What Is Black Hat SEO? Tools, Methods and Examples [2023 Updated]
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO is a search engine optimization approach that deliberately violates the guidelines of the search engines in order to achieve better rankings in them. Using spam methods, link farms , automated link building with article spinning , and much more. But there are also black hat methods such as cloaking or doorway pages in the on-page area. Black Hat SEO can also be used to deliberately damage competing websites, e.g. with a penalty . In addition to black hat, there is also white hat or gray hat SEO. Based on old Western films, where the bad guy wore a black hat and the good guy wore a white hat.
Illegal black hat methods
The hacking of foreign websites, for example to place backlinks there , not only represents a violation of the guidelines of the search engines but is also a punishable crime! Sites that fish out Trojan passwords, distribute malware or other malicious software are also illegal black hat methods and should be avoided as a matter of urgency!
Why Black Hat SEO?
Gaining the trust of a search engine is a lengthy and enduring process. A new website in particular must first establish authority, as in classic marketing, also through targeted external measures (link building) but also through content that offers the user added value. In SEO, this is referred to as on-page or off-page optimization . User behavior is an important component here.
Some webmasters want to use Black Hat to artificially circumvent these ranking criteria and thus gain a quick competitive advantage. Since the algorithms are constantly being improved and white text on a white background is no longer an option, these methods are recognized and counteracted. For the on-page area there is the so-called panda , off-page the penguin , which can also evaluate a domain in this way.
What methods are there in Black Hat SEO?
- Negative SEO , e.g. deliberately placing links on competitor websites through link purchase, link exchange or spam.
- Article Spinning, the automated generation of texts for on- or off-page measures, which leads to inferior quality.
- The so-called cloaking, in which a search engine is shown different content than the user.
- Cookie dropping, here cookies are unknowingly stored on the user's computer, this does not necessarily have to be done by a website.
- Expired domains: Domains that have been deleted by webmasters are re-registered and configured.
- Link purchase: Conscious building of backlinks for your own domain through purchased or rented links.
- Link farms, also known as Private Blog Network ( PBN ), are artificially created domains with content that serve the purpose of exchanging or selling links.
- Keyword stuffing is considered an outdated method, here the keyword was stored in the respective variations and correspondingly high keyword density in the content
- Hidden content, also an outdated method, such as changing white text on a white background or text links in such a way that they are not recognized by the user.
- Doorway pages are pages that are inserted between the actual page to get traffic .
- Use of Black Hat software such as Xrumer, where automated users are created in forums and post articles.
- Spam methods, whether manual or automated, e.g. in blogs using blog comments.
Disadvantages of Black Hat SEO
Even if the link popularity can be increased in a short time using the options mentioned and this could be seen as an advantage, the use of black hat should be seen as a disadvantage, since such methods can lead to penalties in search engines such as Google. The use of Black Hat SEO is therefore not a sustainable method to improve your rankings.
Conclusion
It's a fine line in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) not to violate the Google Webmaster Guidelines. Any measure to increase your link popularity to improve your rankings contradicts the white hat method. That is why SEO is mostly used in the gray area. Please note the specific recommendations in the webmaster guidelines!