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25 Black Hat SEO Techniques
25 Black Hat SEO Techniques | Blackhatworld
Before search engines started taking action and upgrading their algorithms to penalise websites utilising such Black Hat SEO Approaches, these techniques, tricks, tactics, or whatever you'd like to call them, may have worked in the early days of Black Hat SEO. Additionally, because search engines don't enjoy being deceived, they took steps to ensure that the search results were as accurate and pristine as possible.
It can be challenging to use the right tactics to rank and generate organic traffic, but it's the best course of action. Therefore, strive to avoid falling into the trap of using the following shady/black hat SEO techniques:
I OVER-OPTIMIZE WEBSITE
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Keyword Stuffing – Writing Thin Content or Using Keyword Stuffing Gets You Penalised by Google Panda
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Over-Optimized Alt Description – Practice the Keyword Stuffing in Your Alt Description Image
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Commercial Anchor Text on Internal Pages – Using Keyword-Rich Anchor Texts for Internal Links
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Irrelevant Keywords – Abusing Irrelevant Keywords Just to Rank Will Damage Your CTR
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Linking Over-Optimization – Trying to Over-Optimize the Inbound Links Will Ruin Your Link Profile
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Hidden/ Invisible Text and Links – Hiding Links and Text or Writing Tiny Text for the Sole Purpose to Build Links
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HTML Heading Over-Optimization – Using Multiple H1s on a Page
II. CONTENT SCAMS
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Copied Content – Writing Copied Content Will Hamper Your Ranking
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Content Automation – Using Automated Ways to Generate Content
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Bait and Switch – Fraudulently Using the Bait and Switch Technique to Trick Google
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Article Spinning – Crafting Manual or Automated Article Spinning
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Scraped Content – Hatching Scraped Content Is Not Only Forbidden but Also Illegal
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Cloaking – Using Cloaking Violates Google Guidelines, and You Risk Getting Penalised by Google Penguin
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Malicious Active Content – Building up Pages with Malicious Behaviour
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Clickbait – Fabricating Deceptive Headlines Will Decrease Your CTR
III. LINK MANIPULATION
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Web Rings – Building Web Rings to Get Traffic from Related Websites
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Guest Post Spam – Unrelated Guest Blogging Just to Generate Links
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Link Farm – Manipulating Your Link Profile by Increasing the Number of Inbound Links
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Link Bait and Switch – Revitalise Your Content into a Commercial One Using Link Bait and Switch Method
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Buying Reviews with Links by Offering “Free” Products – Manipulating the Practice of Sending Free Products in Exchange for Reviews with Links
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Link Exchange – Excessive Link Exchange Is Considered a Link Scheme and It Won’t Let Your Site Appear in SERP
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Blog Comment Spam – Comment Spamming to Get a Large Number of Backlinks Easily
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Shady Redirects – Using 301 Redirect with Link Exchange
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Commercial Anchor Text Keywords – Using Less or Not at All Non-Branded Keywords
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Spammy Footer Links – Loading the Footer of Your Website with Links Will Only Get You a Large Number of Unnatural Links
I OVER-OPTIMIZE WEBSITE
1. Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is an outdated tactic that has seen better days. Prior to the year 2000, it was very common until Google realised that content with high keyword density isn't always relevant to the user.
For instance, I guarantee you wouldn't respond if someone asked the management of a business that sells chips if they had any chocolate chips. There are chocolate chips here. Because our clients prefer chocolate to basic chips and because chocolate is one of our best-selling products, choosing chocolate chips is the wiser choice. Consider chocolate chips. If you talk like that, you come across as insane. Who could genuinely speak that way, after all? Ever?
What do you think about the next page?
To you, does it appear natural? You can probably find a variety of online games on the website, but you don't need to write that down a thousand times to realise it.
Since we've already discussed Google Panda, let's look at the effects keyword stuffing can have on various websites. One webpage impacted by this algorithm is the one shown below:
Well, if you overuse keywords on your website, both you and your site may suffer as a result.
2. Over-Optimized Alt Description
The story continues with overly-optimised image alt text. This method, which is a little trickier than keyword stuffing, gets discovered by search engine crawlers even when you overstuff your photos with keywords instead of your text (content). Even because you can't see them, that doesn't mean they aren't really dangerous.
To be clear, it is advised that you use photographs in your articles to make them more readable. Writing alt descriptions for your photographs is more crucial than ever, but don't overdo it.
