Jun 22

Pink hat SEO

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Today I thought I would discuss one of the lighter sides of search engine optimisation. Recently a friend of mine introduced me to a novel SEO tactic that I had, quite frankly, completely overlooked.

pink hat SEO

Pink hat SEO is the practice of pretending to be a female in order to increase the number of stumbles, diggs, reviews, etc that you receive. In today’s male dominated internet this can give you a significant advantage. People will always respond better to your ‘female’ persona.

Isn’t it immoral?

Well, strictly speaking yes it is, but I don’t think it harms anyone. I think there’s nothing better than a quick spike of testosterone to make people’s eyes pluck up and pay attention to the quality content that you’re offering.

The downside

Expect to receive plenty of PM’s that quite frankly you don’t want to read. Another perspective is that this is quite humorous and you can have hours of fun reading the silly chat up lines that people use!

How much do you benefit?

A great deal. You will be surprised at just how much of an impact it actually has.

My perspective

I think, in circles where you aren’t actively socialising and are merely looking for reviews, this is a good tactic. I wouldn’t use this in say a forum or other circle that I actively socialise with though because, quite frankly, it just wouldn’t feel right.

What are your views on this? Have any of you used this strategy before? I would love to hear your stories concerning this.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Your comments


  1. AvatarRoman Young
    Posted: Jun 22nd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
    1

    this is a great tactic that I use frequently, didn’t know it was called Pink Hat SEO though…
  2. AvatarGreg
    Posted: Jun 22nd, 2007 at 10:03 pm
    2

    Excellent idea but … its just to risky :) I don’t want to play a woman whole live. But I used it in my online games - and it WAS effective

    Greg
  3. AvatarKimkins
    Posted: Jun 23rd, 2007 at 8:46 am
    3

    Very funny! So are you a guy or a girl?
  4. Pingback Pingback:
    Posted: Jun 23rd, 2007 at 8:49 am
    4
    The SEO Firm » Blog Archive » Pink hat SEO

    […] is an innovative SEO method that is sure to work for most, Pink Hat SEO. I would say this would definitely work at most social bookmarking websites since all of us know, […]
  5. AvatarMark Kempton
    Posted: Jun 23rd, 2007 at 12:01 pm
    5

    Really funny reading some of the comments lol. For the record, I’m a guy ;)
  6. AvatarJacob
    Posted: Jun 23rd, 2007 at 6:52 pm
    6

    I have never pretended to be a female, but I have pretended to be a much better looking male than I already am. You should have seen how many females came sending me messages. I even had one girl say she was in love with me after we sent two messages to each other. It was odd…
  7. AvatarMichael VanDeMar
    Posted: Jun 24th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
    7

    Well, sonofabitch. I’ll be damned if I didn’t see the pic before reading the article, and the first thing that crosses my mind is “Oh, kewl, grumpycoder is actually a cute programming chick”, and was honestly more interested in what you had to say.

    So, heh, yeah… it is effective. :)

    (Gawd, that’s embarrassing to admit)
  8. AvatarGary Capell
    Posted: Jun 25th, 2007 at 4:46 am
    8

    It’s lying. Lying purely for personal benefit is (IMO) wrong. I would imagine that endorsing/promoting it will not help your professional image.
  9. AvatarMark Kempton
    Posted: Jun 25th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
    9
    Author Comment

    As I said in the article Gary, I think that it’s only lying if you do it in circles that you socialise in.

    This article applies this to where you’re just a name, number and avatar, rather than a ‘real’ person.
  10. AvatarNoddegamra
    Posted: Jun 27th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
    10

    This is a great idea + article. I can see it being very successful. I’ve heard a similar technique also when purchasing domains.
  11. AvatarAem
    Posted: Jul 8th, 2007 at 10:37 pm
    11

    I use that technique on Stumbleupon,however involuntarily - after new beta pages were introduced it changed my age to 14 years with no possibility of changing it back. Should I say that this method does wonders and my page stats have skyrocketed since.
    The downside - I’ve suddenly discovered how many pedophiles are out there:). On the other hand, it is interesting to see how people react on total mismatch of page content and demographic.
  12. AvatarDanielle
    Posted: Jul 9th, 2007 at 12:22 am
    12

    This is not what constitutes pink hat SEO at all.

