What Is Black Hat SEO? 10 Black Hat SEO Strategies to Avoid |
There is no doubt that the majority of customer experiences start through search engines, so companies and organizations pay special attention to SEO by relying on the appropriate strategies. But some website owners rely on different strategies to achieve the same goals known as black hat SEO strategies. So what are the Black Hat SEO strategies, and are they really effective?
What is SEO?
Before talking about black hat SEO, we need to define SEO at first, or as you write for short SEO. SEO is defined as the set of activities that are carried out for sites, to improve their visibility in relevant searches, and top search results, by targeting keywords associated with those processes.
When the site appears best in search results, this leads to increased traffic from customers and the possibility of attracting more customers. There are many search engines, the most famous of which of course is the search engine Google, where statistics indicate that the search engine Google accounts for more than 70% of the total search traffic.
Despite this large percentage, less than 1% of searchers on Google's search engine go to the second page. As a result, companies seek to try to top search results or at least occupy an advanced position on the front page, which is what makes competition so strong in the world of SEO.
So, it was important to develop different strategies to use in SEO, and among these strategies were: SEO Black Hat SEO, SEO White Hat SEO. Within each of them, many methods are used to achieve the desired improvement.
What's the difference between SEO Black Hat vs White Hat?
The term "white hat SEO" refers to ethical practices that are consistent with search engine guidelines and through which better results can be achieved. This can be achieved by using high-quality content, giving users a good user experience. Hence, it cannot be subject to penalties from Google search engines or other search engines.
White Hat SEO techniques include various strategies such as: creating a website that is easy to navigate and paying attention to quickly loading pages on the site, using content-compatible keywords to improve results, and using backlinks from reliable high-quality sites. These strategies make it easier to try to top the search results.
Conversely, the term "black hat SEO" refers to unethical practices, which work against search engine guidelines, and are used to get a higher ranking in search results, to get quick results.
Black Hat SEO techniques include various strategies such as keyword stuffing, hidden text, and duplicate content. In the end, the result is that the site is sanctioned by Google, which attaches importance to these guidelines, and may even be completely banned from the search engine.
Google is constantly changing its algorithms, so it can detect and quickly manipulate black hat SEO technologies. So even if one of these strategies works for a while, Google can detect it later when developing its algorithms.
Examples of such algorithms developed include Google Florida responsible for keyword stuffing, Google Panda responsible for content-related matters, Google Penguin responsible for links, and Google Hummingbird responsible for organizing information and bringing it to users.
Why should you avoid black hat SEO?
What Is Black Hat SEO? 10 Black Hat SEO Strategies to Avoid |
What if your site isn't excluded from search engines? This doesn't mean the end of the problem, or the possibility of believing that by tricking search engines at this point, you'll achieve outstanding results from BlackHat SEO. There are still some potential damages:
Your site's visibility has declined
In the best possible circumstances, relying on black hat SEO leads to a decline in your site's ranking in search engines, resulting in a loss of site traffic and not attracting more visitors to it. There's nothing that attracts them to access your site, such as having exclusive content.
If you use your site to complete sales, there will be no conversion to your site from search engines, and therefore you will not be able to make profits. This can result in the business losing a lot of money, as a result of incurring additional costs and having to think of strategies other than SEO.
Lack of good results in the long run
Black hat SEO strategies lead to quick results, so even if it does happen, and things are going excellently, you may lose everything in moments. Google may take some time to identify unethical methods, but when that happens, the loss is certain. This is what happened when Google's algorithms and updates appeared, which affected many businesses.
Thus, after trying to top the search results, and appear among the first results in some keywords, with actual results on the ground, you find yourself backing down without any prior warning. Using a black hat SEO doesn't help you predict and predict a regression, so you can't plan well to deal with change.
Produce a poor user experience
In the end, the primary goal of SEO techniques is to focus on making pages suitable for users' experience in the first place and then come to the search engines. This is the goal of Google, which cares about users getting a good user experience, and the strategies it relies on are just a way to contribute to achieving it.
While black hat SEO is a strategy that focuses on search engines and how to deceive them, i.e. puts users second in the ranking of their interests. This results in a lack of interest in the user experience, and therefore a lack of interest in visitors to the sites, so their ability to achieve the desired conversion is very limited.
