6 Blackhat SEO Techniques You Must Definitely Avoid

If you work in search engine optimization or aspire to be an expert in the area, you may have heard about the dos and don’ts of on-page and off-page strategies and blackhat SEO tactics. Google has been making repeated attempts to resuscitate and upgrade the ranking algorithm so that websites that employ blackhat SEO to rank higher might be penalised or even delisted. In this post, we go over the most common blackhat SEO tactics that you must sabotage if you want to earn Google’s favour. You can learn SEO to gain better understanding of the do’s and dont’s of Search engine optimization.

Blackhat SEO: What is it?

White hat SEO refers to a group of methods used to circumvent search engines’ terms of service and improve the ranking of a website or page. The term “black hat” first originated in Western films to separate the “bad folk” from the “good ones,” who wore white hats (see white hat SEO). In recent years, it has been more frequently used to refer to people who use computers immorally, including hackers and virus creators.

Blackhat The word “SEO” is used to describe strategies that go against search engine policies. Marketers can use these strategies to improve their visibility and rank higher in the SERPs. To rank higher, they make an effort to be sneaky with their SEO copy, website design, and Schema markup.

Although it has been around for decades, blackhat SEO is not a recent idea. Search engine results pages (SERPs) were initially manipulated in order to elevate the desired material to the top of the list. However, many Blackhat SEO tactics are now out-of-date and useless due to Google’s ongoing algorithmic evolution.

What blackhat SEO methods should you steer clear of?

Many people believe that using blackhat SEO strategies can help a website rank higher in search engines. However, that is untrue. Without adopting these methods, there are numerous additional ways to rank higher in search engines.

Blackhat SEO tactics should be avoided at all costs since they increase the likelihood that Google may penalise your website and lead it to fall in the rankings.

Avoid using the following blackhat SEO techniques:

●     Stuffing keywords

In order to improve a post’s search engine ranks, keyword stuffing is the practise of including a lot of keywords in it. One of the SEO tips and tricks is being used to its utmost.

One of the most popular blackhat SEO strategies that many people adopt is keyword stuffing. It is also among the simplest to notice and recognize.The issue with keyword stuffing is that it may result in a penalty for your website or possibly result in the complete removal of your website from Google’s index.

●     Doorway Pages

Doorway pages link to a particular page from several pages, which is used to manipulate search engine rankings. By linking to a certain page from several pages, doorway pages are a form of blackhat SEO practise that is used to manipulate search engine rankings.

The idea is that customers will locate your target destination more easily because the doorway page will rank higher than the other links on the SERP.

●     Hidden Text

The two most common blackhat SEO practises are keyword stuffing and spamming. The search engine results page can be manipulated using a variety of additional methods, though. The use of concealed text is one of these methods.

Hidden text is a tactic used to trick a website’s on-page content into seeming more relevant in search engine results. Both text-based and non-textual content can use this strategy. As it is not deemed ethical by Google or Bing webmaster rules, hidden text can be used for either commercial or non-commercial objectives.

●     Misuse of the comment system

A blackhat SEO method called spamming is used to affect search engine results. Many people who are unsure on how to naturally rank their websites use it.

Instead of producing content, this strategy typically entails the use of numerous false accounts to post comments and build backlinks on other websites.

●     Link Farms

Link Farms are a type of blackhat SEO strategy that involves building a lot of unnatural links to a website. Link farms can be built by hand or automatically with the aid of software. They may occasionally be applied in an effort to manipulate search engine algorithms and raise a web page’s ranking.

Link farms are occasionally used to monetize high-quality links in order to generate cash. Although automatic software is used to generate the majority of link farms, human techniques can still yield acceptable results.

Link farms can be used to improve website traffic and often exist on numerous websites. In order to earn money without having to produce any unique content, people and businesses frequently build link farms.

●     Abuse of Rich Snippets

Businesses can communicate with their customers quite effectively by using rich snippets. However, there are several blackhat SEO strategies that can take advantage of this functionality and dominate Google search results.

Making a website with just one page and few small sentences, phrases, and paragraphs is the initial step in the process. Although it shouldn’t be excessively extensive or detailed, the information should be of a high standard and include proper grammar.

The next stage is to incorporate rich snippets into the material by making use of structured data and Schema markup whenever possible.

In order for Google to rank your site higher in the SERPs, you must also make sure that there are numerous links pointing back to your website from other websites and social media platforms. This is a blackhat SEO strategy that you should absolutely avoid using.

Conclusion

This article has examined the SEO “grey area” that many spam and other websites exploit to climb the SERP rankings. However, playing the game against Google’s guidelines to rank on Google SERP is a short-term success, but it will cost you a long-term loss, as a website owner or SEO expert should be aware of. I hope you found this post to be interesting and educational.

Author’s Bio

Karan Shah

Founder and CEO at IIDE

Apart from being an Edu-Preneur, Tedx Speaker and a Black Coffee connoisseur, Karan Shah is also the founder of IIDE- The Digital School.

A Harvard alumnus, Karan’s expertise lies in digital marketing and Ecommerce. A storyteller at heart, he has penned plenty of articles in leading news portals such as Entrepreneur, BusinessWorld, Education Times, and Youth Magazine to name a few.