almighty_monkey - 5:44 pm on Dec 5, 2011 (gmt 0)

have a search for their actual domain name in google. they've got loads of dodgy backlinks. its all blog posts about totally random subjects and social media signals. surely its not that easy to game google?

Yeah it is, at least in the short term. If that sites still there by Christmas I'll be surprised though.

It's the whole age old argument with Blackhat. It does work, but your putting yourself in a position where Google are trying to ban you. Is that a risk your willing to take? It's a call every marketer must make.

If your just trying to make a quick buck over Christmas like this dude, then psamming is probably the smartest strategy - It'd take maybe years to rank for that phrase otherwise. If, like most Webmasters, your trying to build a proper site with a stable long term traffic stream from Google, putting yourself in a position where they're actively trying to ban you is just dumb.