Explained: The Dark Art of Black Hat SEO
From keyword stuffing to private link networks, practising against search engine guidelines to get a higher site ranking in search results is often indulged in by some marketers. It predominantly works to cheat search engine algorithms, popularly termed as Black Hat SEO How familiar are you with Black Hat SEO? Some digital marketers unintentionally […]
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From keyword stuffing to private link networks, practising against search engine guidelines to get a higher site ranking in search results is often indulged in by some marketers. It predominantly works to cheat search engine algorithms, popularly termed as Black Hat SEO
How familiar are you with Black Hat SEO? Some digital marketers unintentionally fall into its trap.
In the 1920S, most western films featured a villain wearing a black hat and the protagonist with a white one. Decades later, the terminology is used in various industries. In this case, Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO. Let’s explore.
Wouldn’t you agree that being the first link to organically pop-up in search results is one of the best growth measurements? But what happens when digital marketers opt for unethical methods to get ahead in the search page and ruin the search experience of a user? They face the wrath of penalties.
Recent research states that the ones who practise the skill sell their services on the dark web hacking forums. Due to free website builders, online educational content, and built-in tools, Black Hat SEO has become more accessible and widely prevalent. From keyword stuffing to private link networks, practising against search engine guidelines to get a higher site ranking in search results is often indulged in by some marketers.
It predominantly works to cheat search engine algorithms, popularly termed as Black Hat SEO, but the result might just pull them down the path of failure. It will lead to the website being eliminated from the search results or gaining a much lower position.
For instance, Google makes efforts to filter spam through their algorithms and reprimand Black Hat SEOs. The search engine brings deceptive SEO behaviour to the limelight, with clear webmaster guidelines. Its algorithm updates Penguin, Panda, and Payday, includes actions to reduce Black Hat SEO in the SERPs.
Here are some of the most common Black Hat SEO techniques:
Keyword Stuffing: Filling the content with irrelevant keywords and adding multiple variations of keywords. It causes the page to rank for unrelated queries, which creates a bad user experience.
Cloaking: Showing one piece of content to users and different content to search engines.
Sneaky Redirects: It redirects the user to a different URL they initially clicked.
Poor Quality Content: It also scrapes content from another website. It adds no value to the search user. The “bait and switch” where one creates content surrounding a topic they want to be ranked in is another Black Hat misleading technique.
Paid Links: Google banned the buying and selling of links. “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,” states the website.
Abusing rich snippets: It allows one to change how content is displayed on search engine results pages, making it stand out from competitors and giving more space on results pages.
Link Farms: It is a collection of websites developed for link building. Each website links to the sites they want to rank higher. It is the method of exploiting this by using link farms to increase the number of backlinks on an individual website.
Sometimes, the lines are blurred. When it’s hard to categorise it as a White or Black SEO tactic, it falls under the label of grey SEO. They might not technically be against the SEO guidelines, but they are considered slightly unethical and could be banned in the future.
However, it is difficult to watch the line. Even Google falls prey to Black Hat SEO at times. Remember when Google dropped its position in “browser” search results in 2012. The company had included a follow link in a sponsored post about Google Chrome. The webspam team applied a penalty in response, reducing its Pagerank for 60 days.
With advancing technology, search engine algorithms have become better, and experts urge businesses to consciously choose White Hat marketing and SEO as it’s more effective. Here are three essential approaches to investing in White Hat marketing and SEO actively.
Quality matters: From blog posts and links to offsite content, every brand content should be refined.
Double-check contractors: Third-party sources should always be second-guessed. Research their techniques and tools before shaking hands.
User optimisation trumps algorithm: Most marketers are tempted to align their strategies to search engine algorithms, but optimising them according to their customers is more effective.
White hat SEO is the most efficient way for organic search results and successful results. It’s imperative to build a business on the solid ground of search engine guidelines, and it doesn’t have to be overwhelming.
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