Search Engine Marketing

3 Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid

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Google is king at playing superhero, and if you try black hat tactics, you’re going to get crushed. Utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) for malicious purposes will likely only last a brief time before you’re exiled to the bottom of Google rankings. Unfortunately, there are a number of black hat mistakes that newbies make. This can be a tricky and long process to correct.

Black hat strategies are often due to lack of knowledge and laziness. A real SEO professional will never use underhanded strategies in order to lure in customers or gain ground in Google searches. When you’re working with a quality SEO company, you’re safe, but make sure you avoid these pitfalls when going solo.

Your Site Isn’t a Turkey

Stuffing your website with keywords and phrases is a dead giveaway to Google Panda. SEO has to be authentic, original and engaging, and there are zero exceptions. You know instantly when you see stuffed SEO content because it doesn’t make sense, it’s stiff and the same words or phrases are repeated mercilessly.

Keyword stuffing is the leading strategy to kill a site. I’ve written SEO-rich content for years, and I know how frustrating it can be when you have a large list of words to include. Writing SEO is like putting together a complicated puzzle, which is exactly why you should go to a professional.

Bait and Switch

There are a number of bait possibilities including Google Adsense, social media sites and meta tags. However, when a link leads to a completely unrelated site, you’ve got the second most damaging black hat trick. This guarantees bounce backs and your site is delegated as spam. Using prime SEO key words to lure in a click, only to whisk consumers to an unrelated (or even dangerous) site is never okay.

The most aggressive black hatters might even be banned from search engines. This isn’t a big risk to unethical SEO writers, but it is to you. If you unknowingly engage in these tactics, you risk your entire web presence.

The Unseen Threat

Invisible text impacts SEO rankings, but is otherwise unseen. Most browsers won’t pick up invisible text, but when you hide this text it’s a black hat strategy. It’s the third worst sneaky tactic to use, and it doesn’t fool Google Panda. Your content, whether visible or not, needs to be clean, truthful and organic.

Remember these three big offenders the next time you revamp your site. The only way to get quality SEO content is by hiring a professional. Otherwise, it’s easy to get roped into the dark side.