3. Commercial Anchor Text on Internal Pages
You can see from reading #1 and #2 that it is simple to stray from the correct course, which is white hat approach. A website that has been highly optimised or overly SEOed will clearly display an unnatural smiley face when using keyword-rich anchors for internal links.
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Google has created a "solution" called penalty for people looking for a quick way to rank at the top. Although some websites have high-quality material, they may not rank as highly as others, which may have weak, overly optimised content.
4. Irrelevant Keywords
Abusing irrelevant keywords to rank is another "pleasure" of the over-optimization game. Just to be clear, let's assume you enjoy playing poker, but we know you're bluffing. In that case, your visitors will do similarly when they visit your website and will flee like bats from hell. The CTR will also suffer.
According to SEO and SEM expert Michael Panuthos, sometimes your SEO specialist will overlook relevancy in their haste to get you on Google's front page. You could not get any traffic if your SEO expert places you on the front page of Google for unrelated keywords. Relevance is crucial.
5. Linking Over-Optimization
Webmasters come up with a variety of duplicitous strategies to rank. This unethical SEO practice involves forcing internal links to "About us," "Contact us," "Products," and other pages onto the homepage. Given that those pages already receive a significant amount of traffic, it is not only unnecessary but also impractical. Instead, deep links should be used to reinforce your internal links.
6. Hidden/Invisible Text and Links
There are many various sizes and shapes of text and links that are concealed solely for link development. Google has uncovered every tactic, including using CSS to place content off-screen, choosing a font that matches the background colour, changing the font size to 0, and burying links behind a single letter.
You'd be astonished to learn that beginners still employ this age-old trick.
Hidden text and links aren't always detrimental to your website. For instance, utilising a script for Java or code for Flash files that describes an image in detail is permissible. The last two technologies will enhance how search engines see your website.
7. HTML Heading Over-Optimizing
A common strategy to affect on-site SEO is to use many H1 tags on a page. Making use of this black hat strategy makes your website appear crowded.
Take the website below as an example. It makes use of headings and the keyword "plumber."
Even so, I urge you to make headlines, but keep in mind that there should only ever be one H1, and only one H2, and only one H3, etc. when absolutely essential.
II. CONTENT SCAMS
8. Copied Content
A sort of content that appears on multiple websites is copied content. Additionally, the material can be plagiarised (URLs). It merely makes it difficult for search engines to pick the right piece of information from all the duplicate content and display it, even if Google is already doing this. Because it is irrelevant to the user, it cannot display duplicate content.
Oh, for the good old SEO days, when duplicate content wouldn't harm your website quite as much! These days, employing this tactic will negatively impact your rating in an instant. Additionally, you run a significant chance of having Google Panda penalise your website.
9. Content Automation
Using tools or scripts to create content automatically and post it on your website without any effort on your part is known as content automation. The automated content lacks any formatting and style, including graphics, HTML headings, paragraph spacing, alignment, and other elements, and it is written without consideration for the user.
I can give you a secure way to find inspiration for creating high-quality articles. You can use BrandMentions to get writing ideas, create organic traffic, and improve your ranking. Finding and searching for information or keywords to see what's popular is entertaining and beneficial.
10. Bait and Switch
A deceptive strategy known as "bait and switch" entails modifying your content to help a page rank. The first stage is to create a page for Google using a specific combination of keywords, and after it starts to rank, the author replaces it with a different project or item. Users enter the website and see something quite different. This is a very clever idea, and whomever thought of this method was quite inventive. Using this stupid approach to trick Google may have worked well in the past, but it will now get you blacklisted, and if you "win the jackpot," you may be sued.
Another webpage that employed the bait-and-switch tactic is the one below.
11. Article Spinning
It is the process of creating a (human or automated) method of rewriting content in order to generate "new" content and avoid falling under the "duplicate content" - umbrella. Because you don't provide any value or pertinent information to the user, it is regarded as black hat. You might simply write the new information as an update if you learned anything new about a subject you previously addressed in an article. By doing this, you can improve that article's ranking and promote it.
12. Scraped Content
Utilising programmes to steal content from other publishers and post it on your website is known as scraping. This approach is intriguing because it was the focus of various legal disputes involving violations of the original site owner's copyright. In the United States and other jurisdictions, hatching scraped content is not only prohibited but also illegal. One such case was Century 21 Canada Limited Partnership v. Rogers, which was heard in Canada in 2011. Both sides apply to this. If you've been the victim of this crime, you can use tools to track down the perpetrators and file a complaint with the website hosting the stolen material.
I'm not providing you with any suggestions.