Hello Dean,
There certainly are sites that currently have high ranking that are using "spammy"
techniques. One of the new types that annoy me are the "fake" directories
that really are nothing more than a a few links on a page set up to use Google
Adsense as the revenue generator.
I think the best long term method is to work with the search engines
objectives. Search engines WANT to give the most relevant results
possible. Whenever they find that the results aren't showing real sites
that searchers will find useful, they will tweak how their engines work to
improve the results.
It may take months, but when they make the changes, the "spammy" sites
disappear for a while until someone figures out a new way to fool them. If
someone adopts these spammy techniques, they may have good traffic for a while,
but then they have to change your site when the loophole is closed.
I prefer to set up sites that are useful to people, have a lot of content
rich text pages and attract links from other sites. This may not be as
fast and flashy, but it does bring decent traffic and you don't have to worry
about your site being banned for using questionable techniques.
You can also buy all the traffic you need from Google Adwords. It may
actually be cheaper and quicker in many cases to set up a good Google Adwords
campaign using the techniques in Perry Marshall's "Definitive Guide to Adwords"
than it is to pursue search engine optimization on an ongoing basis.
Garland
Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
Download my FREE e-book, "Questions
to Ask Your Web Designer"
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