Black Hat SEO Techniques
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing refers to the insertion of several keywords into one phrase. This method involves stuffing the page with keywords to try to get higher rankings on search engine results. Repetition and repetition of similar sentences and words is done to influence the Google search bot to get higher ranking.
Duplicate Content
This is among the ways where the content on one site is copied by the webmaster on his own site. Copying other people’s content is considered a crime, isn’t it? Similar is the case with content. Google is firmly against this and believes in the original creation of content.
Cloaking
As an example of hacker-man strategies This method involves showing a different version of your site for the Google bot, and another for the person who is using it.
This can be done in two methods:
Presenting the HTML web page for search engines while displaying a page with CSS, JS, and images to users.
Inserting keywords or text on a page, and then displaying this page only if the user-agent that is crawling it is actually a engine or a human user.
Buying Links
It is a shady practice when the owner of a website pays an other website in exchange for them a hyperlink back. There are a lot of agencies selling these paid links, which tend to be shoddy and unprofessional. It is better to avoid these harmful hyperlinks on your site.
Doorway Pages
Door pages, bridges or jump pages are designed specifically for specific search queries. They are designed to be highly ranked for certain keywords. These pages are not of any value to the user. They only serve to trick the search engine, and to redirect users from a search query to a different group of websites, i.e. a vague destination.
Link Farming
Link farms are website or group of websites specifically designed for the purpose of building links. Each site in a link farm links to a site which is aiming to rank higher in search results pages. Search engine crawlers rank a website using the number of websites that link to it, in addition to other factors. Black Hat SEO makes use of this to increase the amount of backlinks a particular site receives from these link farms.
Invisible Text or Links
A somewhat shabby effort, this method involves the use of white text on white background. The idea is match the color of the text to the color that the background. In this way, website owners block their key words from the search engines but they are visible to Google’s Google bot. The same practice is used for websites that have links.
Spamming in Blog Comments
Ah those intellectuals and scholars commenting on the blog. This strategy includes putting comments to blog posts, and the link to their site. This is solely performed with the intention of gaining a backlink from this particular website. Google does not now accept hyperlinks from blogs. The webmasters made the links non-follow by default.
Incorrect Re-directs
Redirects can be a fantastic way for redirecting users to a functioning website in the event that the current page has problems. Webmasters use redirects 301 when they encounter issues. But, the black-hat “experts” use these redirects to redirect users to a different page. By doing this they fool users as well as the Google bot and the users by directing the user a website that has a bad URL, which they didn’t intend to go to.
Private Blog Networks(PBN)
Private blog networks (PBN) can be described as a set of authoritative websites that are used for link-building. The PBN websites are linked to the main site using low-quality links in the hope of influencing search engines. The majority of PBN websites links to the main website without linking to each other. In general, PBNs make use of expired domains to link to, and these are sites which have previously gained some sort of credibility. PBN is among the SEO methods that are black hat because these domains have been exclusively purchased for the purpose of being turned into private blog networks in order to make manipulative external links.
Pages that are optimized for overflow
Are you aware of the phrase” too much of anything” is harmful to your health? The same is true of your website pages. Sometimes SEO experts are overwhelmed with the task of optimizing their sites that they may end up doing something a bit too over. This can be due to the use of a number of On-page components, including excessively optimized anchor text, a huge number of internal hyperlinks, keywords-filled titles and descriptions, and other content.
All of this could result in having you disqualified by Google because your actions will be viewed as illegal SEO methods.
Bait and Switch
If you are using Bait and Switch the first procedure is to create pages for Google with a list of keywords. Then, once the its ranking increases, it is changed to other projects and products. So, users are able to see something that is completely distinct from the subject the user clicked. This is also known as Page Swapping, and it is used to fool the user and also search engine. This kind of unethical practice is the Black Hat SEO.
Clickbait
Clickbait is a striking and memorable headline designed to entice viewers to click on the link. This is a form of copywriting frequently employed to draw attention to a topic by focusing too much on a subject in order to entice the user to click the link, which will lead into irrelevant information. Strategies like these are used to earn profits based on the amount of clicks. It is a method that is widely employed in tabloids and make up a large portion of the Black Hat SEO.
