Found Agency Slapped By Google For Black Hat Techinques

The Found Agency has recently been slapped hard by Google for using what is know as “black hat techniques”. Black Hat techniques are methods whereby an Internet property is promoted through the use of artificial linking. Black hat techniques are widely used by webmasters, in an effort to gain search engine ranking. The higher your ranking – the more money you make. Google always catches up with these methods in time.   

STORY: The Found Agency, whose estimated $3 million sale to the Photon marketing group is due to be completed later this year, has admitted to pushing the boundaries of Google's guidelines to get other sites to link to its website foundagency.com.au to improve its ranking on the search engine.

Paid search engine marketing and manipulating the more trusted, natural results have become highly popular marketing channels as more people go to search engines such as Google to find services and products.

But Google appears to have stopped counting potentially thousands of links pointing to Found Agency: last month foundagency.com.au had the top natural search position for the term "search engine optimisation", but by yesterday morning it had dropped to 52nd.

Google Australia would not comment on the case -- talk of which had spread like wildfire through the search marketing industry -- but a spokesman pointed to its webmaster quality guidelines, which covered the most common forms of deceptive behaviour.

The guidelines tell site designers to "avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings" and directs them not to participate in "link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking".

"Google may respond negatively to other misleading practices not listed here," the company stated. Industry blogs such as seo-sydney.blogspot.com have cited one method used by Found Agency -- whereby it supplies numerous unrelated websites with a hit counter that tabulates the number of visitors but that also contains an advertising link to foundagency.com. au -- as a "black hat link-building strategy".

Found Agency co-founder Tim Macdonald said Google had downgraded the site's search ranking but refused to comment on whether the company used black hat techniques. He said some strategies the company used were "in the grey area".

"We've just had a penalty applied to our site," Mr Macdonald said.

"We haven't been banned."

Similar action does not appear to have been taken on Yahoo, which had about 14,000 links pointing to foundagency.com.au on Wednesday.

The search engine optimisation industry is split into white hat - or approved --methods of achieving a high ranking for a website and black hat practices.

Clear Light Digital co-founder Jamie Silver said black hat tactics were about fooling search engines to achieve an artificially high ranking rather than optimising them for users.

Mr Macdonald said Found Agency had taken "a calculated decision" to aggressively promote its own website but said it did not use the same methods forits clients, which include Realestate.com.au, Travel.

com.au and Wotif. "There are clear things such as hidden text (which are banned by Google)," Mr Macdonald said.

"We've never done anything like that where there are clear guidelines. The rest of the rules are open to interpretation."

Said one rival, who asked not to be named: "Google says a link is a vote of quality and that's not a vote of quality."

Mr Macdonald refused to comment directly on the use of the hit counter. "The only way to rank for a term like (search engine optimisation) is to be exceptionally aggressive," he said.

Mr Macdonald said the company had been open about its practices with its clients.

"Working for a client, you have to stay way, way, away from the boundaries of what could be perceived as being not in Google's rule book," Mr Macdonald said. "Equally, you have to know where the boundaries are. We have tested the boundaries with other sites."

Chris Meehan, general manager, commercial at Travel.

com.au, said he was not aware that Found Agency had been penalised by Google but planned to look into it.

So would Found use grey-hat tactics to improve its ranking on Google again?

"No comment," Mr Macdonald said. "There are other big name agencies that have seen exactly the same thing (happen to them) and they're very strong businesses powering along today We always knew the risks."

[Origin AustralianIT.com.au]

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