If you read blog SEOSki, you know that positioning pages is a long, time-consuming process. Its effects are not visible overnight. Sometimes you have to wait 2-3 months for a change in the search results, or even six months in the case of high competition. This is obvious - analysing the website, creating high-quality content, internal linking or acquiring external links - these types of activities cannot be done in a few hours. Also, the appearance of results depends on many factors and not all of them are under our control. What if someone told you that there is a shortcut? I am sure you would jump for joy! Unfortunately, this shortcut Black Hat SEO is not as bedded in roses as it might seem. Read more about this in a new article.
White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO
Talking about SEOWe can distinguish between 2 basic tactics for achieving results. The first is White Hat SEO. The aim is to increase the visibility of a website in the search results through its optimisation for user value. White Hat SEO is said to be SEO that follows search engine guidelines. However, this is quite a simplification.
The truth is that there are no clear guidelines from, for example, Google for positioners. On top of that, any attempt to influence robots is to some extent manipulation. White Hat SEO is therefore best described as actions that help a website to achieve high rankings without exposing it to a penalty from a search engine. Why? Because they are introduced with the experience of network users in mind.
As you can easily guess, Black Hat SEO is the negation of White Hat SEO. The term itself refers to westerns. The villains in these types of films usually wore black headgear. This way, the audience immediately knew which character they were dealing with - the villain.
The most common Black Hat SEO techniques
You already know when we are talking about unfair positioning practices. It's time to see ten such techniques up close.
Cloaking
Content masking, i.e. cloaking it's presenting content to Google bots that is different from what is actually on the page. What does this look like in practice? Two versions of the site are prepared - one is seen by visitors and the other by robots. Of course, the version for the latter is stuffed with keywords.
Hidden 301 redirects
Of course, redirects in themselves are as desirable as possible. They should be used, for example, when the URL sub-pages or merged several pages into one. However, automatic, unwarranted redirects to a page without the user's consent used to manipulate the ranking is an unfair practice.
Link exchange systems (SWL)
A link exchange programme is a platform that brings together site owners and allows them to publish links on their sites. SWL makes it possible to obtain a very large number of links to a given pageby placing them automatically on thousands of subpages.
Keyword stuffing
Unfortunately, more still means better in the context of keywords for many SEOs. This is a mistake. Remember that phrases should be naturally placed on the page and the text should not be over-saturated with them. Stuffing keywords makes content ceases to be readable by the web user.
Low-quality content
The constantly repeated slogan "Content is King" does not lose its relevance. To realise what low-quality content is, it is worth listing the characteristics of high-quality content. First and foremost, they must be useful to the recipient, be comprehensive in terms of the subject in question and be written in accordance with the principles of correct language. If your content does not meet these requirements, it is time to work on it.
Automatically generated content
Use of artificial intelligence-based tools to support copywriting in itself does not constitute Black Hat SEO. The problem arises, however, when you decide to include text generated using automatic synonymisation or processing techniques. It is also a mistake to publish AI-created text without human checking and adjusting it.
Doorway pages
Transition parties, i.e. doorway pages are created only to score high on a search engine and then take visitors to another location. This is how rogue webmasters and site owners want to divert traffic to a landing page.
Spam in the comments
I'm sure you've encountered more than once the tactic of placing, for example, advertisements and links to other sites under blog articles. Just because you have the option to share a link to your site in the comments section does not mean you should do so. You risk being penalised for being a spammer unless the link you provide link is indeed relevant.
Publication of stolen content
Scraping, duplicate content, plagiarism - all of which may violate copyright or trademark laws. As Google only wants to make high quality domains available, plagiarism is grounds for a penalty. It is also simply unethical - stealing intellectual property is theft like any other.
Automated queries to Google
Have you ever encountered the message 'Unusual traffic from your computer network'? This means that it has been recognised that devices on your network are sending automated traffic. Sending automated queries to Google means it is likely that you are using software to inflate the number of searches for a particular keyword in order to get a higher position in the SERPs.
Do dishonest practices pay off? Effects of Black Hat SEO techniques
Before Google introduced the algorithms - Panda (2011) and Penguin (2012) - The Black Hat SEO activities mentioned above were yielding good results. This led to the fact that SPAM started to rule the search engine. Fortunately, changes in algorithms have curbed the effectiveness of such activities. Nowadays, they are not only ineffective, but also simply harmful to a website.
What is the threat of Black Hat SEO? Those who cheat Google's algorithms must expect to expose themselves to penalties. The first type of penalty is filter applied by hand by a Google employee. You can find information about receiving this type of penalty and how to remove it at Google Search Console. As a result of a filter being imposed on a website, it sees a drop in the search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be a drop of a few, or even dozens of positions!
The second type of penalty is the so-called algorithmic filter. If it is imposed, you will not receive any information in Google Search Console, but it is easy to deduce this when you notice a drastic drop in positions or traffic. Recovering from this penalty is much more difficult, as you are never sure which action led to it. Therefore, the site owner has to (metaphorically speaking) atone for all their sins in order to rebuild their search engine position.
Black Hat SEO - fraudulent website positioning
Using Black Hat SEO activities is a temptation of fate. You may not immediately be penalised by a search engine, but the risk of losing your search engine results makes it not a game worth the candle. It is definitely better to stay with honest White Hat SEO practices. While they may not give you immediate results, they are safe and work in the long term.
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