What is black hat SEO? It is a practice that seeks to increase a page or site’s rank in search engine results by using methods that violate search engines’ terms and conditions. Black hat was first used in Western movies to distinguish “bad guys” from “good guys”, who wore white hats. It describes computer hackers, virus makers, and others who do unethical acts with computers.
It is important to understand that using black hat SEO strategies and tactics can result in your site being removed from search engines. This will prevent you from becoming the top traffic source on the Internet. SEO professionals need to be familiar with these illegal search engine optimization techniques and their consequences.
Introduction to Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is any unethical practice that could improve a page’s rank in a search engine result (SERP). These practices can lead to search engines removing your website from search results and affiliate sites. On Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and Bing’s Webmaster guidelines, a list of black hat SEO professionals has been publicly denounced.
The litmus test to determine if a search engine optimization tactic is against the webmaster guidelines of a search engine is “Is my work adding value to the user”. If there is no value to the user but the ranking is likely to rise, your decisions are most likely black hat. You can also use this same test to determine if an activity is black hat PPC.
List of Black Hat SEO Strategies
These SEO techniques are black hat SEO that you should avoid if you want Google and other search engines to recognize your efforts.
- Content Automation
- Doorway pages
- Hidden text or links
- Keyword Stuffing
- Reporting a Competitor (or Negative Search)
- Sneaky Redirects
- Cloaking
- Link schemes
- Guest Posting Networks
- Link manipulation (including the purchase of links)
- Link Farms, Link Wheels, or Link Networks
- Rich Snippet Markup Spam
- Google Automated Queries
- Create pages, subdomains, or domains using duplicate content.
- Pages that exhibit malicious behavior, such as trojans and viruses, phishing, and other malware
How to Report Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO can be reported for two reasons. You may report black hat techniques if your website has been attacked by a virus, malicious hack, or spammy link campaign. You can file a Webspam Report through Google Webmaster Tools. Use this tool at your own risk. SPAM is not for search positions that are higher than mine. However, falsely reporting web spam could also be black hat SEO.
After you have removed malicious code, request a malware inspection.
If your website has been the victim of a spammy link campaign, you can use the disavow links tool in Google Webmaster Tools. After you have tried to reach out to webmasters who are pointing these links at your site to have them removed.
Black Hat SEO: Why Should You Avoid It?
While the majority of SEO experts consider black hat search engine optimization completely unethical and discourage it, some people still cheat the system to speed up their websites’ organic success. These tactics can be very dangerous, even if they work.
Google will penalize you if they find out that your website has been using illegal SEO techniques. This update will affect your website’s rank and could result in your website being permanently banned from the search engine. Your website will not appear in search results when your target audience searches for you. This can lead to your business failing.
Your audience will also experience poor results. Your pages will appear spammy and visitors will leave your site. Search engines note these negative hits and will remove your website from the SERPs in order to make sure that visitors have a pleasant online experience. To build trust with users, work with a search engine optimization expert such as Lux Digital Marketing.
How Lux’s White Hat SEO Techniques Can Help
White hat SEO ranks your website for popular search terms while black hat SEO uses unethical practices by manipulating search engine rankings. Black hat is not something that you would want to do, as it can get you banned from google search results, hurt your reputation, and is illegal. White hat takes hard work, dedication, patience, and practice.
For many years, Lux Digital Marketing has helped hundreds of businesses throughout the Florida Panhandle with their digital marketing needs using White Hat SEO techniques.
We present you with high-quality services that include:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Organic SEO Results
- Web Design
- Google Maps Marketing
- Most importantly, ranking you number 1 on Google!
Lux Digital Marketing looks at your business as a whole and works closely with you every step of the way. Don’t battle the tough world of digital marketing alone. If you would like more information or to schedule an appointment, feel free to give us a call today.
