What is Black hat SEO?

Black hat SEO techniques get your website’s ranking higher on SERPs but are against search engine guidelines.

Search engines penalise users for using these tactics.

Black hat techniques include:

  • Keyword stuffing
  • Cloaking
  • Private link networks

Black hat SEO is the wrong way to rank in search results for businesses.

Technique used in black hat SEO:

  • Negatively affect your search engine presence
  • Trick search engine algorithms to rank your webpages
  • Give a bad user experience
  • Result in search engine penalties

So, avoid using Black hat SEO techniques because your aim should be to give the user the best results for their search. 

Instead, use White hat SEO, which is:

  • A better method
  • More ethical approach
  • Follows search engine guidelines

White hat SEO consists of:

  • Creating quality content
  • Providing a better user experience for website visitors

Black hat SEO vs White hat SEO

Black hat SEO:

  • Go against guidelines set by search engines
  • Manipulates search engines to get higher rankings
  • Can result in being deleted from search results
  • Can result in a lower search result position

White hat SEO:

  • Are more ethical SEO techniques
  • Creating quality content searchers want
  • Offer a good user experience to website visitors

Black hat Techniques in SEO

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is filling your content with pointless keywords to trick search engines to rank your page higher on search results pages.

Adding variations of keywords with no value:

  • Is bad for user experience
  • Can rank your page for irrelevant queries

The explanation for keyword stuffing given by Google is:

  • Lists of phone numbers with no value
  • Text listing cities a web page is trying to rank for
  • Unnaturally repeating the same words or phrases

Remember, search engines like Google know when content sounds unnatural.

Even words that are similar to each other, but have no value as they make up a sentence.

So, do keyword research to find keywords people search for but don’t overuse them.

But, instead of filling your content with pointless keywords, create content that focuses on topics.

Cloaking

Cloaking shows one piece of content to users and a different one to search engines.

Cloaking is making content rank for terms that don’t relate to the content.

Spam websites use cloaking to stop search engines bots find the spam content they show users.

Changing your content to for different types of users is ok.

Different acceptable example include:

  • Changing the size of your website for mobile device users
  • Changing the language of a page for visits from different countries
  • Changing on page ads to fund their content

But changing the content to trick search engine crawlers is not ok.

Basically, the reasons for you to change content on your website should be in the best interest of the users.

And, search engine bots that crawl your website should be treated the same as users.

Note: See how users see your website and compare it to how Google sees your website, with this fetch as Google tool.

Dodgy Redirects

Redirects send users to a different URL than the one they clicked. 

Black hat SEO redirects:

  • Sends search engine crawlers to one page and users to another
  • Sends authoritative pages with backlinks to an irrelevant page, to boost search results rankings

Black hat SEO uses 301 redirect to manipulate search results by passing page authority from one page to another.

So, only use redirects for their purpose, which includes:

  • Changing a website domain
  • Merging two pieces of content

Even using JavaScript to redirect users is ok.

For example, when you log into LinkedIn, it redirects you to someone’s full profile but shows you the public version of the profile when you log out.

Dodgy redirects go against search engine guidelines and should be avoided.

Low Quality Content

Low Quality Content that gives searchers no value common in black hat SEO.

Including content scraped from other websites.

Google is better at detecting duplicate and low-quality content compared to the past.

Invisible Keywords

Invisible keywords is also a Black hat SEO technique.

Invisible keywords happen by making the text the same colour as the page background.

The page ranks in search results for invisible keywords with no visible content related to the invisible keywords on the page.

So, users click on the result looking for content on the topic they searched for, but don’t find it as the keywords are invisible.

Your role is to give users content they are searching for, not hide the content on your website.

Bait and Switch

“Bait and switch” is creating content to rank for a topic, then when the topic page ranks in results, the content is changed.

And if users click through and don’t see the content, it creates a negative experience for searchers.

Tricking users and search engines doesn’t build trust in SEO.

Instead, write original, quality content to avoid search engine penalties and stand out from the crowd.

Paying for Links

Google and other search engines forbid buying and selling links.

This has been made clear on Google’s website:

  • “Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”

Even sending websites freebies for links.

It’s simple, don’t pay any website to link to your content.

