142. A Peek into the World of PBNs and Grey Hat SEO with Matt Diggity

Given my client list, I operate strictly in the realm of white hat SEO. And it works incredibly well, with fantastic ROI. That said, black hat and grey hat SEOs have incredibly interesting and often valuable insights to share. Matt Diggity points out that whether you’re white hat, grey hat, or black hat is all in the eye of the beholder. Today, Matt and Stephan share their thoughts on the debate between white hats and black hats in the SEO industry.

Find Out More About Matt Here:

Diggity Marketing
@mattdiggityseo on Twitter
Matt Diggity on YouTube
Matt Diggity on LinkedIn

In This Episode:

• [01:01] - The conversation starts off in an unusual way: with a discussion of Matt’s last name. “Diggity” is a pen name, he explains, and talks about where he came up with it.
• [02:45] - Matt talks about how he got to know Alex Becker.
• [04:05] - We learn that Matt considers white hat, black hat, and grey hat to be all in the eye of the beholder. He also describes his history in black hat, grey hat, and white hat SEO.
• [07:41] - Is Matt considered a super-affiliate?
• [11:21] - Matt talks about whether he still does spun content. He then walks listeners through what spun content is and how it works.
• [13:31] - We learn about what works (and doesn’t work) with PBNs, as well as what PBNs are.
• [18:38] - Matt explains what dropcatch is.
• [21:41] - We hear Matt’s thoughts on not changing all the Whois information at once.
• [23:31] - How big of a team does Matt have on the grey hat side?
• [24:58] - Matt talks about what he does if a network or important site gets taken down, and explores the disavow process.
• [29:58] - We hear more about Matt’s use of Pitchbox.
• [33:48] - Matt has only had one manual action in his life, but tells the story of someone else who has always been able to recover from manual penalties.
• [35:25] - What does Matt do when he’s trying to get a high-trust link?
• [39:59] - Matt and Stephan share their thoughts on the debate between white hats and black hats in the SEO industry.
• [43:04] - Matt defines negative SEO and talks about how it functions.
• [47:54] - There’s a lot of bad stuff that goes on, Matt points out, and is hesitant to go into details in case some unscrupulous listeners might get bad ideas.
• [49:03] - What are the techniques Matt uses for obscuring his footprint to Google?
• [52:14] - Matt asserts that PBNs make a lot of sense in the beginning of a website.
• [53:57] - Where can people learn more about Matt, or learn from him?

Links and Resources:

• Diggity Marketing
• @mattdiggityseo on Twitter
• Matt Diggity on YouTube
• Matt Diggity on LinkedIn
• Affiliate Lab
• LeadSpring
• Authority Builders Co.
• Chiang Mai SEO Conference
• The Lab
• The Search Initiative
• Alex Becker
• Ed Dale
• Zac Johnson on Marketing Speak
• John Chow on Marketing Speak
• Affiliate World Asia
• Greg Davis on Marketing Speak
• PBNs
• Drop catching
• SnapNames
• DomainTools
• Pitchbox
• GMass
• Link Research Tools