10 Black Hat SEO Strategies to Avoid
Many know the need to avoid using black hat SEO strategies. But sometimes the problem is not knowing all the strategies that follow it. When reading nominations for SEO techniques, there is a question as to whether this strategy is within the SEO of the black hat SEO or the SEO of the white hat SEO.
Fortunately, Google provides guidance from webmasters, regarding the basic principles of using an SEO strategy, as well as clarification of the strategies to avoid. These strategies represent a large part of the Black Hat SEO strategies.
1. Keyword stuffing
The SEO strategy aims to top the search results and relies on keywords as the main means of achieving this. So, one of the strategies of Black Hat SEO focuses on loading a website page with these words in large numbers, in an inappropriate way that does not correspond to the context.
This leads to a poor user experience, and your pages may rank in the list of irrelevant queries. Google shows examples of keyword stuffing, such as adding a list of phone numbers without added value or repeating words or phrases in a way that sounds completely unnatural.
For example: "We provide SEO services. Our SEO services are the best out there. If you want to get SEO services, you can contact our SEO services experts via messages." You can feel that there is a flaw in the wording as a result of unjustified repetition, and it's easy for Google to recognize and punish this content.
2. Automatically generated content
As a result of the Black Hat SEO's lack of interest in users, the tech's creators may use software tools to produce content, to manipulate search results, rather than provide real value to the user. Examples of this content include texts that do not give any real meaning to the reader, but contain only keywords or merged texts from different pages without any addition.
Another mistake that leads to placing content in this classification is a translation by automated tools, without conducting a review and organization by humans. The translation of large texts directly leads to changes in meaning and a defect in the correct wording.
3. Content of poor quality or stolen
Instead of writing exclusive and distinctive content for the audience, this strategy within Black Hat SEO is based on delivering poor-quality content, by paying attention only to including keywords, without focusing on providing content that has real value or benefit.
Some website owners may go a little further in this way, by stealing content from other popular sites. Not only do you copy and publish content without adding, but also copy parts of the content, and modify them slightly, such as replacing only synonyms. It's important to know that copying any piece of content, no matter how simple, is classified as theft that harms your site.
In fact, it's important to recognize the importance of writing exclusive marketing content as a key part of the White Hat SEO, as the user is always looking for premium content to read, and therefore doesn't want any duplicate or similar content. If you want to differentiate your project, you always need to write exclusive content consistently.
You can always get the right writing and translation services for your project from Khamsat, the largest Arabic marketplace for microservices, to help you write exclusive content or translate the content you want to post on your site. This will help you top the search results, as content is one of the three most important factors influencing the ranking on Google.
4. Cloaking
The method of blocking or hiding involves providing content or URLs to users, different from those provided to search engines. The goal is to get a good ranking in search engines, but without offering any real benefit to users.
For example, when you view an image on your site, the user sees it as an image as it is, while the spiders of the search engine see it as text and links. Thus, the repeated inclusion of keywords in the description of images unnecessarily and without the knowledge of users is classified as deception of both parties and is contrary to the guidelines of search engines.
5. Hide texts and links
Hiding text or links is close to the previous hiding strategy. Through this strategy, content manipulation occurs, to include keywords in a way that visitors do not see, and therefore is classified as a deception for search engines, because you do not deserve to get a good ranking in this way.
Hiding text and links occurs in several ways, including using a font color for text that resembles the background color, for example, white text on a white background, using a zero font size so that words cannot be seen even though they are in the text, or also by hiding links, by placing them on a single lowercase in the middle of the paragraph, so that the visitor does not see it.
Of course, not all hidden texts are classified as deception. For example, if you're placing images on your site, using descriptive text improves access to your site, even though it's hidden. This is because some visitors use screen readers, some have a slow internet connection, so they don't see images, and descriptive text appears instead, recognizing the content of the image.
6. Doorway pages
Portal pages are one of the strategies of Black Hat SEO aimed at creating pages, to act as a path that converts visitors to other pages. These pages are classified as part of violations of Google's search engine guidelines, especially if they do not contain useful content.
For example, pages that are created to get a good ranking on keywords related to your topic, and do not provide content to the user. These pages only convert it to the target master page, as it serves as a gateway to the primary goal of those who use it, without providing any addition to it.
