Black Hat is a name for cheating or manipulating the search engines to get better rankings. Many internet marketers are tempted to toe the line and cheat the search engines. So what exactly is Black Hat?
The bottom line is that the technique is black hat if it is unnatural or unethical. If the search engine is tricked into ranking a webpage higher than it should, there is something fishy going on. You should not use these methods in the first place, but just in case you are contemplating it, here is a short list of 5 Black Hat Techniques you should stay away from.
5 Black Hat Techniques To Avoid
I have listed these techniques in no particular order of severity.
1. Webpage Flooding
Ever seen a salespage that said this: Create a 1000 page website in 10 minutes? The black hat people use a script that instantly creates 100′s and 1000′s of pages with keyword stuffed content. It may have worked in the past, it may still work – if you’re silly enough to do it, but the point is this: Google will catch you out and give you the big old slap eventually. Bad idea #1.
2. Invisible text
This one is so outdated, it’s not even funny! The Black hat technique is to place a white text (with keywords) on a white background. Great idea, if ‘only’ people read websites. But search engines are colorblind and can read all the writing. Bad idea #2.
3. Cloaking
Cloaking is an outdated technique that shows one page to Googlebot (the search engine spider) and another to the visitor. Why do they do that? Well, the idea is to show you, the reader, a page that sells, but another keyword optimised page to Googlebot. Bad idea #3.
4. Keyword Stuffing
Google wants to read a natural page that makes sense to human visitors and rank it according to it’s own merits. Stuffing keywords in everywhere possible isn’t just unnatural but it’s also a very outdated method that will get you pushed down the searchengine rankings very fast! Bad idea #4.
5. Doorway Pages
A Doorway Page is a specially built webpage that is only designed to attract a ranking with the search engines. It then redirects automatically to the ‘real page’. This is still a very popular method and is used widely by SEO firms to profit. Beware! This is Bad Idea #5
I hope this list has convinced you how pointless these techniques are. As an internet marketer, you should build your webpages naturally and we are all winners in the end. And most af all: Have fun in the process!
About Sean Rasmussen
Unfortnately the Black Hat SEO’s have been turning to spamming forums and spamming blog comments to do their link building these days. That’s one of the worst SEO tactics ever.
I had never heard of many of these things.
I get blog comments spamming and it seems to be getting worse, and you still see plenty of sites employing the keyword stuffing approach.
I am amazed at the companies that promote themselves as SEO experts an yet their work says otherwise.
A claassic case of not walking the talk
There are plenty of “so called” SEO experts around. Make sure you have a close look at their service and ask questions before taking anyone on.
Hi Sean,
I’ve never heard of most of these black hat techniques and I don’t really want to. This is definitely not an area that holds any interest for me.
This was one of the first blog posts I read last year when I was introduced to your site by the partner of a very well known & highly successful International Speaker – they liked your stuff & when I was ghost-writing for them, ‘he’ wanted me to study your posts to ‘figure out’ the key.
It was hard – I got frustrated. You were the inspiration of my first success in getting first page on Google. I no longer ghost-write as I have decided to follow my passion for comedy & that’s where my real talent lies – not ghost-writing for other people.
I digress. When I read this post I knew instantly you were a man of substance. I went on & read other blog posts – gotta find the ‘Chicken Shit’ one. I laughed so hard when I read that last year.
Hi Sean,
I had heard of a couple of those Black Hats, the mob that scammed me told me to do some of them but lucky for me I didnt know how to get my own site up ……… then I met Sean and now know better.
Rita
That is nice to definitely find a site where the blogger knows what they are talking about. Bookmark!
-Michael Henry
Hi Sean,
The white text on white background method is such a classic example of an old black hat technique used to trick the search engines. Although I will never use a black hat technique, it is always important to know about them to help spot the dodgy SEO services out there!
Hi Sean
Forewarned is forearmed as the saying goes. I would never have been guilty of using those black hat tricks as they are all new to me. However, as David says, it is better to know so we can spot the dodgy ones. Thankyou for revealing this information.
Blessings,
Elly
Nowadays Google is pretty good at detecting most of the blackhat stuff out there – so generally we are protected – but still need to be vigilant and certainly avoid succumbing to the ‘temptation’ to utilise them just to get ahead. They are a great way to be banned by Google!
Hi Sean,
WOW! What a great testimonial here by Witty Sam. You lucky duck!
Well earned also. Very important advice here to Internet Marketers who can’t afford to have tarnished reputations with Google. The message is clear. No Black Hat techniques to be used by hopeful marketers in an attempt to raise Google rankings.
One small technicality though. I question the correct usage of the phrase “tow the line” It’s usually recognized as a expression of “doing your bit” in a positive sense. (Correct me if I’m wrong) Enjoyed the article though, Thanks Sean.
Hi Jill,
Here’s a quote from Wikipedia: “Toe the line” is an idiomatic expression meaning to conform to a rule or a standard”
Hey Sean,
Great to learn what NOT to do, as well as what to do. In the evolution of Internet Marketing, I’m still hitting two stones together trying to get a spark, compared to you fellas (and fella-ettes) using nuclear power! *grin*
When it all starts making a little more sense and becomes clearer, it’s good to know what I won’t be doing!
Just a thought!
Cheers,
Pete
Good to know the things not to do before I even get started! Thank you Sean.
I think its great these days that people on the internet are actually getting results faster by being honest. Integrity in important in all businesses and that goes for the Internet as well
Thanks for the info Sean, wasn’t considering but all tips much appreciated!
Cheers & C..n S…t
Sue!
Thanks Sean, 5 great tips. Must admit I’m really learning something to start with.
Cheers
Rose
I am just now diving into the world of SEO and found this article very useful. I definitely have a fear of employing a tactic or coming up with my own that will end up being a black hat trick
If you want to make good webiste and get traffic from Google, than write good articles and posts, play fair and you dont have to worry about anything. Find related site to yours, exchange links, write on forums, comment on blogs and you will be fine
Of course, learn SEO!
Thanks!
Not doing these 5 things seem logical, but I guess many are still doing it. I read somewhere that there’s a set target of keyword concentration that appears to be natural. Stuff too many keywords and it’s going affect your ranking negatively.