Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO

Black hat SEO is an unethical method of optimising for search engines to obtain a higher ranking. It's counterproductive to use unethical tactics, which often result in penalization from search engines. Using private link networks and keyword stuffing are all examples of black hat techniques.

Search engine optimization practises that violate the terms of service of search engines, such as black hat SEO, are used to increase a site or page's ranking on search engines. A black hat describes an individual who works for the "bad guys" while the "good guys" wear white hats.

Black hat SEO is the practice of going against search engine guidelines to manipulate SERPs (search engine results page) for higher rankings. Marketers found to be using black hat SEO methods can be issued Google penalties, be wiped from search engines or see metrics completely drop.

Black Hat Techniques in SEO:

• Content Quality: Black hat SEO practises include poor-quality, no-value content. Including content scraped by bots or humans from another website. Google, for example, used to have trouble recognising content copied from different sites a few years ago. This had been resolved with the Google Panda update in 2011. Search rankings were impacted for many sites that had duplicate content. The search engine has become far more adept at identifying duplicate content and low-quality content since then.

• Content Originality - Duplicate Content: "Duplicate content" refers to the common copy and paste that occurs across domains and refers to when identical, or very similar, blocks of copied content are found in different places. Content knowingly duplicated across multiple domains is one of the worst black hat SEO tactics because search engines prefer unique content. Search engine rankings are manipulated when the same results are shown in both Google results and Bing listings. This usually results in poor user experiences. Double content applies to both different and the same domains.
• Auto Generated Content: The act of automatically creating content to rank for multiple keywords without generating useful, unique content is considered black hat. There could be a multitude of location pages developed, and the same content would be used on each one, except for changing the name of the location.

• Keyword Stuffing: In order to manipulate the position of your page on search engine results pages, you may use keyword stuffing to pack your content with irrelevant keywords. User experience is harmed by numerous keyword variations that add no real value. Your page can also appear in search engine results for irrelevant terms.
• Domain Squatting: A domain squatter registers similar domains to a trademark or business solely on the basis of seeking financial gain. Squatting is the act of taking up residence in a public place without permission. Because they gain money, fraudsters may be sued for using this technique. People visiting the fake site are being redirected to an expensive pay-per-click advertising site.

• Hidden Text: Generally, hidden text is text that is the same colour as the background, which is positioned off the screen or behind an image, and will be hidden from users using CSS, or it may even be so small that no one can see it. Some marketers provide long lists of keywords they want their content to rank for in search engine results; this is deceptive, but it can sometimes be used to stuff keywords in. Here, though, it appears that the intent is to hide text completely, which does not apply to text that is in an accordion, tabbed, or loaded using JavaScript.
• Mirror Websites: A mirror site replicates the content of a website in a new one to improve its ranking. Content from your website or other sources could be duplicated in this way. In the event of a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, the bad guys will try and convince you that this technique is used just for that purpose. DDoS attacks involve accessing important (personal) information by using numerous compromised computers to target a single system.

• Cloaking: Creating cloaked content involves providing users with one piece of content and search engines with another. Black hat SEO utilises methods such as these to make content rank for terms completely unrelated to their content. Websites that serve spam content to users often do this in order to avoid being found by search engine bots.
• Page Hijacking: You won't actually receive a Penguin or Panda penalty if your website is unsecured, but you can lose valuable rankings if your website is unsecured. As a result of an attack or injected malicious code on your website, Google can block your website from appearing in its search engine. In addition to losing the trust of anyone searching via organic search, this will cause your website's ranking to drop, just like a Panda or Penguin penalty would.While you might receive a notification through Google Analytics that your site has been hacked, it could still indicate a penalty in search results if Google has discovered malicious code on your site.

• Typosquatting: Typosquatting (also known as URL hijacking, sting sites, or fake domains) is a form of cybersquatting that steals the identity of brand owners by using typographical mistakes made by internet users when typing in a website address into a web browser.
• Paid Links: Link buying and selling is strictly prohibited by search engines like Google. In addition, the Google Webmaster Guidelines state that sending a website free products in exchange for links can be considered part of a link scheme and a violation. A good place to start looking at FTC guidelines is Matt Cutts, the former head of Google's webspam team. Getting affiliate links is not recommended. Whenever people are buying or selling links, Google asks users to inform them. As soon as the practice is detected, both buyers and sellers of links will be penalised.

• Comment spam: In black hat techniques, a link to your blog can be inserted into a blog comment. Fortunately, this practice is less prevalent these days, since search engines like Google have changed their algorithm to discount blog comments that contain links. Links are now the default practice in most authoritative blogs. The link passes no authority nor is followed by search engines like Google.

