Black Hat SEO: Why Should You Avoid It in Your Strategy?
Black Hat SEO is a set of techniques used to optimize a page in search engines (to rank first). However, it uses highly questionable and unethical methods, which are even disapproved by Google itself.
In other words, these are techniques that trick algorithms into appearing first at any cost.
Want to learn more about the subject and why not include this technique in your digital marketing strategy? Read this article!
What is Black Hat SEO?
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To understand what the Black Hat SEO technique is, let’s remember the story of the hare and the tortoise. Where the hare thinks he will win the race before the tortoise, but in the end the one who wins is the tortoise, remember?!
So, this story translates well into the practice of Black Hat SEO, because those who use these techniques want to get ahead and get quick results, like the hare. However, we all know that digital marketing works more in the long term than in the short term, like the tortoise.
Furthermore, platforms like Google penalize those who use Black Hat SEO, as they recommend the use of correct keywords and efficient link building so that a page is positioned among the first results, whereas Black Hat SEO does the opposite.
In other words, this technique exclusively targets the top of the search results, with little or no planning. It is a manipulation of the rules of these sites, where the results may even be relevant and often arrive quickly, but the price to pay is high and can definitively harm all the company’s marketing work.
Therefore, we do not recommend or carry out this type of strategy.
Where does the name Black Hat SEO come from?
In Western movies, villains were usually identified by the color of their hat, while good guys or heroes wore some white accessory. Hence the name ivory coast phone number list of this practice: Black Hat SEO.
And not only that. In Marketing, there is White Hat and Grey Hat too! White Hat is the right example to follow.
It is not wrong, but it is not so right either.
Top Black Hat SEO Techniques
As we can see, Black Hat SEO is not just one practice, there are several that have the popularity and job opportunities same objective: to rank first on search platforms.
So, we have separated the most used ones so that you are aware of them and do not do them!
Keyword Stuffing
This is a classic! Here’s how it works: you include the keyword as many times as possible to increase keyword density and show relevance on search engines.
This is because, in the past, the higher china business directory the keyword density, the better the page ranking. But since Google is no fool, in the mid-2000s, it has been decreasing the relevance of keyword density and even penalizing its excessive use.
Therefore, it is recommended to produce texts naturally, keeping the page’s keyword density at 2% or less, and also prioritizing the use of synonyms.
Unrelated Keyword
Have you ever seen when you search for a word, click on an ad relevant to you and are directed to another page that has nothing to do with it? Well, that’s an unrelated keyword.
In other words, you deceive the user!
Hidden Content
Another Black Hat SEO technique is to hide content by making it the same color as the page background or reducing the font size to 0. This is a way to insert more keywords, relevant terms and links, only thinking about search engines, without showing any content to the user.
Duplicate Content
Copying content is not cool, especially on the internet. And, this is a technique, but there is much debate about whether there is really a penalty for this, but the fact is that, when there is similar content online, .
In other words, don’t copy anything, you’ll end up in trouble. After all, the more original your page is, the more search engines like it and understand it as relevant content. So, you don’t have to ‘fight’ for positioning.
Paid links
Of all the techniques, this is the most difficult to identify. This is because a paid link involves you paying a portal, website or page to place your link in their content.