This should not happen, and SEOs should focus their efforts on creating the best results on the web rather than just making it look like it is.
But Google's algorithms are less advanced at this stage, especially when it comes to identifying webspam.
Many marketers use Blackhat SEO tactics in droves to rank their websites, but times have changed and Black Hat SEO is no longer so unchallenged. In this article, we'll delve into the techniques to avoid if you don't want to fall foul of the algorithm, as well as provide some quality guidelines for webmasters.
Table of Contents
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO Risks
3 Reasons to Avoid Black Hat SEO
9 Blackhat SEO Strategies to Avoid
How to report Black Hat SEO?
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO is a strategy used to rank websites that violate Search Engine guidelines . Black Hat SEO techniques attempt to manipulate Search Engine algorithms to increase a website's ranking in SERPs (Learn more about How Search Engines Work ).
Search engines like Google and Bing are very clear about which practices conflict with their terms, and they're pretty clear on the possible consequences if you violate them. Using blackhat SEO tactics can get your site penalized (either by algorithm or by manual action), which means a lower ranking position and, most likely, a decrease in organic traffic.
Black Hat SEO Risks
There are significant risks of using Blackhat tactics to rank websites, and that’s why most SEO agencies are turning their backs on this practice. Most of the SEO industry considers these practices to be completely unethical.
But the truth is that there are a small number of marketers who want to try to cheat the system and try to quickly increase the organic success of their website. Even though Blackhat SEO techniques work for websites, the results are often short-lived.
When we look at Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, it’s clear that they recommend the following basic SEO principles:
Avoid tricks to improve your search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with yours, or to a Google employee. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? I would do this without search engines."
When it comes to using Blackhat tactics, the truth is that these techniques do not help the user and would not be used without Blackhat.
3 Reasons to Avoid Black Hat SEO
But what is the worst case scenario if a website uses Blackhat SEO to rank in search results pages?
Delving deeper into Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, we see that they clearly state that such violations “may lead to the entire site being removed from the Google index or otherwise subject to manual algorithmic or spam actions.” The guidelines go on to say that “if a site is subject to spam actions, it may no longer appear in results on Google.com or any of Google’s partner sites.”
While SEO is all about increasing the visibility and organic traffic of a website, blackhat tactics can have the opposite effect. To help you understand why you should avoid them, we’ve broken it down into three key points…
1. It can negatively affect search rankings and visibility.
The number one reason not to use Blackhat SEO tactics is that they will ultimately result in your site losing search rankings, visibility, and traffic.
Just look below, here are the revelations of sites that car owner database participated in the unnatural strategy and were negatively affected by it:
When a website loses traffic and visibility, conversions and revenue typically follow a similar trend.
This could mean a reduction in business revenue and lead to job losses or even closure, or worse, a sharp decline in organic traffic, meaning this will need to be supplemented with higher investments in PPC or other paid media.
Black Hat SEO tactics can degrade a website’s performance, either as a result of manual actions or algorithmic filtering.
2. Does not produce long-term results
Even when ranking and overall performance initially increase, these are often unsustainable.
While it can take some time for Google to identify a site as unethical (perhaps due to manual review or core algorithm updates), when it does happen, the loss of traffic is inevitable, but it is 100% reversible.
Perhaps the only thing worse than struggling to rank a site is seeing its rankings and traffic inflate and then suddenly plummet in no time. Businesses need predictability, and that's not something that blackhat strategies can do.
3. Give users a bad experience
SEO needs to focus on the user experience on a website and work to provide the best content and the best UX. But Blackhat tactics do the opposite. They optimize for search engines (at least what they think search engines want to see) rather than users. And this can be a problem.
Trust plays a huge role in search success. Focusing on search engines over users is like sabotaging your chances of generating conversions.
blackhat seo
9 Blackhat SEO Strategies to Avoid
If you’re just starting out with SEO, it can be hard to know which strategies to use and which not to. While many SEO fundamentals are clear white hat strategies, many advanced strategies require more attention to detail. Many people prefer to use a Digital Marketing Agency for SEO. Our Sales SEO services use methods that are good for search engines, such as optimizing images to be SEO-friendly , building keyword density , and more.
However, always make sure that you are following the right advice. Tactics suggested on blogs, social media groups, or from your acquaintances may sound like “advanced” strategies, but in reality, they are still leading you to blackhat techniques.