Google wants users to tell on people buying or selling links.

Google penalises buyers and sellers of links.

If you have purchased links, remove them as soon as possible.

Also, use this link tool if webmasters can’t remove the links, so Google ignores paid links when determining your Pagerank.

Structured Data/Rich Snippets Abuse

Structured data, also known as rich snippets and schema, is used to change how your content is displayed on SERPs.

Black hat SEO techniques give false information in structured data to trick search engines and users.

For example, giving your business five stars from a fake review website and structured data to stand out on search results pages.

But, Google even wants users to report these tricks used in structured data.

So, instead use accurate information on your web pages structured data.

And, give truthful information that helps users. 

Note: Google’s rules on adding structured data to your website and use this tool to test your structured data.

Spamming Blog Comments

Black hat SEO techniques also include linking to your website in blog comments.

But, Google has updated their algorithm so it doesn’t count links in blog comments.

Links in blog comments are nofollow by default now.

Meaning Google and other search engines don’t follow these links and they don’t pass authority.

Links in blog comments is a spammy way of building links to your website so avoid it.

Google and other search engines demote or remove pages with spam from the search results.

Use Google’s reCAPTCHA tool to avoid spammers on your content.

Link Farms

A link farm is a website or websites made for link building.

Link farm websites help other websites rank higher on search engines by linking to them. 

Because one way search engines rank websites is by checking the amount of quality backlinks that point to it.

Black hat SEO uses link farms to increase the number of backlinks for a website.

Link farm websites have:

  • Low-quality content
  • A Lot of backlinks

As usual, Google and other search engines can detect link farms so don’t use them. 

Instead, use white hat SEO techniques like creating:

  • Content
  • Graphs
  • Data
  • Interviews
  • Other types of content to get backlinks naturally

Private Blog Networks

A private blog network (PBN) is a collection of authority websites used for link building.

PBN increases the amount of backlinks pointing to a website.

Private Blog Network websites:

  • Link to website to increase its ranking in the search results
  • Websites in the network dont link to each other

Black Hat SEOs build a private network by:

  • Buying expired domains with established authority
  • Write content similar to already existing content on the domain before expiry
  • Add links to their own website

But, search engines can spot PBNs and penalise using PBNs to improve search presence.

Instead, focus on creating quality content on your own domain and over time your website will be an authority by getting backlink to only one domain.

Why Avoid Black Hat SEO?

Black hat SEO is not illegal, but goes against webmaster guidelines by search engines.

Sp, doing black hat SEO, will leave you open to penalties.

Penalties from search engines result in lower search result ranking for your website or complete removal.

So your website gets less traffic.

Search engines can spot black hat SEO techniques. 

Simply, give searchers and search engines what they want from your website and its content.

Short-term gains from black hat SEO is not worth negatively affecting your presence in search.

The Blurred Lines of Grey Hat SEO

Grey hat SEO is in the middle of black and white hat SEO.

If you don’t know if an SEO tactic is black or white hat SEO, then it’s a grey hat technique.

What is Grey hat SEO?

Grey hat SEO is not against search engines guidelines but is unethical and could be prohibited later.

Grey hat SEO threads close to the line of black hat SEO.

Grey hat SEO techniques have become black hat SEO techniques after search engines found out about them.

Avoiding Black Hat SEO

Black hat SEO techniques are risky and not worth the hassle.

So, to avoid Black hat SEO, do the following:

  • Searchers and search engines are the same. Don’t trick search engine crawlers. Focus on writing for searchers and creating the best user experience.
  • Create good quality original content and avoid keyword stuffing. Don’t scrape, duplicate or reword content. Use Google’s content guidelines.
  • Use these rules when adding structured data to your website. Make schema markup accurate.
  • Don’t buy or sell links. Don’t give freebies for links. If unsure, read Google’s post about paid links.
  • Don’t create a private blog network for links. Make content for natural linking.
  • Stay on top of webmaster guidelines to avoid black hat tactics. Like these from Google and Yahoo.

White hat SEO strategy is better for search engine optimisation.

In the long run, you don’t have to worry about penalties that negatively affect your rankings.

The moral of this story is:

Never do black hat SEO.

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