Are You Using Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO Techniques are More Prevalent Than You Know, and Can Destroy Your Website
The World Wide Web is an unfathomably large place. It is comprised of billions of pages—in fact, there are multiple websites actively measuring the number currently in existence! WorldWideWebSize.com estimates there are currently 5.69 billion indexed pages on the web. And all over this massive virtual domain, people are utilizing tactics to get more eyeballs on their content. Some . . . aren’t exactly kosher. Want to know the most surprising part? You’re probably using some of these black hat SEO tactics right now. And we can prove it!
Back when the Internet was relatively new, the right and wrong ways to utilize SEO were clearer. The definition of black hat SEO used to be all about breaking search engine optimization rules to cheat the algorithm. Here are some of the basic tenets of “good” SEO that date back many years:
Thou shalt not stuff web pages with keywords
Thou shalt not use cheap links
Thou shalt not copy content
Thou shalt not “disguise” webpage copy
Thou shalt not create gateway pages
These should all sound relatively familiar if you’ve ever worked on a website. They are what we refer to as “manipulative marketing” and are openly frowned upon by website builders and hosts everywhere. When these tenets are broken, Google and other search engines are pretty quick to identify their use and penalize appropriately.
How Black Hat SEO Techniques Have Changed
These days, however, both the Internet and black hat SEO practitioners are more sophisticated. And the definition of “good” vs. “bad” SEO practices is more nuanced than ever. In fact, we regularly point out problematic SEO practices to clients who had NO idea they were in potential violation of search engine guidelines. Ready to be tested?
Let’s take a quiz:
If I build a single web domain and a subdomain with identical original content that I wrote myself, this is not black hat SEO. True or False?
I’ve been hit with a negative SEO attack of spammy links. I’m not reporting it to Google, I’m just cleaning it up myself. Since I’m doing the work, there won’t be any long-lasting negative repercussions. True or False?
I paid several other websites for advertisements, and I’m adding my website URL to all of them just in case someone wants to click and pay us a visit. There is nothing wrong with adding the URL. True or False?
We place our top 10 keywords into the alt text of every image to ensure we’re getting that SEO “boost.” Those keywords are also used on the page so we can’t get into trouble. True or False?
Answers:
False. Content duplication or automation is a problem no matter how innocent your intentions. Each web page should contain its own original content.
False. You can contact other webmasters to deal with a spam attack, but Google also wants you to report it immediately.
False. You may think of this tactic as innocent advertising—but Google calls it a link scheme—especially if the links aren’t set up as a rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow". The same thing goes for trading free stuff in exchange for a link.
False. Keyword stuffing is just as problematic when utilized in the alt text of images . . . not to mention how upset you’re going to make your visually impaired visitors.
If you spot black hat SEO in action, you can do something about it. Report it to Google—and if it involves your website, fix the situation immediately.
If you have questions about your own website and techniques that could qualify as black hat SEO, it’s time to drop us a line so we can get you back on the straight and narrow as quickly as possible. It simply isn’t worth the penalties to do otherwise. It could take your site years to recover!
Read more about smart SEO and marketing techniques on our blog.