sites around…

14/06-2007 | 16:17

Таллин Says:

If someone ran a perpetual contest it would favor and encourage white-hat techniques. Rankings could be recorded once/day, and there would be prizes for best 1 week/ 1 month / 6 mo./ 1 yr / 2 year / 5 year AVERAGE. Only rankings >10 or 20 would be counted since anything below that is pretty irrelevant.

Has anyone heard of such a contest?

18/06-2007 | 9:27

Tallin Says:

Speaking of white-has vs. black-hat, it’s a delicate balance between encouraging comment spam and encouraging legitimate comments. Frankly, I’m prone to keep my ideas to myself since I have plenty of work and my hands hurt enough as it is. But if I can benefit my site or a client’s site, then maybe it’s worth taking a minute to write out some thoughts (like the idea above).

Unlike some, I don’t write anything unless I have something useful to say. But I also wouldn’t have taken the time to share my little idea if there wasn’t some benefit for me. I wonder how many people are like me. Sure, allowing URLs to be placed on your site encourages spammy comments, but the site owner can delete these quite easily (perhaps a few above are worthy of deletion?).

The proof is in the pudding: if comment links didn’t serve a purpose we’d all have removed the “Website:” field from our blog comment systems long ago. Some have done this (like Engadget a few months ago), but perhaps they won’t just lose their spam; they may also lose some valuable comments (and readers), as a result. I find myself going there less now that I know I can’t benefit from a link when I add a comment. I’d rather read (and contribute insights) somewhere else that gives me a little something in return.

In general, it feels like blogs and, especially, message boards that allow users to give themselves a link (like this one), become more popular than those that don’t. Has anyone noticed the same?

This post is off-topic. Perhaps I deserve to be deleted.

18/06-2007 | 10:40

seo cms Says:

I think, this kind of contests makes no really sense. Good guys have no time to waste it. so in the end there are much more useless sites around…

28/07-2007 | 9:13

SEO Compare Says:

I disagree with you SEO-CMS. SEO Contests had also been a great place to study about fast ranking, promotion methods and more.
I’ve participated in 2 SEO Contests and got to learn alot and meet many people in the SEO business (which is very important).

17/08-2007 | 17:55

Versicherung Says:

Seo contests are pure cheap linkbaitings. Shortly, they are pure waste. Nobody needs those “noname” contests. Its my mind!

20/08-2007 | 6:40

SEO COMPARE Says:

I agree that they are using as linkbates, but you can also learn alot in a short period of time.

1 of the things I first notices when entering the cpayscom2 contest was that blogspot blogs got positioned much easier that others.

From every seo contest you can learn something, only much faster than by tracking normal keyphrase positions.

20/08-2007 | 13:33

seo tricks Says:

Thanks you very much for the tricks.

23/08-2007 | 12:02

Onlineshop Artikelverzeichnis Says:

Thanks for very interesting article. btw. I really enjoyed reading all of your posts. It’s interesting to read ideas, and observations from someone else’s point of view… makes you think more. So please keep up the great work. Greetings.

30/08-2007 | 15:57

Last Mimzy Says:

Hello
Nice one. good explanation of the topic
Greetings

17/09-2007 | 12:39

vlad Says:

Very useful article
Thank you

18/09-2007 | 13:00

proson Says:

well, seo contest mainly for winning a price, fame, personal interest for participants. Using some “dirty tricks” just means someone know how to work exactly to get the search engine work for them in terms of website ranking. After all it’s a game like world on-line game contest and so on. But of course, such as contest is often sponsored by big marketing companies to find a partner or hire talented individuals who can make the work done. Of course, using this “dirty tricks” in the contest just do no good when the winners are out and serving the marketing companies.

21/09-2007 | 15:07

perde Says:

hellı

01/10-2007 | 18:39

perde Says:

hello say is not that your of vav

01/10-2007 | 18:40

mefruşat Says:

this good

01/10-2007 | 18:41

Aoleon The Martian Girl Says:

I think black hatters go overboard with scraping (stealing) other’s content. That’s the biggest problem with them I think.

