Black Hat SEO

In search engine optimization (SEO) terminology, Black Hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO strategies, techniques and tactics that focus only on search engines and not a human audience, and usually does not obey search engines rules. Some examples of Black Hat SEO techniques include keyword stuffing, invisible text and doorway pages. Black Hat SEO is more frequently used by those who are looking for a quick financial return on their Web, rather than a long-term investment on their Web site. Black Hat SEO can possibly result in your Web site being banned from a search engine, however since the focus is usually on quick high return business models, most experts who use Black Hat SEO tactics consider being banned from search engines a somewhat irrelevant risk. Black Hat SEO may also be referred to as Unethical SEO or just spamdexing, as spamdexing is a typical frequently used Black Hat SEO practice.

"Black Hat" search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:

•Breaks search engine rules and regulations

•Creates a poor user experience directly because of the SEO techniques utilized on the Web site

•Unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.

A lot of what is known as black hat SEO actually used to be legitimate, but a few people went a bit overboard and now these techniques are frowned upon by the general SEO community at large. These practices will actually provide short-term gains in terms of rankings, but if you are discovered utilizing these spammy techniques on your Web site; you run the risk of being penalized by search engines. This sort of SEO basically is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem, which is creating a Web site that provides both a great user experience and all that goes with that.

 Techniques to Avoid

 •Keyword stuffing: Packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your site will get you penalized eventually by search engines. Learn how to find and place keywords and phrases the right way on your Web site with this article titled Learn Where and How to Put Keywords in Your Site Pages.

•Invisible text: This is putting lists of keywords in white text on a white background in hopes of attracting more search engine spiders. Again, not a good way to attract searchers or search engine crawlers.

•Doorway Pages: A doorway page is basically a "fake" page that the user will never see. It is purely for search engine spiders, and attempts to trick them into indexing the site higher. Read more about doorway pages.

Pros of Black Hat SEO:

•Black hat SEO can be highly effective. It is essentially a “shortcut”. Instead of having to update a website with fresh content (or copy), webmasters can embed hidden text or stuff their website with keywords to drive up their site on the page rankings.

•Using black hat strategies is an excellent way to guarantee a fast return from an SEO “campaign”. Instead of waiting for months for link backs and updating content using traditional white hat methods, a black hat site will only spend a month or two in the preliminary stages before climbing to the top of search rankings. It helps to have an infrastructure of dummy blogs already, as this only speeds up the process.

•Black hat marketing is generally cheaper than running a white hat marketing campaign, since white hat campaigns depend on analytics and detailed website content. For this reason, it is usually must more expensive and less cost effective in the short term to start a white hat SEO marketing campaign.

•Black hat SEO does not depend on advanced features, stunning GUI, or expensive banner advertising to generate leads and draw in new customers, so the website can be relatively simple with keyword-stuffed copy, hidden text in div tags, and is devoid of complex features.

•Black hat tactics force search providers to enhance their engines and change the search experience. Because of this, companies like Google are constantly coming up with new ways to approach the idea of page rankings.

 Cons of Black Hat SEO:

 •Black hat SEO is a very lucrative business. While it can speed up a marketing campaign, there are also great risks involved. Penalties and consequences imposed by search providers can easily damage the reputation of a company and its products.

•Black hat tactics rely upon deception, so some webmasters are uncomfortable deploying these strategies out of an adherence to a set of moral or ethical values.

•This sort of marketing floods the internet with useless spam and needless information. White hat sites are a host to useful and unique content, while black hat sites may just be a platform to host keywords and draw in new users to affiliates or to a main business’ site.

•It is not uncommon for black hat sites to be threatened with legal action, especially if the content is recycled from another source.

•To an experienced internet user, a black hat site may appear unappealing or suspicious. This can drive away customers.

•Search providers are very accommodating to white hat sites that play by the rules the engine has set in place, but are rarely so forgiving or eager to help sites that circumvent or ignore the rules of the service. Burning bridges is rarely a good thing for business.

•Under some conditions, using black hat strategies to generate a profit from PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising can lead to heavy penalties from the ad host or even legal action. Even if the clicks are legitimate and the users are interested in the products shown, many ad services discourage their host sites from using black hat methods of advertising