TOP 5 BLACK HAT SEO TECHNIQUES

1. Hidden Content

Top of our list of black hat SEO techniques is hidden content. Hidden content comes in many guises but the basic principle is that within the code for the site there will be content stuffed with keywords, this content will not be visible to the end user of the site.

One way of doing this is by using comment tags.

Comment tags look like this;

The real purpose of comment tags is for developers to add in useful reminders within their code explaining what that piece of code does.

Here’s an example of the comment tag being used correctly,

Here’s an example of a comment tag being used incorrectly in a bid to promote a hypothetical page targeting search engine optimisation,

Another popular way of hiding content is the use of the tag. The tag should be used to inform a user that a script is being used but their browser either doesn’t support the script

language used or they have that function turned off.

Here’s an example of the tag being used correctly,

&ltscript type=”text/javascript”>

Your browser does not support JavaScript!

Here’s an example of the tag being used as a black hat SEO technique again in a bid to promote a hypothetical page but this time targeting car hire,

Imaginary Car Hire Firm do Car Hire which is very affordable so if you want to hire a car call our car hire firm because we are the best car hire firm in the world

Other HMTL tags misused in similar ways include the tag and hidden inputs in forms.

Content can also be hidden from the end user by using CSS, excessively small text and coloured text on the same coloured background.

All of these techniques are frowned upon by search engines and if detected can mean your website will be penalised or even banned. To the untrained eye it can be very difficult to spot the use of some of these techniques which is why we offer a free website MOT test at PushON.

2. Meta Keyword Stuffing

There are two Meta tags that are generally used to inform search engines of the content on the page. They reside between the tag of a page and when used incorrectly they can alert a search engine that a site is using spam techniques in an attempt to improve its ranking.

Meta Description

The meta description should be used to describe the content of your page honestly and concisely and be 1 or 2 sentences, 3 at most.

Here’s an example of the meta description being used in the correct manner,

Here’s an example of the meta description tag being used incorrectly for a page promoting a restaurant called “MadeUp”,

3. Meta Keywords

Meta Keywords should be a short list of words that inform of the main focus of the page. Meta keywords have been so misused in the past that there are few if any search engines that take any heed of them.

Here’s an example of the meta keywords being used in the correct manner,

Here’s an example of the meta keywords tag being used incorrectly for a page promoting a restaurant called “MadeUp”,

4. Doorway or Gateway Pages

Doorway or Gateway pages are pages designed for search engines and not for the end user. They are basically fake pages that are stuffed with content and highly optimised for 1 or 2 keywords that link to a target or landing page. The end user never sees these pages because they are automatically redirected to the target page.

Off-the-shelf SEO software often encourages the use of gateway pages as do SEO firms that don’t know what they’re talking about. Search engine spiders are being enhanced continually to detect these pages and will get ignored or worse still, flag your site up as being spam and ban you all together.

5. Link Farming

In the real world if you were to build your house in a bad neighbour hood then your house would be affected by its surroundings. The same is true of the virtual world. Link farms or free for all (FFA) pages have no other purposes than to list links of unrelated websites. They won’t provide you with any traffic and you run the risk of having your site banned for participating. Don’t participate in link farming.

Black Hat SEO Techniques

Some people seem to believe that on the Web, the ends justify the means. There are lots of ways webmasters can try to trick search engines into listing their Web pages high in SERPs, though such a victory doesn’t usually last very long.

One of these methods is called keyword stuffing, which skews search engine results by overusing keywords on the page. Usually webmasters will put repeated keywords toward the bottom of the page where most visitors won’t see them. They can also use invisible text, text with a color matching the page’s background. Since search engine spiders read content through the page’s HTML code, they detect text even if people can’t see it. Some search engine spiders can identify and ignore text that matches the page’s background color.

Webmasters might include irrelevant keywords to trick search engines. The webmasters look to see which search terms are the most popular and then use those words on their Web pages. While search engines might index the page under more keywords, people who follow the SERP links often leave the site once they realize it has little or nothing to do with their search terms.

A webmaster might create Web pages that redirect visitors to another page. The webmaster creates a simple page that includes certain keywords to get listed on a SERP. The page also includes a program that redirects visitors to a different page that often has nothing to do with the original search term. With several pages that each focus on a current hot topic, the webmaster can get a lot of traffic to a particular Web site.

Page stuffing also cheats people out of a fair search engine experience. Webmasters first create a Web page that appears high up on a SERP. Then, the webmaster duplicates the page in the hopes that both pages will make the top results. The webmaster does this repeatedly with the intent to push other results off the top of the SERP and eliminate the competition. Most search engine spiders are able to compare pages against each other and determine if two different pages have the same content.

Selling and farming links are popular black hat SEO techniques. Because many search engines look at links to determine a Web page’s relevancy, some webmasters buy links from other sites to boost a page’s rank. A link farm is a collection of Web pages that all interlink with one another in order to increase each page’s rank. Small link farms seem pretty harmless, but some link farms include hundreds of Web sites, each with a Web page dedicated just to listing links to every other site in the farm. When search engines detect a link selling scheme or link farm, they flag every site involved. Sometimes the search engine will simply demote every page’s rank. In other cases, it might ban all the sites from its indexes.

