In SEO, the aim should be to make your website a reliable source that people, and search engines, want to use. There are, however, less legitimate ways of chasing better rankings, and the industry calls them "black hat SEO".
What is black hat SEO?
Black hat SEO is any practice that breaks search engine guidelines in an attempt to improve a site's position in the search results.
These tactics usually lead to a penalty from the search engines, which stops the site from ranking properly. The most common black hat techniques include keyword stuffing, cloaking and link farming.
Black hat SEO vs white hat SEO
Black hat SEO is the opposite of white hat SEO. Black hat covers the approaches you should not use; white hat covers every approved (and recommended) way of improving your rankings.
A common example of black hat SEO is buying links. The white hat alternative is to earn links naturally with good content, and to label any paid links with the nofollow attribute or with sponsored.
How do search engines detect black hat SEO?
Exactly how search engines detect black hat practices is not public. What algorithm updates do show is that companies like Google have built increasingly accurate tools to catch them.
For instance, Google released these algorithm updates to tackle black hat SEO:
| Update | Targeted |
|---|---|
| Jagger | Black hat link schemes, such as paid backlinks, cloaking and more |
| Panda | Sites with thin content and/or low-quality content, including link farms |
| Penguin | Spammy sites, such as those using keyword stuffing and link schemes |
| Payday Loan | Spammy sites, such as those using spamdexing |
| Spam | Spam content |
| Link spam | Sites using suspicious backlink tactics |
Black hat SEO techniques
What are some examples of black hat SEO techniques? There are plenty, but below are the main ones businesses tend to try.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing means forcing keywords into a page to improve its rankings. That includes cramming keywords into:
- Body copy
- Backlink anchor text
- Meta tags
Putting keywords in these places is not a problem in itself. It becomes one when you go past a couple of natural mentions and repeat the keyword over and over.
White hat alternative
Aim to use your keyword naturally about twice in the copy, once in the title and once in the meta description, and never where it is not needed. If you have to force it in, you probably do not need it.
Cloaking
Cloaking means showing search engine crawlers different content from what is on the page for users, so the two get a different experience of the same URL.
The idea is to help pages rank with content written for search engines while showing users something else.
White hat alternative
Build the best pages you can for your users, and search engines will rank them higher over time. Their goal, after all, is to give users the best results.
Link farming
A link farm is a website (or network of websites) set up purely to create links. These sites link out to other sites that want to rank well in search results. By inflating the number of links, the aim is to push the target site to a higher ranking.
These sites usually carry low-quality content stuffed with links. The best link building tools can help you spot them. Google also detects link farms easily, and they can damage your rankings.
White hat alternative
Write informative content that attracts links naturally. Or, if you know a site that would be a useful source of links, contact it directly and ask whether you can write a guest post or get a link to a relevant page on your site.
Hidden text
Hidden text is added to websites as a way of adding keywords to pages. The text is invisible to users, but Google can still read the keywords on the page.
It can create a poor user experience (UX) and lead Google to flag the site as deceptive.
White hat alternative
As with keyword stuffing, use keywords naturally and in a way that fits the page. If you focus on writing relevant content, you should have no trouble ranking for the keywords you choose.
Bait and switch
With "bait and switch", you create a page that ranks well and, once it sits high in the results, you change its content.
Say you write a page about interior design for modern homes. Once it starts ranking, you swap the content for something unrelated, such as SEO for pest control or for locksmiths. This deliberately misleads users and gives them a poor experience.
White hat alternative
Be completely clear about what users should expect when they click your result. Make sure the meta description, title and keywords match the content of the page.
How to fix a black hat SEO penalty
A penalty for black hat SEO can cut your site's traffic overnight. So you need to understand why it happened and how to fix it.
The fix depends on the penalty. For example, you might need to:
- Remove keyword stuffing
- Clean up a hacked website
- Disavow harmful backlinks
- Rewrite thin or low-quality pages
If you have received a manual action, you can submit a reconsideration request. Algorithmic penalties, on the other hand, mean waiting for search engines to recognise your fixes, which can take months.
Why should you avoid black hat SEO?
Black hat SEO can bring some short-term gains, such as more traffic or higher rankings, but Google is quick to penalise sites that use it. Because these techniques go against Google's guidelines, it looks as though you are deliberately trying to deceive for your site's benefit.
Search engines keep getting better at spotting black hat techniques.
If Google penalises you, your rankings will probably drop in the SERPs. Or your site could be removed from the search results entirely. Either way, you get less traffic, fewer customers and less revenue.
A white hat approach keeps you clear of Google penalties and earns the trust of your visitors. If you want your site to do well in the long run, stick to legitimate, approved SEO techniques.
How to avoid black hat SEO
If you are trying to avoid black hat SEO, you are probably not setting out to break any rules, so there is not much to worry about. Still, here are a few ways to keep your SEO above board:
- Put users and search engines first. Never try to trick either of them into thinking a page is about something it is not, and avoid deliberate, misleading redirects. Your aim should be a good experience on your site for both users and crawlers.
- Never buy or sell links. They will only hurt you over time, and they can even get you flagged for spam if they do not come from a trustworthy source. This Google post covers buying and selling links in detail.
- Only publish useful, good-quality content. Good content lets you include keywords naturally and meet search intent without misleading users. The more consistent you are, the more traffic you will build over time.
- Follow Google's spam policies and keep up to date. As new black hat techniques appear, Google updates its rules and the penalties for anyone using them.
Get your SEO right with professional help
With the right SEO tactics, your site will get the traffic, conversions and revenue you are after, without nasty surprises later on.
If you want to improve your SEO strategy the right way, our team can build a plan around quality content and ethical link building. Get in touch today to find out how we can improve your SEO strategy together so it keeps delivering results.
