Black hat SEO may get you instant results but at the risk of your website being dropped from the Search Engine indexes or being banned altogether…
Black hat SEO uses techniques and strategies which do not comply with guidelines set down by Search Engines and may even be illegal cyber-activities such as directing visitors to malicious websites*.
Black hat SEO can achieve high rankings but it is a high-risk strategy and at the drop of a hat, your website can be banned or penalised by Search Engines.
White hat SEO is designed to be a longer term strategy designed to drive quality traffic to your website to increase your conversion rates. We explain some of the risks of employing black hat SEO.
What is black hat SEO exactly?
Search Engines may be a free tool readily available to web surfers but they are in the business of supplying high quality and relevant information and set strict guidelines to websites who want to be included in their search results. Black Hat Search Engine Optimisation is defined as techniques used to manipulate Search Engine results in an unethical manner. Some of the differences in SEO techniques employed by black hat SEO and white hat SEO companies include:
| Black hat SEO | White hat SEO |
| Keyword stuffing: Saturating a page with long lists of keywords not closely connected with your copy on the page or using keywords unnaturally in the copy or out of context to try and manipulate Search Engine results. | Keyword placement: Using keywords naturally or seamlessly throughout the copy of the text. |
| Cloaking: This is a black hat SEO technique which shows Search Engine spiders a highly optimised site not meant for human readers, while directing real visitors to an entirely different site. The cloaking is usually combined with doorway pages (see below). | Meta descriptions: Creating descriptions for Search Engines to use as summary text (beneath the title) which accurately reflect the content on the page traffic is being directed to. |
| Doorway Pages: This is a page designed purely for Search Engines to trick them into indexing the site higher. Doorway pages contain no valuable content for human readers. | Landing pages: Creating keyword rich landing pages that are engaging and compelling for the reader. |
| Invisible text: This is putting keyword-stuffed text in the same colour as the background so it is invisible to human readers but not to Search Engines. | Theme-focused content: Create relevant, natural content which engages human visitors and is Search Engine friendly. |
| Auto-generated pages: using a script or software program to create thousands of keyword-stuffed pages with content of no value to human readers. | Original content: Writing unique content for the website which is refreshed regularly. This may include new web pages, blog articles, adding case studies and testimonials to the website and so forth. |
| Link farms: This is the practice of buying links or paying websites to link back to your website in the hope of increasing your Search Engine ranking. | Link building strategies: Using ‘natural’ strategies of writing original, interesting content that other websites will link to and promoting quality and credible links from trustworthy companies who are related to your industry. |
So if the hat fits … reporting black SEO hat activities is important to preserve the integrity of the Search Engines. It is also important to report sites using black hat SEO which are competing in your space – especially if they use malicious code and downloads and so forth. But don’t panic, more than likely they will not last long and your ranking will return.
Why you shouldn’t use a black hat SEO company?
Search Engines may not be able to pick up your black hat SEO activities straight away but your competitors can report you to Search Engines who take breaches of their guidelines very seriously. There are two consequences of breaching Search Engine guidelines; being banned means your site is removed from the index completely and being penalised means having your rank reduced. Here are the consequences using a black hat SEO company:
- High bounce rates**: A high Search Engine ranking may drive traffic to your website but if they can’t find they are looking for, the pages are poorly designed and the content is badly written, they will just bounce off the page.
- Loss of revenue: If your website is penalised and drops in the Search Engine rankings or is banned altogether, there will be decreased traffic to your website which will lead to decreased online revenue.
- Potential redesign of website: A Search Engine ban can take years to recover from and it is very costly. You may need to rebuild your site on a whole new domain.
- Brand building: Link spamming and black hat SEO techniques may artificially increase your Search Engine ranking but your website will be linked to or associated with other websites that do not present a professional image.
- Reputation management: Legitimate, professional businesses and organisations do not want to be associated with SEO companies who provide services to cyber-criminals.
And why you should use a white hat SEO company…
It is true that black hat SEO can achieve high rankings but it is a fly by night and get rich quick strategy. Ever heard of the saying there’s no such thing as a free lunch? So while initially you may enjoy high Search Engine rankings which may drive traffic to your website, if your website is penalised, you may lose months or years of revenue while trying to reverse the process and get your website indexed again.
Using white hat SEO may take your website longer to rank in ‘organic’ web searches but SEO is a long term strategy and endeavour. Black hat SEO seeks to get results quickly by using high-risk techniques but solid, long-term results can be achieved easily by following Search Engine guidelines. Professional SEO companies are experienced, dependable and operate like any other reputable business. Leave black hat to the criminals and bottom-feeders of the online world.
Contact us and find out why white hat SEO is the new black. SEO Works uses white hat SEO and long-term, proven and dependable strategies to drive high quality and targeted traffic to your website that are more likely to buy or purchase your product and maximise your online revenue. Alternatively, find out more about the SEO packages and SEO services we offer.
* Malicious websites may contain spyware or viruses.
** The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who enter a site (or a page) and then leave immediately.
