Blackhat links - Can I still rank?

[DunderMannen]

So I've been in the SEO game for a while now, and finally want to give the casino industry a try.

Site structure:
~10 Pages of content all with good on-page optimization and targeting lower-ish competitive keywords in non-english language. All with word counts higher or equal to those in the top 10.

Domain:
Brand new. Includes 2 keywords and country im targeting.

Backlink plan:
Build ~1-2 blackhat links/day for the first month while I finidh the content. These will mostly be contextual. Most sites even in the language I'm targeting.

Once the DR/DA has been increased to about 10 I'll do some link exchanging with smaller casino sites in same language (I see most in the DR10-30 range do this).

I scowered this forum for hours now and I mostly see people recommending to go the WH route and buy links for several thousands of dollars, do you still think this strat could be viable?

[universal4]

Some may debate this, but going strictly blackhat, most likely will mean far less RELEVANT links from Authority sites.

Rick
Universal4

[DunderMannen]

Some may debate this, but going strictly blackhat, most likely will mean far less RELEVANT links from Authority sites.

Rick
Universal4

As mentioned though - it won't strictly be blackhat. Once it reaches about DR10, I'll look into exchanging links with other casino sites with around my amount of DR/links.

[wonderpunter]

So I've been in the SEO game for a while now, and finally want to give the casino industry a try.

Site structure:
~10 Pages of content all with good on-page optimization and targeting lower-ish competitive keywords in non-english language. All with word counts higher or equal to those in the top 10.

Domain:
Brand new. Includes 2 keywords and country im targeting.

Backlink plan:
Build ~1-2 blackhat links/day for the first month while I finidh the content. These will mostly be contextual. Most sites even in the language I'm targeting.

Once the DR/DA has been increased to about 10 I'll do some link exchanging with smaller casino sites in same language (I see most in the DR10-30 range do this).

I scowered this forum for hours now and I mostly see people recommending to go the WH route and buy links for several thousands of dollars, do you still think this strat could be viable?

You wont even rank with thousands of dolllars of links.. a 10 page website has not been seen in the top 50 since 3 or 4 years I think, Google is pretty smart now and the majority of top sites are pretty good. this plan of yours sounds circa 2004-06

[Former Member 14]

this plan of yours sounds circa 2004-06

Agree, that was the basic blue-print, back, 14 years ago.

Want to succeed? Adopt the turtle strategy, not the hare

[DunderMannen]

You wont even rank with thousands of dolllars of links.. a 10 page website has not been seen in the top 50 since 3 or 4 years I think, Google is pretty smart now and the majority of top sites are pretty good. this plan of yours sounds circa 2004-06

Not sure if you missed the part where I said it's a non-english site. Aka the competition is not nearly as high, I see multiple 10-20 page sites with low amount of backlinks (DR10-20 ish) ranking in the top 10's of the keywords I'm targeting. The competition here really isn't like in the US or UK...

Agree, that was the basic blue-print, back, 14 years ago.

Want to succeed? Adopt the turtle strategy, not the hare

I'm still going for the slow and steady method, just not with a ton of content and money to invest. At least not at the start. Once I start seeing traffic (if any) - I'll throw some more light on the site.

Keep in mind I'm not at all new to SEO, been doing it successfully for years, but never in such a highly competitive niche such as gambling.

[artrust99]

Not sure if you missed the part where I said it's a non-english site. Aka the competition is not nearly as high, I see multiple 10-20 page sites with low amount of backlinks (DR10-20 ish) ranking in the top 10's....

Take into account, that you can see probably 40% of all links
A lot of TOP sites are hiding huge chunk of backlinks profile.

Speaking about black hat methods, I will say that it is still working well, but in less competitive markets. But I would not advise use that links for your money site. Read some BHW threads about that.

[Toni]

Just build the best site in your niche and don't care about BHW. Invest the BHW time in your content. Google algo will do the rest.

[amarojuan]

my recommendation, not use blackhat, google detect it and penalyze

[rmeeuwsen]

I doubt it will work.

But sent me a note if you do succeed.

Years ago I sold links when they did work. But I closed those sites down a long time ago.