    Has it occurred to you that maybe women actually do SEO and online marketing?

    Pink Hat SEO is about networking and sure being a woman can help, but it is mostly about being nice and friendly online.
  13. AvatarMichael VanDeMar
    Posted: Jul 9th, 2007 at 12:52 am
    13

    Danielle said:

    Pink Hat SEO is about networking and sure being a woman can help, but it is mostly about being nice and friendly online.

    Oh, right… like I’m going to trust a guy who calls himself “Danielle”. :D
  14. AvatarHobo
    Posted: Jul 14th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
    14

    It’s hardly immoral. It’s sneaky and clever, yes. But in the end it’s just a nom-de-plume.

    History is littered with similar instances, especially with traditional writers.

    If it suits your purposes, and suits the target market, it’s useful and a good tactic.

    Funny as well. :)
  15. Pingback Pingback:
    Posted: Jul 20th, 2007 at 5:13 am
    15
    Pretending to be a girl is sort of creepy | Pink Internet Marketing

    […] I read this post on GrumpyCoder blog about Pink SEO. I don’t really think that is what Pink SEO is about personally. Pink SEO […]
  16. AvatarTechZilo
    Posted: Aug 3rd, 2007 at 7:43 am
    16

    Pardon me if its silly, but I dont understand what “PM”(in downside) means.

    If you could enlighten me on that…….
  17. AvatarAndy
    Posted: Aug 16th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
    17

    I’ve done this myself and it works really well. I dont think theres anything wrong with it really but I do feel a bit strange when I’m filling out my profile pretending to be a woman!
  18. AvatarRichard
    Posted: Dec 4th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
    18

    I think thats a good idea??? Hey whatever gets you links right. lol
  19. Avatarseo
    Posted: Mar 16th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
    19

    How many hat colours are out there? lol Great method anyhow.
  20. AvatarPersonal Fun
    Posted: Mar 18th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
    20

    Wow you look hot grumpycoder! I think we should meet up for chat, code and perhaps more…
  21. Avataripod guy
    Posted: May 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
    21

    I’ve known about this for a long time.

    People are generally more trusting of women so using a woman’s name automatically instills a little bit of trust in the product you are trying to promote.

    Like you say though, it’s immoral and you do get some unwanted ‘attention’.

    John
  22. Avatardropship
    Posted: May 7th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
    22

    haha! thats a hilarious tactic! good for you..
  23. AvatarCharles - Las Vegas
    Posted: Jun 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
    23

    That’s actually quite brilliant. It’s absolutely true that attractive females pull more diggs, votes, friends, etc on social networking sites. But like you said, there is a downside. I think it’s a little shady, but not much.
  24. AvatarDirectory Submissions
    Posted: Aug 30th, 2008 at 5:19 am
    24

    Quite a tactic!! I didn’t know that was called pink hat seo though. Interesting.
  25. AvatarIirsh Jewelry
    Posted: Oct 19th, 2008 at 5:50 am
    25

    That’s hilarious! Its funny that you have a name for it too.
  26. AvatarJohn
    Posted: Dec 5th, 2008 at 7:34 am
    26

    A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually.
  27. AvatarCybrenaut International SEO
    Posted: May 19th, 2009 at 5:55 am
    27

    I think this is widely practiced and I assume it works. Although I haven’t tried it myself. Thought about it though.
  28. Avatarconveyancing
    Posted: Jun 18th, 2009 at 10:25 am
    28

    It will work but in some extent because most of the net users know this kind of fake accounts. So in my view today it is really very less chance to get huge number of stumble.
  29. AvatarKenneth @ Dallas Real Estate
    Posted: Jan 14th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
    29

    Wow, this is the first I’ve heard of pink hat tactics, seems like this practice applies to almost every industry…I personally think straight talk is always better than tactics….