What is BlackHat SEO?
Source: Think Torrent
In your never-ending quest to boost your google rank, you've no doubt encountered the term Black-Hat SEO but you likely only have a vague grasp of what these techniques really entail or whether you should be considering using Blackhat techniques for your own Search Engine Optimiziation.
BlackHat SEO is a catch-all term for various techniques that exploit loopholes in Google's (and other search engines') ranking system. The idea is to achieve the (in appearance or reality) the most desirable qualities in a website from an SEO perspective, but to do so through underhanded, or unnatural means.
What Are Some Examples of Black-Hat SEO?
There are literally hundreds of techniques employed by Blackhat practitioners. Some of them even masquerade as White-Hat techniques, especially when it comes to link-buildilng services. This is why you should be very wary of buying backlinks to your website, because nearly all of the affordable backlinking services actually employ BlackHat techniques.
Some Examples of BlackHat SEO:
- Backlink building through Spambots or CommentBots
- Paying for Backlinks
- Creating backlinks from high PR pages through security exploits
- Using multiple H1 header tags on a page
- Creating endless keyword anchor link chains within a website
- Hiding extra keywords on your website through techniques like:
- Hiding extra keywords with colored text on the same colored background
- Hiding keywords in HTML code or comments
- Creating doorway pages stuffed with keywords for SEO, but autoredirecting the user so only search engines actually see the doorway page.
Why would someone use BlackHat SEO?
The short answer is because BlackHat SEO Works! Well, this is true at least in the short term. If it didn't work, you wouldn't see so many people willing to risk Google penalties to employ these techniques. Unless you're launching your website with the backing of thousands of dollars for advertising and promotion, there's no more effective way to boost your ranking quickly than with BlackHat techniques. The reason is that BlackHat SEO is designed to create the illusion of optimized, authoritative, high PageRank sites, even if very young websites/
So wait, you're telling me that BlackHat SEO works and it's way easier and less time intensive than natural, WhiteHat SEO. What am I waiting for? Are there any reasons you shouldn't use BlackHat SEO? There sure are, and they're big reasons!
Why BlackHat SEO Is Dangerous!
You may outsmart Google in the short run, but if you really think you're going to stay one step ahead of Google's army of brilliant software engineers for long, you've got another thing coming. Google's primary objective is to make sure the highest quality websites make it to the top of the rankings. Since the websites employing Blackhat SEO are the less useful, or less established sites that are trying to catch up through unnatural means, succeeding in achieving a top 5 rank can put a target on your back.
Google is constantly updating the algorithm that they use to generate search engine ranking pages (SERP's). With each successive update, they do their best to close a few more of the loopholes that BlackHat practitioners seek to exploit. It's not that Google isn't aware of the tricks being employed. Google knows. It just takes a while to figure out how to teach the search engine to make the distinction between what is authentic and what is Blackhat. Because Blackhat is designed to mimic the appearance of WhiteHat SEO, this part can be very tricky, and Google doesn't want to accidentally punish websites that have built their reputation through legitimate means
Because it takes so much effort for Google to close the SEO loopholes, they add an extra penalty when your site gets flagged.
You may be thinking that you'll use BlackHat tricks until they close the loophole and then you'll just find a new one, but it's not that simple. Just like the IRS, Google ads a Penalty plus interest! Websites that have been flagged for BlackHat violations not only have all of their phony links disregarded by Google (causing a natural ranking drop) but Google may also tack on an additional penalty and bury your site in the 5th, 6th, or even 10th page of Google, where no one will ever find you. Sites that commit particularly egregious SEO crimes can even be banished from Google altogether, So think twice before you buy those 100 .Gov or .Edu backlnks for $99, and decide whether it's worth. For some people, this answer will always be: Yes.
What Type of Sites Should Use BlackHat SEO?
If you care about your website's long-term reputation and Google ranking, you should not use Blackhat SEO (with the possible exception of some natural link building services when your siste is more established).
BlackHat SEO is best for websites that don't care if they're around in 6 months. While this doesn't apply to most of us, it does apply to many internet marketers or those trying to drive traffic to a particular website or product. If one domain gets punished, they can easily launch another because they don't have that much effort invested in any one domain or website. The market and the ranking system create the incentive to cheat, and there will always be people willing to take the risks to reap the rewards of BlackHat SEO. Just make sure you can live with the consequences if you decide to give it a try...
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