07/10-2007 | 4:45

Indie Says:

Some of us (SEO) might not agree with you. Some say SEO is something that manipulates search results, which will put every form of SEO (black hat or white hat) under the “Black Hat” category. I think white hat SEO simply do “what search engines wants you to do”; while black hat goes a step (or several steps) more on crossing the line.

08/10-2007 | 18:42

James Dalton Says:

Well there will always be groups who are looking to push the envelope, even if it hinders on annoyance for others. It is a gray line (mixture of white and black), but I am sure in the near future the search engines will get hip to the game and adjust accordingly. The internet is still young

09/10-2007 | 1:18

Outsourcing to India Says:

hello,
as per my knowledge it is very good to arrange SEO contast, because with the kelp of seo contast we can share out knowledge and we can get something new in optimization. i love to participate in this type of SEO contast.

09/10-2007 | 11:29

Majorca Says:

good site with a lot of information…thanks for the time :-)

16/10-2007 | 11:18

Lars Bachmann Says:

I work with SEO almost every day, but i never entered a SEO contest. Basicly i think it is a waste of time.
My experience says that 80% whitehat and 20% blackhat SEO will give you the best result in the SERP’s, with out messing to much with Google or other search engines.

16/10-2007 | 11:59

meoseo Says:

Hmm. SEO Contest? I have a seo contest EVERY single day checking the Serps :) And contest are predestined for blackhat, which i dont like (or use) - so: NO, i wouldnt participate.

16/10-2007 | 16:07

Begleitservice Says:

Fine article and information ..thank you

18/10-2007 | 17:33

Basketball Contests by Sport Says:

[…] SEO contests - good or bad? | The undersigned nu Home Archive Articles and guides Browse by images References Downloads About Contact Portfolio and business Forum Other places Wiinyt webdesignbook.net My photos My profile on deviantART Latest articles Time tracking: RatRace Advanced InDesign search/r […]

18/10-2007 | 18:44

Urlauber Says:

SEO really becomes a rocket science. But with this information you’re on a good track!

18/10-2007 | 20:52

Foto-Man Says:

a lot of good information…thanks :-)

21/10-2007 | 23:24

Dirk Says:

i do at no time a seo contest i dont have time for this.

22/10-2007 | 8:52

Mario Says:

I think good SEO work needs plenty of time - SEO contest are different… you have to get good results pretty quick. Nevertheless I think that it’s a good experience in handling with pressure.

23/10-2007 | 19:48

Tonny Says:

Search engine is very intelligent now. Google can find some main spam, eg: comment spam (main), directory spam. But spam still can promote a little of ranking, so more and more spam reached our site. It’s no other ways to solove it, only when google not consider the backlink.

25/10-2007 | 20:10

Garment Manufacturer Says:

i don’t think that a seo contest invites anybody to trick search engines. they do it for their websites and not for the contest.

30/10-2007 | 8:24

No Name Says:

SEO really becomes a rocket science. But with this information you’re on a good track!

05/11-2007 | 18:53

Blogger Says:

it is true

08/11-2007 | 12:48

Kunst Says:

There are many useful informations in this article. Thanks and greetings from Thuringia!

10/01-2008 | 11:24

Springerle Molds Says:

Great article! Thanks.

16/01-2008 | 15:58

Monetize.dk Says:

It’s like all other business- a little competition is good.

28/01-2008 | 16:43

Dekoration Says:

Thanks for this really useful article.Great cheat sheet, I appreciate it very much.

21/02-2008 | 19:12

cyberpromote Suchmaschinenoptimierung Says:

Maybe we all should take a look at the searchers. The question is: When we do SEO, will the quality of the search results get better? This means that choosing the right keywords is a very important part of SEO. A basic rule should be: Choose the right keywords for the target group, then the search results will get better. Of course this depends also on the content of a web site. If it has value, then go ahead for SEO. The SEO problem arises when sites are pushed that only have affiliate links or bad content. We all will agree that SEO for those pages will lead to bad search experience. And that’s a big problem also for search engines (single exceptions like Ebay prove the rule).

21/05-2008 | 10:45

Sebastian Says:

An good SEO hasn´t any time to do this kind of work.

10/06-2008 | 18:21

Leave a Reply