Blogs that damage reputation
Search engines have a tough job. Thousands of websites, particularly blogs, are introduced almost daily that are designed to trick search engines into responding certain ways so as to benefit a shady blogger. Examples of some of the “shady” techniques search engines encounter each day include:
- cloaking
- keyword stuffing
- mis-spelling of well-known words and websites
- pages loaded with irrelevant words
- hidden text or hidden links
- and more…
Fortunately, efforts are constantly in place and evolving to detect these unethical behaviors and shut down these blogs. Unfortunately, this make it all that more difficult for ad agencies to maintain their own blogs effectively because they are constantly walking on glass so as to not be misjudged by search engines and shut down.
The primary thing to look for when presented with a blog marketing strategy is what the overall objective is of the system. A quality blog marketing strategy should be a win-win-win result for all parties, i.e. for search engines, for Internet searchers, and for the client websites.
Search engines want well-optimized web copy and quality straight forward HTML code on landing pages. Searchers want quality relevant information that makes their search efforts fruitful. And clients want quality site traffic with truly interested visitors so that bounce rates are low and retention is high. These things can only be accomplished by putting forth transparent and ethical efforts to promote websites, not through trickery and deceit.
Be sure to keep on the look out for the quality, transparency, and ethics of a blog marketing system. If you are being presented with the guarantee of receiving dozens or hundreds of leads each month then you could be at risk of jeopardizing your site and even worse, your online brand awareness. While blogs can produce leads, their true value lies in their ability to represent your business with integrity.
Technorati Tags: blog marketing, search engine marketing, brand marketing, online marketing, internet marketing and advertising, reputation, reputation management, ethics, ethics and business, unethical business, unethical blogs