• Doorway or Gateway Pages: A gateway page, jump page, or a bridge page is specially designed to rank high for a particular query by optimising it for specific keywords. These landing pages are no more than a way to fool search engines and lead visitors from one search result to another unrelated destination.

• Trading Links: Google has developed many methods to get rid of those manipulating the right way of ranking high in SERP, meaning people have gotten way more creative and not in a good way, but by trying new ways to cheat. As a result, the practice of sending products for review in exchange for links to reviews was born. That said, you should not link to client reviews. You could end up down in the search results instead of up if you overuse this technique. I won't even mention the fake reviews on your website intended to gain trust, which have the exact opposite outcome if you get caught, which happens most of the time.

• Article Spinning: Article spinning is the same as plagiarism or duplicate content in that it involves re-writing the content by using synonyms, changing the sentence structure, or re-writing the text completely while it communicates the same information. Manual or technological spinning of an article is possible. Articles spun by automated methods have advanced to the point that they are readable, but Google still penalises them when they are spun.
• Malicious Backlinks: The black-hat SEO practitioners use Google's penalization system to advance their agenda by having websites they don't want associated with links to yours in order to drag down your page rank. To help you disavow links, Google created a form. In this way, you are able to part ways with any undesirable domains when you are going through your backlinks.

• Link Farms: Link farms are websites or collections of websites built solely for the purpose of building links. Search engines rank websites higher based on their links to other sites. Links pointing to a website, among other things, are taken into account by search engines when ranking websites. Link farms are used by black hat SEO to inflate the number of backlinks a particular site has. Links from these sites are usually of poor quality. An anchor text link is generally associated with the target keyword.

• Rich Snippet Markup Spam: Data that is structured is also called rich snippets or schema. Search engine results pages can be customised so that your content appears differently. The search engines will place more weight on your content if it stands out from your competitors'. Structured data can be added to a web page featuring a podcast, recipe, book, or other product or service. There are probably few forms of structured data more popular than reviews schema markup. The purpose of black hat SEO is to confuse search engines and users by presenting inaccurate information in structured data.

• Spammy footer links: Footers appear on every webpage of a website, so footers are prime real estate for a link. Google will likely find you culpable if you're using footer links with commercial anchor text to manipulate search results at scale.

• Private Blog Network: The term "private blog network" (PBN) describes a group of appropriate websites linked together solely for the purpose of building links. Both are aimed at exaggerating the number of links leading to a website. Links between PBN sites point to the site that they aim to boost in the search results, but these sites don't link to each other.

Why You Should Avoid Black Hat SEO

Black hat SEO, though not illegal, violates guidelines for webmasters outlined by search engines. It is an illegal practice nonetheless. You must therefore be willing to suffer the consequences if you engage in black hat SEO. When you are penalised by search engines, your website will fall in search results or worse, become completely inactive. As a result, fewer visitors will find your website, resulting in fewer sales.

Black hat SEO techniques have become increasingly difficult to spot by search engines. In the modern day, it is pretty much impossible not to get caught for practising black hat SEO. There is no solution to the search engine's problem or the searcher's problem with black hat SEO. Black hat SEO may yield short-term results but eventually search engines will catch up to your black hat methods, causing your website to disappear from search results.

How To Avoid Black Hat SEO

A black hat SEO campaign is undoubtedly risky and not worth engaging in. Avoid these tactics by following these guidelines:

1. Search engines and users should both be treated equally. By redirecting crawlers to another page, do not "cloak" or trick search engine crawlers. From the search engine to the website, the focus should always be on solving for the searcher.
2. Avoid keyword stuffing and only write original, good-quality content. Rescraping, duplicating or rewording another's content is not acceptable. You might find Google's guidelines useful.
3. Add structured data to your website in compliance with the rules. Make sure the schema markup you add is accurate and does not mislead users.
4. Link exchanges aren't just about money, and it's not even about buying or selling links. In addition, offered products are not permitted as exchanges for links. Refer to the FTC endorsement guidelines about paid links from Google and consult this blog post to see if an exchange might be unethical.
5. Set up your blog network privately for the purpose of getting links, not to get links. Rather than fake it till you make it, tailor your website and content to attract people to link to it naturally. Doing this rarely works.
6. Maintaining awareness of search engine guidelines will help you avoid black hat tactics. Here is information on Google's, Yahoo's and Yandex's webmaster guidelines.