Guest Post Spam
This is a black-hat technique used to gain backlinks. The messages are sent out to bloggers in order to publish a bogus article and the do-follow hyperlink. Links to these articles posted during guest blogging events can hurt the ranking of a website. Even though they are of low quality, these blogs are nonetheless placed on websites that are not relevant just to build links.
Negative SEO
This is the practice of employing black-hat SEO practices to thwart the rankings of a competitor’s engines. The steps are:
Hacking the website
Creating numerous spammy links for the site
The content is copied and distributed it around the web
Linking to the site by using different keywords
Removal of the top backlinks from the site
Automated Google queries
It is a black-hat SEO practice which uses software to automate searches for specific keywords in order in order to rank the website higher in the search results. Automated queries cannot be permitted without the prior approval of Google. The sending of automated Google queries implies that the program is utilized to expand the search volume for a specific keyword in order to increase its rank in the SERP.
Rich snippet markup spam
Rich snippets offer more information about the content on the website. It is possible to alter the snippet so in so that your website is distinct from other websites in the SERP. This wonderful opportunity is being abused by spammers so many that Google has issued a firm “report rich snippets of spam” tool. If web administrators make content invisible to the user or offer false and unrelated reviews, content, and videos, it’s considered rich text spamming. False review and rating, inexact or false information, fake or untrue videos within the rich snippets of content is an instance of black hat SEO practices.
Article Spinning
Article spinning is one of the infamous SEO black hat techniques and is a very popular one too. Although search engines love excellent content, a sputtering article can be penalized by Google. Most often, articles are made by hand or with an application on a computer – where the content is written by using synonyms and manipulating sentence structure. The primary purpose behind spinning content is spinning a large amount of pages and publish it on multiple websites simultaneously. The articles spun aren’t original, they don’t offer any useful information and are usually not accessible.
How to Report Black Hat SEO?
There are two possible scenarios where you should declare SEO methods that are not black hat. The first is when your website is hacked through a hacker who is malicious malware or other negative SEO activities which includes spam hyperlinks. A different scenario could occur the case when black-hat methods interlinked discover the spamming Web outcomes for a keyword competitive to the one your site ranks for. To stop such issues, you must submit an webspam report with Google Search Central. False reports on competitors’ websites is also thought of as an illegal method.
If a malware or virus has infected your site If you’ve been attacked by malware or viruses, you are able to request a malware analysis after you have eliminated the malware that is malicious.
If your website is the target of adverse SEO campaigns, make use of the Disavow Links Tool within Google Search Central once you make contact with the Webmasters that have links to your website in order to remove them.
Why Should One Avoid Black Hat SEO?
While black-hat SEO is not illegal but it does violate the guidelines for webmasters that are enforced by search engines.
In general, sites that demonstrate the use of black-hat SEO techniques are immediately removed from the rankings and are subject to “domain blacklisting” as one of the measures for penalizing domains.
Google penalty could result in decreasing the number of results for search or being removed completely. The website will see lesser traffic and has hardly any customers. Although some companies offer Google penalty recovery, it’s recommended to stay clear of doing these things initially.
How to Avoid Black Hat SEO?
Avoid cloaking by providing inconsistency information to the search engine and users could result in your website being blocked.
Write quality content The potential of quality and relevant content that users will find useful.
Use structured data guidelines This will enable you to get higher rankings in the search results and rank higher without the need to employ techniques that are not SEO-friendly.
Don’t buy or sell links. The purchase or sale of links for more traffic may be worthwhile in the short term however it is a massive risk that’s not worth the risk.
Beware of private blog networks The use of private blog networks could be a fatal affliction for your site. Google may penalize your site or block it from appearing in the search results.
Keep abreast of SEO guidelines Once you know the difference between black and white SEO, you should be able to research the latest guidelines for search engines will ensure you are in line to the most recent guidelines and rules to avoid using black-hat methods.
The final word
It’s normal that we all want to be higher in Google results and have more efficient sessions. Any strategy is a good method if it does not harm or is not in accordance with these Google Search Engine Guidelines.
Now it’s up to you whether you’d prefer to be the person who is trying to make things happen more quickly but in a rather unorthodox way, as well as the one who does the right things to get the desired results.
White Hat heroes or Black Hat villains? Which side do you prefer? Tell us by commenting below.
