SEO Guides, Tips & More!

All industries have their jargon that insiders use to not only communicate with each other, but also to let people know they are an “insider”. Next time you visit a hospital, pay attention to the doctors and nurses. Although they are speaking English, the words and acronyms, they use may sound quite unusual. It’s almost as if they have their own dialect of the English language. The same principle is true in the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). There are literally dozens of acronyms and words that sound unusual but describe an important concept or action. Unfortunately, there aren’t many resources in the accounting marketing world to explain what these terms mean. To help clients, prospects and others become familiar with these terms and what they mean, we have provided an explanation of the term gray hat SEO below.

What is Gray Hat SEO?

This is a term that refers to SEO tactics that are neither white hat SEO or black hat SEO, but include tactics that use elements of both. In other words, they are tactics that don’t violate the guidelines established by Google or Yahoo because the way in which SEO is being implemented in unclear. An example that relates from the world of accounting would be taking a tax deduction for an expense that is not expressly permitted or prohibited by tax law. To put it into SEO terms, a fantastic explanation of this type of SEO can be found on website “WordStream”.

Examples of Gray Hat SEO

It’s likely that most accounting and law firm marketers have seen some form of gray hat tactics in use. Common gray hat tactics include; scraping content (using others content and representing it as your own), loading pages with irrelevant keywords, regularly publishing pages with little or no original content, cloaking (showing different pages to search engines and site visitors), implementation of micro sites, participating in link exchanges, purchasing high quality links and domain grabbing. A more comprehensive list of gray hat SEO tactics can be found on the website webceo.

In Perspective

The reality is that most accounting marketers have used some form of gray hat SEO often without even knowing it. The good news is that these tactics don’t result in an automatic punishment from search engines the way black hat SEO does. However, it’s important to keep a watchful eye over your SEO to ensure these tactics are used sparingly. If you have questions about gray hat SEO or need assistance with your SEO program and strategy, FlashPoint Marketing can help. For additional information call us at 954-621-8080 or click here to contact us. We look forward to speaking with you soon.