SEO vs. manipulating search engines

There will always be someone looking for a way around a system. For many people, the Internet is their playground, and it comes naturally to them. Since Google originally introduced the now-defunct PageRank algorithm years ago, people have looked for any opportunity to succeed online.

There are typically two methods for this to occur: manipulation and optimization. Both novice SEO specialists and black hat aficionados frequently conflate these two ideas.

Let’s be clear before we continue: not all SEO is manipulation, and not all manipulation is SEO, although occasionally they do.

Manipulation versus optimization.
Making content ideal for both your readers and your business is known as optimization. In many instances, optimization entails what some could call manipulation. It takes material and applies strategies to promote it.

Manipulation of search engines is a challenging concept. In its most basic form, manipulation involves tricking Google and users by employing workarounds. Where manipulation and optimization overlap, Google does not fully disapprove of it.

The diagram shows manipulation and optimization in their purest forms on opposite sides. The confusing gray area in the center is where the two blend and intertwine. Where there is the most ambiguity is in this gray area.

Let’s look at a typical case to demonstrate this misunderstanding. In an effort to grow his company, a nearby small business owner submits an application for a Burger King franchise. He is expanding his business by using his connections with the company. These strategies are regarded as ethical and secure ways to make money.

Another owner of a small company decides to start selling consumables like vitamins. He visits a main office. Then he disperses and arranges for smaller merchants to meet with their acquaintances to sell the goods. He then effortlessly receives a percentage of the profits generated by the smaller vendors.

Both provide legitimate revenue, but only the second scenario is known as a pyramid scheme. The term “pyramid scheme” carries a bad reputation that has consequences. Although they are not illegal, pyramid schemes are not well-liked in the business community. Despite their many similarities, franchise enterprises and pyramid schemes are nevertheless seen as being very different from one another.
Search engine optimization and manipulation share a similar relationship. Although both are capable of producing results, one is less effective than the other. Is the negativity genuine, or is it the result of manipulation bias?

A Closer Examined User Experience

Intent is the key distinction between manipulation and optimization. While success is the ultimate goal for both, the methods used to get there are different. Search engines and audiences can be duped into believing that a specific website or product is legitimate by using a variety of sneaky techniques. In general, optimization focuses on improving the user experience so that success happens naturally. Similar traits manifest themselves during the manipulating and optimizing process.

Let’s look at a few ways that search engine manipulation use ruses to get results in order to better understand this topic.

Linking
As has already stated, PageRank marked the beginning of a new era for the Internet. Based on a variety of variables, Page Rank determined the importance of webpages. The main element was linkages. This caused link purchasing and link dropping in arbitrary locations around the Internet. It is now more difficult to manipulate links because PageRank has been retired and Google’s algorithm has undergone fresh modifications. Links can still be changed to deceive search engines.

One of the topics that converges where manipulation and optimization meet is linking. Campaign linking is a valid strategy for improving user experience. Therefore, linking strategies are not seen as acceptable. Although both involve linking plans, the goals are distinct. Using useless, covert, or diverting links, manipulation seeks to advance. Google-Keyword-Stuffing-Example Links are used for optimization purposes.

Stuffing keywords
All of us have visited those websites. Ferraris will be the subject. Ferrari-related keyword phrases will be strewn across sentences. “Nearby Ferrari dealership. Trust the top Ferrari dealership if you’re looking for a local Ferrari dealer who specializes in Ferraris.
Many people think that stuffing keywords into every sentence, such “Ferrari” or “luxury automobile,” will increase your visibility. It’s simply untrue. In fact, these kinds of actions deter users.
Using keywords has two purposes: optimization and manipulation. The use of keywords in content optimization is crucial. It attracts visitors to your page. On the other hand, keyword stuffing is regarded as pure manipulation.

Influencing Sales
Selling also makes use of manipulation. How about an electronic book? Similar to how anybody can create a website, everyone can write an ebook. Making that book or website marketable for your target readers is the process of optimization. Manipulation is very different from manipulation.
Many benefits are given to books that are bestsellers. Your book will be seen more frequently. Your future publications will be able to display the recognition on the cover, and even better, readers will see the book as being of the highest caliber. How can the list be changed? Purchase 10,000 copies of your own book, and that’s all there is to it.

Want a book or product with excellent reviews? People can be paid to provide favorable reviews. Want firms to offer you sponsorship opportunities if you have a million Instagram followers? Order them. This is not only covert, but it might also be detrimental if you are discovered.

Information Use
Content sharing is another place where manipulation and optimization collide. Similar to links, optimizers employ the utilization and exchange of content. It might complement your own original content or serve as the foundation for your subjects. The optimization here is.

In this sense, manipulation may be considered to be extremely near to optimization. Consider a typical occurrence for those who produce online content. A well-known Vine producer creates a humorous seven-second video. Afterwards, a different user edits the same video with graphics and posts it on their page. That second user altered copied material to increase their own success.

Linking to content or using images with the right attribution or consent belong in the Venn diagram’s optimizing circle. Taking the information and changing it to make it seem like your own is manipulation.

Again, it comes down to intent. Is it providing credit or taking someone else’s work?

Marketing vs. Manipulation: Manipulation Examples

Is there a distinction between marketing and manipulation, as posed by a brilliant infographic from SEO Book? Is the term “manipulation” only used by people who lack the ability to carry out the necessary actions?

The oft-misquoted phrase “Greed is good” from the Michael Douglas film Wall Street is extremely pertinent. Is manipulation, or greed, wicked by nature or only bad because it makes us uncomfortable?

Most companies invest their money in paid advertisements. Paid advertisements are regarded as an acceptable and successful strategy to increase your success, whether they air on billboards or following the Super Bowl.

