If you don’t already know, internet marketing strategies are generally labeled either White Hat or Black Hat. Just like those old Western movies, Black Hat signifies the bad guy. Using black hat strategies can work temporarily, but the inevitable punishment, up to and including being banned from the major search engines and PPC services, are not worth it.
One ‘Black Hat’ strategy that can cause you serious grief is trying to trick the AdWords or other PPC program engines by using URL redirects in your paid advertisement.
This means creating a URL that isn’t a website but points to another in order to gain better rankings and positioning in advertising.
EXAMPLE
You create ‘www.cheap-custom-built-computers-in-new-york.com’ which points to your actual website, ‘www.MyComputerStore.com’
Sure, you’ve got a domain loaded with keywords but this move can cost you dearly and pretty much ruin your eCommerce business if you get blacklisted and banned.
WHITE HAT SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM
You can still get extra keywords into the URL of your add, but make sure you create a directory or page name within your existing, real website.
EXAMPLE
www.MyComputerStore.com/cheap-custom-computers/new-york/
Watch Out Who You Work With
If you’re hiring a marketing team to do these sorts of things for you, make sure they don’t employ black hat practices. Be up front and ask, because you might just be paying someone to ruin your eCommerce endeavor.
If you liked my post, feel free to subscribe to my rss feeds