Cheating the system might result in a temporary increase in visitors, but since people normally don’t like to be fooled, the benefits are questionable at best. Who wants to return to a site that isn’t what it claims to be? Plus, most search engines penalize Web pages that use black hat techniques, which means the webmaster trades a short success for a long-term failure.

Black Hat SEO

Black Hat SEO definition: Black hat SEO is a practice that increases a page’s rank in search engines through means that violate the search engines’ terms of service. The term “black hat” originated in Western movies to distinguish the “bad guys” from the “good guys,” who wore white hats (see white hat SEO). Recently, it’s used more commonly to describe computer hackers, virus creators, and those who perform unethical actions with computers.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn:

·         What Black Hat SEO is, exactly

·         Black Hat SEO Tactics and Techniques

·         How to Report Black Hat SEO

·         How Black Hat SEO can affect you and your website 

·         How to achieve Black Hat results without doing anything immoral or jeopardizing your long-term business

Implementing Black Hat SEO tactics and strategies can get your site banned from search engines, excluding you from the number one traffic referral source on the Internet. At the same time, some Black Hat tactics are remarkably effective. It’s important to have a proper understanding of Black Hat SEO and its consequences.

What Is Black Hat SEO, Anyways?

Black Hat SEO is most commonly defined as a disapproved practice that increases a page’s ranking in a search engine result page (SERP). These practices are against the search engine’s terms of service and can result in the site being banned from the search engine and affiliate sites. A list of tactics and strategies employed by black hat SEO practitioners have been openly denounced on Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines. “Is the work that I’m doing adding value to the user or am I just doing this for search engines to see?” is a litmus test on whether an SEO tactic would go against a search engine’s webmaster guideline. If no value is added to the user, but rankings are likely to increase, then your decisions are highly likely to be black hat. The same test can be applied to to paid search practices to determine whether an activity is considered black hat ppc.

Black Hat SEO Tactics

•        Content Automation
•         Doorway Pages
•         Hidden Text or Links
•         Keyword Stuffing
•         Reporting a Competitor
•         Sneaky Redirects 
•         Cloaking

Black Hat SEO Techniques

•         Link Manipulation – Buying links, advertorials, and link schemes
•         Article Spinning
•         Link Schemes
•         Link Farms
•         Link Wheels
•         Link Networks
•         Rich Snippet Markup Spam
•         Automated Queries to Google
•         Creating pages, subdomains, or domains with duplicate content
•         Pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing, viruses, Trojans, and other malware.

How to Report Black Hat SEO

There are two reason why you may report black hat SEO. Either your website has been attacked through a malicious hack, virus or negative seo campaign of spammy links, or that you see a spammy web results on a competitive keyword your website is ranking on. For the latter, you may file a web spam report through Google Webmaster Tools. Please use this tool with discretion. SPAM does not stand for search positions above mine!

In the event that your website has been attacked through a malicious hack, virus, or malware, request for a malware review after you’ve removed the malicious code.

In the event that your website is the target of a negative seo campaign of spammy links, please use the Disavow Links Tool in Google Webmaster Tools after you’ve tried to contact webmasters whom are pointing these links to your website to have them removed.

Why Are Black Hat SEO Practices Important To You? 

Black Hat tactics can get your website banned from Google and other search engines.

Though there may be some short term success through increased traffic to your site, that success may very well be short-lived. With hundreds of millions of users searching on Google per day, can you really afford to be de-indexed?

Are Black Hat SEO Techniques For You?

It depends: Are you trying to build a long-lasting business?

If your answer is yes, you should probably avoid Black Hat SEO. Rather, you should look for alternative means of improving your search engine rankings.

Instead of automating things that will trick search engines, users, or both, why not leverage software to automate processes that are both Google-approved and that will help you to rank higher through search?

Some companies offers “White Hat automation software,” automating safe, but effective, practices. These practices produce sustainable improvements to your search marketing efforts by increasing Quality Score and growing your keyword list with relevant keywords provided by our Keyword Discovery Tool. many companies assists with Search Engine Optimization in various ways, including:

·         Automated, Relevant Keyword Suggestion: By including a bit of JavaScript on your website, new keywords that people use to search for your website will automatically flow into your Word Steam keyword database, providing a continuous stream of new keywords and content ideas. The benefits of an SEO keyword tool become even clearer as your campaign grows, helping you to not only bid on the right keywords, but prioritize your site content.

•      SEO Workflow Prioritization: By analyzing your keywords and keyword groups by popularity or visits generated, Some companies suggests where changes will be most productive. 
•      Search-Friendly Information Architecture:  By grouping your keywords by relevance, Some Companeis organizes your keywords into search-friendly tree structure, as shown below, which you can easily apply to your site’s structure

In addition to improving organic search results, Some companies offers similar guideline-approved automation options to help improve your PPC campaigns or PPC affiliate marketing and lower your costs.