[DunderMannen]

my recommendation, not use blackhat, google detect it and penalyze

I'm not talking about GSA SER, RankerX or similar automated spammy backlinks. I'm talking about slowly built, contextual and high authority backlinks. Yes, they are blackhat, but not spammy... If you really think Google will penalize me for that, then you haven't tried them hehe

Just build the best site in your niche and don't care about BHW. Invest the BHW time in your content. Google algo will do the rest.

That's not how the casino niche works. Ranking solely with good content is not possible these days. Also - I wasn't talking about BHW? I was talking about black hat links, that isn't something only done on BHW...

Take into account, that you can see probably 40% of all links
A lot of TOP sites are hiding huge chunk of backlinks profile.

Speaking about black hat methods, I will say that it is still working well, but in less competitive markets. But I would not advise use that links for your money site. Read some BHW threads about that.

Yeah, I have taken into account that most of those ranking at the top are using hidden PBN links. My site is definitely targeting less competitive markets, first day of indexation - already top 50 for the keywords I'm targeting. I'd say that's a pretty good indication I could actually make it to the top with some links.

I doubt it will work.

But sent me a note if you do succeed.

Years ago I sold links when they did work. But I closed those sites down a long time ago.

I'll let everyone on this forum know if I manage to succeed, everyone here seems to be completely sold on the whitehat SEO card hehe

I'm not saying I will though, casino niche is overall very competitive, even though I think I've found a good subniche that's rankable.

[artrust99]

Just keep doing tests. Maybe you will get better outcome than everyone else.

[tome1122]

Not use blackhat it is consider illegal in SEO term.

[DunderMannen]

Not use blackhat it is consider illegal in SEO term.

No it's not lol

Did you know buying backlinks is also against Googles TOS? We're here to beat Google's constant new algorithms with the least amount of $ and work, not to do everything by their book because that's obviously a **** ton of "too much work".

[artrust99]

Not use blackhat it is consider illegal in SEO term.

There is nothing to do in gambling niche with white methods. Buying links (even from authority sites) in eyes of Google is also black hat

[PROFRBcom]

That's not how the casino niche works. Ranking solely with good content is not possible these days.

I don't think this is true, particularly when speaking of long-tail/niche KW. I think that people writing REAL content and in long-form can rank with almost no backlinks at all.

The key is really to be an expert on the game, product, gambling site, and anticipate the player questions... then answer them. This is best achieved by actually using those sites oneself.

The problem is most people's content is sub-par written cheaply+quickly & competitors have the same crap on their websites.

Then again, maybe I'm full of ****.

[gil.langelaan]

Blackhat could work but still you need to work with the content. With 10-20 pages it's impossible to be in top-10 in gambling niche.
Even if you says the competition is low you will need 1 year at least, I guess. If the domain is young too.
Google is very smart now.

[popopdc]

I don’t know much about ranking non-English sites, so maybe that is a factor in your favour I can’t account for. I don’t think buying links is a problem unless you are getting low quality links on low quality sites and/or they are built too rapidly and Google notices they are unnatural. As far as content goes, if this was English language, I would say that you don’t have a shot at ranking without a lot more content than 10 pages. But since it isn’t, I really don’t know.

[DunderMannen]

I don’t know much about ranking non-English sites, so maybe that is a factor in your favour I can’t account for. I don’t think buying links is a problem unless you are getting low quality links on low quality sites and/or they are built too rapidly and Google notices they are unnatural. As far as content goes, if this was English language, I would say that you don’t have a shot at ranking without a lot more content than 10 pages. But since it isn’t, I really don’t know.

It's been a while, and it turned out 10 content pages was a very low estimate hehe

It now has 42k words spanned across 15 pages, and still some more content planned. Some ranking top 30 for target keywords already, and backlinks have barely started coming in yet. Although I do think more about spending money on links the more I look at the comp...

[Nenad]

Yep, I think that BH linking could still work if done smart. G cannot see everything yet. If you get more and more content, and try to do link swapping with related sites in your language, it would be much better. I hope you will make some good money soon, and then spend it on quality links...