Image Credit:Sally Monster

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25 comments

Drew January 5, 2013 - 2:08 pm
Now I only use a professional to write articles, because I get so lost when it comes to writing seo content.
Adrienne January 7, 2013 - 8:14 am
Thanks for your comment Drew. If you're interested in working on your own copywriting skills I'll recommend a resource that has been invaluable to me, Copyblogger's Codex of Content Marketing: http://www.copyblogger.com/content-marketing-codex/ Good luck!
Sai January 6, 2013 - 12:35 am
I noticed some bloggers using incoming search terms plugin to get more traffic, Its also a black hack technique. However thanks for your contribution Adrienne Erin.
Adrienne January 7, 2013 - 8:10 am
Thanks for your comment - maybe I'll try for 5 or 10 techniques next time. :)
Rusty January 6, 2013 - 5:07 pm
You did mention only few black hat techniques that most SEO'ers are doing. But I also I agree with you that high quality content is still the king to get your site notice by Big G. Aside from that, I suggest if you were hiring a writer for your blog, it is smarter to submit your content first to plagiarism checker tool to see if it is unique or had passed the copyscape. Anyway, thanks for tackling this info.. Highly recommended to noobs who is just starting this kind of job.
Adrienne January 7, 2013 - 8:12 am
Thanks for your comment. I definitely agree, it's always important to run your content through copyscape, even when you're the writer - it could even be the case that you're internalizing some phrasing from another site without realizing it. But if you hire someone else to write and find some plagiarism, I'd definitely find a new writer.
Kevin Bryan January 7, 2013 - 1:26 am
Hi Adrienne Erin, The above listed techniques are usually performed by newbie bloggers and experts too i mean some of them.. i think iam also the one which can be included in that list. however thanks for the awesome explanation.
Adrienne January 7, 2013 - 8:15 am
I think it's especially important to inform new bloggers about these things, because they could be setting themselves up for a big mistake/major loss of income. Thanks for your comment!
Quality Seo Services January 7, 2013 - 8:26 pm
Black Hat SEO can be dangerous to your business as this technique is being monitored by search engines especially Google. This kind of method is absolutely spamming like the use of keyword stuffing and rehashing content.
design a custom logo January 9, 2013 - 12:49 am
It is absolutely clear that those persons or companies are using black hat techniques never grow their business, ranking, traffic or visibility in search engine. Your are right that these shared black hat techniques are very worst to use therefore everyone should avoid these techniques.
Becca January 9, 2013 - 9:16 am
I have learned so much by reading your blog. Sure thing White hat technique is It always amazes me how much there is to learn. It is also mind boggling how fast things change.
Adrienne January 9, 2013 - 9:21 am
Yeah, this is probably one of the fastest changing industries out there right now. Google updates its algorithm at least once a day, so I suppose it's to be expected.
Nanvy @ CRM Software Solutions January 11, 2013 - 4:40 am
Black Hat SEO does not follow the guidelines of search engine and it involves deception, using cloaking and doorway pages are the few examples of these techniques which must be avoided. The most important thing is that it's not ethical way for doing SEO.
Soccer Uniforms January 12, 2013 - 12:47 am
Its too much good enough to know how can we avoid form black hat technique. But i think some time its have to made because we want more traffic . also many SEO user black Hat technique but also Google cant make them down. Please post more about Black Hat and thanks for your post .keep it up.
ZK January 12, 2013 - 7:41 am
How has Panda and Penguin updates on Google affected your sites ? Have your sites got penalized even when you did white hat SEO activities ?
Adrienne January 14, 2013 - 8:36 am
I think almost everyone got penalized with the Google updates - a lot of activities that we used to not think twice about doing would hurt us now. What has your experience been?
Property Marbella January 17, 2013 - 10:26 am
I have not suffered from any of Panda and Penguin updates. My webpages step instead of Google rankings. Do it right from the beginning, there are no shortcuts - Google will find you sooner or later.
Sai Kumar January 13, 2013 - 10:12 pm
Hi Adrienne, i think am stuffing some keywords in some of my articles. I will surely avoid keyword stuffing and Thanks for Sharing this Black Hat SEO Techniques!
Adrienne January 14, 2013 - 8:35 am
Good luck!
Jules@Virtual Assistant January 18, 2013 - 3:17 am
SEO is very important to implement into your marketing strategy. The goal in SEO is to get the attention of your targeted audiences in order to purchase your product or services. There are lots of SEO techniques, but never use black hat- it breaks the rules of search engine sites and your post may not be accepted.
How To Get Published January 19, 2013 - 2:10 am
Hidden text, cloaking, and blog comment spam are examples of black hat SEO. Thanks for sharing this blog.
Ananya SEO Services February 13, 2013 - 2:18 am
Hi Adrienne, Thanks for the warning on black-hat SEO techniques. Even too much of white-hat SEO can invite penalty. Google has announced an upcoming over-optimization update. Matt Cuts has also warned about guest blogging just for links; he also says content spinning too will be penalized.
Una February 23, 2013 - 1:34 am
If you want to improve your experience simply keep visiting this website and be updated with the most up-to-date news posted here.
Sara K March 18, 2013 - 9:06 pm
Hi Adrienne, all software do spam work and not natural also, Do all link building manually and suggest more than 6 keywords for main keyword and also get links from your URL only like http://www.yoursite.com ..etc to be more natural. Thanks for sharing this great post.
Arthur @ My Own SEO - Where to Start March 23, 2013 - 10:38 am
Enjoyed the post Adrienne. Informative article. I'm aware that Google loves fresh and quality SEO content. I'm just reminded to look for a professional SEO writer who has a good background as well regarding the recent Google updates. Thanks for sharing your knowledge about this topic.
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