Blackhat SEO

Last updated on December 24, 2010. Tags: black hat SEO, search engine algorithm

Black hat search engine optimization (or blackhat SEO) is a term that encompasses different search engine optimization techniques that search engines consider as deceptive. Using blackhat techniques can have a range of consequences from being penalized (your site will rank much lower than your initial ranking) to being banned (your site will not appear in search engine at all).

Search engines penalize websites that implement blackhat techniques because they misrepresent the relevance of their websites by relying on flaws of search engine algorithm to get to the top results. One example is starting a website on online gambling and filling up one invisible part of the webpage with text related to iphones, hoping that the website will appear to those who are looking for iphones. When the search engine users saw that the website is not really about iphones, it will be a waste of their time.

Note that attempting to rank on totally unrelated keywords is not the only reason why a technique can be considered black hat. Even if you are attempting to rank for keywords that are relevant to the topic of your sites, if it was done in a way that you rely on exploiting the flaws of search engines, that is still blackhat.

In the 1990's, website developers found out that repeating keywords several times in meta keywords (one of the HTML codes in the head section) enables them to rank higher in popular search engines during that time such as Yahoo, Infoseek and Alta Vista. The success of Google basically came from its resistance (but not invulnerability) to such manipulations.

What are the black hat SEO techniques?

Below are some of the known blackhat SEO techniques. Note that just because a certain technique is not listed here, it is no longer a blackhat technique. Some techniques are actually combination of two or more techniques.

forcing keywords in title tag, headers and other parts of a website such that the resulting text does not make sense (keyword stuffing)
invisible text usually done by setting the text in the same color as the background or using CSS to place a block element at the front of those text
door way pages, usually done using keyword stuffing and/or invisible text and the only thing coherent is the "click here" or "enter the website" message
posting really short messages such as "hello", "nice post" or smileys in forums (done either manually or by using web robots) hoping that the signature will be able to generate as many links as possible in the shortest amount of time
same thing as above but done in blog comments; usually include nonsense chunk of links to the text of the comment itself

You will notice that almost all black hat techniques involve repeating something several times: repeating keywords, repeating posts and comments, making several pages only to get indexed by search engines, etc. In a way, we can say that blackhat SEO is a form of spamming. The only possible exception is the invisible text (but if the text is made up of stuffed keywords, it's still spamming). This is why blackhat SEO is also called spamdexing (combination of spam and indexing).

Why do some search engine optimizers use blackhat techniques?

Some search engine optimizers using black hat techniques are not aware that they are using techniques forbidden by search engines; they simply go for the techniques that work. Those who continue to use black hat despite knowing that they are forbidden by search engines usually expect that they will be banned soon and simply banking on the surge of traffic that they can get before getting caught.

While being forbidden, blackhat SEO techniques can be really effective. Unlike white hat, some black hat SEO techniques can rise web pages to the top of SERP in just a few days or less. Black hat practioners who knows what they are doing capitalize on the fact thay they can obtain huge amount of traffic before search engines finally notice and ban their websites. Then they can contruct another website and repeat the same process all over again.

Blackhat techniques are neither immoral nor illegal because the search engines are not God or government. However, they are private entities and they have the right to put on top whichever website they like.

While I believe that any blackhat technique in itself is not immoral, blackhat techniques are frequently used in immoral (and illegal) acts like building a website for phishing and Ponzi scam. Other blackhat practioners will use their skills to show clients that they can indeed rise the ranking of their client's website in search results. Chances are, they already got the payment before search engines notice and ban the website, leaving the poor client with zero traffic after spending money for search engine optimization.

Conclusion

Black hat search engine optimization are deceptive techniques that relies on the flaws of search engine algorithm. They are very effective in providing high rank for new websites. However, search engines can also capture websites using these techniques and penalize or ban them eventually. Black hat techniques are not for websites that are meant to last for a long time such as information portals and company websites.

Posted by Greten on May 8, 2009 under Definitions, Search Engine Optimization

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