7. Paid or manipulative links
Links are commonly used in the content, so one of the strategies of Black Hat SEO focuses on taking advantage of this, by getting links in the wrong ways, leading to their classification as a violation. The most popular form of this is to buy or sell links or send free products to sites in exchange for these links.
You should also avoid pushing sites to link your content, as Google asks users to report such cases to them. When they discover any practices for selling links, they punish both the seller and the buyer. If you're using these links now, remove them as soon as possible.
If you want to have other sites create links from your site, the best way is to create exclusive and unique content, so that it succeeds in achieving real popularity and popularity, without having to use the black hat SEO. The more you succeed in producing premium content on your site, the greater the chance that it will be shared by others.
8. Deceptive redirection (sneaky redirects)
Redirection is the process of sending visitors to a URL that is different from the one they initially requested. This is an acceptable goal when using SEO techniques. This method can be used when moving your site to a new address or merging a group of pages into a single title. So by forwarding, you can be sure that users can easily reach you.
But sometimes this method is used incorrectly within the strategies of the black hat SEO, by deceiving search engines and displaying content different from what the user sees. For example, a search engine displays certain content, while directing the audience to different other content.
9. Misuse of structured data
Structured data such as ratings can add distinction to your site from other competitors, and this improves results. The prerequisite is to use correct data and do so in the appropriate way. This method is used within ethical SEO techniques. But some also use it as one of the black hat SEO strategies.
They add incorrect data, in the form of structured data, to deceive search engines. For example, someone who uses Black Hat SEO has given themselves five stars as a rating, through a fake review site, and adds them to appear on search results pages. This makes him seem like an SEO expert to anyone who reads content, but this is of course a deception and falsification of the truth.
10. Create pages with malicious behavior
One of the strategies of Black Hat SEO is to create content pages, behave differently than the user expects, and often cause some harm. For Google, this is a breach of the security of users, who don't want to get anything else, except what they're looking for on Google.
For example, downloading files on their device without their consent, installing viruses and malware, suddenly showing up ads and windows other than the one they use, or changing content without pressing the appropriate button to do so, as this happens by a different part of the page. and other behaviors harmful to him.
What comes next to knowing these strategies?
Of course, the primary goal of knowing these strategies is to avoid using them within SEO techniques. But what if you rely on some of them now? Or harder than that; what if you don't know if black hat SEO strategies are on your site or not? So, you need to perform the following steps quickly:
1. Review the strategies used on your site
Sometimes, you may not be in charge of SEO functions in your project, so you may not have complete knowledge about the strategies used in SEO. The first step is to review the strategies and categorize them according to their type.
Although you don't have the experience to make the move, you don't want to be deceived. You can use the SEO services provided by SEO experts on the Fiverr platform to help you do the job, and determine if there is anything else you would like to know.
2. Stop Harmful Black Hat SEO Strategies
After you've finished knowing the black hat SEO strategies, you should quickly stop using them as part of your SEO techniques, such as: removing malicious links and pages or clearing the misused structured data. If you find something that needs to be reported to Google to not harm you, do so.
For example, if you want to delete paid links from your site, and you can't get webmasters to remove them. You can use the link disclaimer to inform Google that you ignore these links from your site when calculating your ranking in search results.
3. Switching from Black Hat Seo to White Hat SEO
What Is Black Hat SEO? 10 Black Hat SEO Strategies to Avoid |
In fact, the main reason for relying on black hat SEO is the desire to achieve quick results, through SEO techniques. So, first of all, you shouldn't believe in this, and pay attention to getting results based on ethical techniques, even if it takes a long time.
With this conviction, you can go from using black hat SEO to white hat SEO, it will help you start working properly so that you succeed in achieving good results on the search engine Google, and with time you will be able to top the search results.
4. Writing Content Marketing
Remember in the end that writing exclusive marketing content is an essential part of an SEO strategy. The presence of this content will make you never have to resort to any harmful strategies, as the quality of the content will spare you from this, and will save a lot of time and wasted effort. Besides improving the results of the white hat SEO, which increases the effectiveness of SEO techniques in general.
In conclusion, remember that the main key to the success of all SEO strategies, is to focus on the user, it always comes to the fore. So why use something as harmful as a black hat SEO, spending your money, time, and effort on it, ignoring users, and potentially causing great damage to your site? If you want to create a continuous business, you need to leave these techniques and focus on the techniques that bring you continuity and success indeed.
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