Argent Media only engages in "White Hat SEO", the term used to connote highly-ethical SEO practices that are not in violation of search engines' guidelines and U.S. laws. In the earlier days of Search Engine Optimization, it was often the case that "Black Hat SEO" practitioners were admired to a significant degree for being mavericks — as bending the rules as shortcuts to success were seen as being very clever. If you think about it, Black Hat optimization is not at all clever. Gaining advantage over your competitors in an even playing field where everyone is playing by the same rules requires greater talent, and more sophisticated strategy than winning by breaking the rules. Also, Black Hat is unacceptable risk in most cases — for both publicly traded companies as well as for smaller startups and small companies. By contrast, White Hat SEO pays out better over long-term with sustainable strategies so that your time investment results in benefits over and over. Google, Bing and other search engines have become progressively more skilled at detecting and discounting the short-term advantages that can occasionally still be found through Black Hat SEO. For all of these reasons, we stick to White Hat practice. As a result, our websites have never been penalized, and clients who follow our directions are likewise never at risk of manual actions or automated ranking penalties.