You may purchase adverts on websites, social media platforms, and even music streaming services like Pandora in the online world of product placement. According to some, this is manipulation. Only those with significant financial resources will be able to manipulate the system. It deceives people. On the other hand, Google lets you purchase premium SERP positions. Is that considered optimization?

Regardless of the controversy, search engine optimization Phoenix is typically thought to include sponsored adverts.

A Closer Examine of Manipulation
It is entirely up to you to judge if manipulation is harmful or not. At Internet Marketing Team, we personally don’t rely on pure deception or dirty tricks to achieve our goals. Regardless of whether utilizing techniques is morally right or wrong, there are numerous reasons why pure manipulation is simply bad for business.

First of all, remember that no one is fooled by tricks, especially Google. When Page Rank was still active, Google implemented filters to remove spammy practices like link-dropping from the Internet. They are aware of hyperlink removal plans, cunning redirection, and a host of other faux pas.

A few things are known, even though Google isn’t entirely transparent about all of its measures and parameters. Google disapproves of conduct that they deem to be spam. They detest it so much that several recent algorithm changes now specifically target spammy activity.

Google also disapproves such manual acts as a pure kind of manipulation. Google takes a manual action against a website whenever it discovers that it has broken one of their guidelines. The manual intervention will stop the website from operating and ultimately making money. A manual action may be taken in response to a variety of violations. An example would be a reroute.

In general, redirects involve manipulation. When a user clicks on a website, they are quickly redirected to another website. It can be alright if the redirect occurs because you moved websites. A manipulation is a redirection to an entirely different website.

Not just insignificant website proprietors are facing criticism for manipulative behavior. JCPenney was involved in an incident involving manipulation a few years ago. JCPenney topped the SERPs for queries including area rugs, dresses, purses, and everything else for a number of months. They topped the search despite the fact that there were thousands of top competitors in the industry.

Although it might have been because of their fame, it appeared like there was something more wrong. JCPenney appeared at the top of numerous keyword searches. The New York Times sent in experts to conduct an investigation after getting a whiff of something odd.

To cut a long tale short, it was found that JCPenney links were being dumped all over the place, including on a ton of websites that had nothing to do with the keyword phrases. It would be challenging to accomplish the same accomplishment with new algorithm upgrades, but link manipulation still occurs.

Due to manipulating links, Overstock.com also ran into difficulty. Despite competition, they earned good results on the SERPS page. Research revealed that “.edu” users and websites were linking to Overstock. As it turns out, they were allegedly found bribing college students to scatter links all over the place.

The core of any effective optimization strategy is linking. That could get you into problems with Google if it’s utilized improperly. Success can be sunk by nothing more than running into Google. The popularity of Overstock and JCPenney immediately declined on the SERPs. In fact, for many of the searches for which they had previously been #1, they were eliminated from the first several pages of results.

Researchers started off with the fundamental tenet that users don’t scroll past the first page of SERPs. Although this notion is untested, it is most likely accurate. If not, people wouldn’t be so fixated on having their website appear on page one.

They proposed two candidates to demonstrate how search engines may be exploited to influence elections (A & B). Following that, they limited the information about A to the first two pages. Nothing distinguishing one candidate over the other could be found in the following two. The information concerning candidate B was included in the final two. When they surveyed the study participants, it became evident that candidate A was supported. Probably because no one had the resources to reach even the fifth page, let alone the Seceond

Because Google searches are so common, our minds have been conditioned to believe anything on the first page. Everything further down the page or buried in the search results is regarded as being unreliable. The majority of people were unaware that the manipulation was taking place, yet it completely altered their perception of the candidate.

Even though this was simply a test, it might yet occur in actual elections. A candidate’s ranking on the first page of the SERPs could make all the difference for them, either through manipulation or optimization. Individuals who are discussed more frequently online are more apparent in search results. Election results can be affected by visibility.

Google may not favor pure manipulations because of this. Pure manipulations can successfully alter people’s opinions without much effort or natural human connection.

Online data manipulation is not limited to black hat SEO techniques or spammers. It’s been practiced for years in universities and colleges. Colleges aim for greater rankings and statistics in order to attract more students. Many colleges and institutions will actively falsify their stats to obtain those results. For instance, institutions will increase the number of classes to reduce the size of the typical class. In order to be ranked higher, colleges will also provide fictitious enrollment data to the ranking committees.

Also, newspapers and other periodicals do it. They would exaggerate the number of memberships they have in order to charge exorbitant rates for marketing. Remember that book example? That person manipulated the bestseller list before writing a book detailing his methods. He accomplished all of this by deception.

Several organizations have been revealed to have manipulated their numbers, including newspapers, universities, radio stations, and large merchants.

How to Recognize Manipulative Behavior in Others
In addition to the instances we provided above, there are a few other indicators that something is being manipulated. First off, manipulating figures involves purposely inflating or altering them. The act of taking those figures and purposefully fabricating their presentation falls into the previously indicated gray area.

In general, if Google specifically forbids something in their publications with guidelines, it is a manipulation. These things consist of:

• Tricking Google’s algorithms via linking strategies
  • Building websites that exclusively or primarily include copied information;
• • Cloaking (displaying to Google content that is different from what is displayed to users); • Inexplicable redirects;
  • Sites or links that purposefully point to spam, Malware, or infections; • Keyword stuffing.
  • Cloaking links or content on a page

Simply described, pure manipulation is the deliberate use of tactics to succeed online. Pure optimization refers to leveraging content to advance naturally. The two concepts of manipulation and optimization are distinct yet nevertheless have some similarities.

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