Search engine optimization (SEO) is an essential part of any successful online business. It’s what helps your website to “pop up” in search results, giving it higher visibility and thus, more traffic.
By optimizing your site for relevant keywords, you give yourself a leg up on competitors that are not. This includes ensuring good quality content, updating important stats, and linking to other reputable sites or making sure they link to you.
There are two main types of SEO strategies – white hat and black hat. White hat strategies are clearly ethical, while black hat ones may be sneaky ways to gain an edge over others.
Not only are these tactics bad for your overall web presence, but they can hurt your business irreparably. That’s why most people don’t use them!
Luckily, there are some alternatives that are considered better practices. These are known as gray hat techniques, due to their mixed effectiveness but lack of unethical intent.
This article will go into greater detail about one such technique: seo, also referred to as black hat SEO.
History of blackhat SEO
As mentioned before, white hat marketing is totally acceptable. However, some practices considered ethical in the past are now seen as unethical or even illegal. This has left a gap in strategies that work and will always be accessible to use. These strategies are often referred to as blackhat marketing or SEO techniques.
Blackhat tactics are clearly not ideal, but they exist for a reason! They’re sometimes needed to bring traffic to sites that have lost interest in spending money to promote themselves (or may no longer be appropriate). By using blackhat methods, you take advantage of loopholes in search engine algorithms so your site can gain prominence where normal marketing strategies fail.
Because these strategies are not necessarily good long-term solutions, most big websites and companies tend to stay away from them. That means there are very few people out there who actually perform this type of SEO.
What about yourself? Are you one of those people who know how to get the job done even if it isn’t entirely “white hat”? Or are you still holding off because it seems like such an evil practice? Let us tell you why staying away from blackhat seo is definitely the better choice.
What is whitehat SEO?
White hat SEOs are not unethical, but they do use practices that are considered ethical by some (but not others). These types of strategies are sometimes referred to as “searcher friendly” or “ethical SEO.”
White hat SEOs usually will include using valid HTML, plain language content, an adequate number of pages for your website, no keyword stuffing, light marketing links, and off-topic relevance to increase engagement and flow.
Some experts say it is okay to use keywords in your domain name, but only if they make sense and are natural. Some say it is acceptable to link to related topics, but very little traffic should be given the link.
There are many theories about why Google may penalize websites for poor linking or keyword usage, so it is best to stay within parameters and avoid any controversies.
But remember, just because something is deemed white hat doesn’t mean it works every time! Sometimes things don’t work…
Different types of blackhat SEO
There are several different types of black hat SEO strategies, some more ethical than others. One of the most common is called link baiting or article marketing.
This type of unethical SEO involves writing an interesting article that has nothing to do with your business, but instead links to another site owned by the writer.
By doing this, you gain credit for “linking up” to a worthy website while also earning referral traffic for the mentioned site. It sounds crazy, but it works!
Another less extreme version of blackhat SEO is what we call keyword stuffing. This happens when someone uses keywords in a content body way too many times.
It looks weird and annoying to read, so most search engines will eventually slap the person/company with penalties.
How to perform blackhat SEO
There are several types of SEO that play an important role in getting your website or article noticed by the search engines. These are typically referred as white, grey, and black hat techniques.
White hat methods refer to ethical strategies to gain internet exposure that have no negative effects on the web page’s performance with Google and other major search engines. Some examples include using keywords in a good way, ensuring each word is proper and accurate, and incorporating links to relevant pages to help improve their ranking.
Grey hat tactics are slightly more questionable — they may not be totally unethical, but they are definitely not ideal for long-term success. Examples of these would be adding words to make content seem longer, changing position titles to add importance, and choosing poor quality links to contribute to lower rankings.
Blackhat SEO is very clearly outside of this spectrum – it is completely immoral! This includes things like buying cheap keyword tools or tools that promote spamming, copying other people’s work, or even violating anti-spam laws.
The consequences of doing either of these things can result in you being banned from the internet forever if enough evidence proves malicious intent. Even going through all of the steps necessary to do one of these things will almost always get found illegal due to the fact that most people online use free resources.
Are all SEO techniques blackhat?
Technically speaking, yes! But it is important to understand that not every technique used for search engine optimization (SEO) is considered unethical or illegal.
At its core, SEOMANIA is just making sure your website gets as much exposure as possible by finding ways to improve the visibility of your site through organic means.
This includes things such as optimizing your content, improving your domain authority, and marketing directly on social media sites.
However, some strategies are completely off limits and will get you in serious trouble if done improperly.
Certain practices like link farming and paid advertising are totally unacceptable methods to use when trying to achieve an improved online presence.
Evidence of blackhat SEO
There are many theories about what constitutes ethical search engine optimization (SEO). Some say it is only using natural looking keywords in content and advertising, while others believe doing anything illegal is considered unethical.
However, things such as keyword stuffing and link farms have become very common practices for new SEOs. By adding excessive amounts of keywords to your content or links to external sites, you increase your chances of getting higher rankings!
This is sometimes referred to as spamming the web. Spam is defined as unsolicited messages so investing in SEO services that use spam tactics is an example of being unethical.
There are several types of spam blogs, something almost every online business will face at some point. With the growing popularity of social media outlets like Facebook and YouTube, companies must market themselves there to get exposure.
Some firms will put in expensive advertisements on these platforms to gain attention, which is also seen as spam.
By investing in blackhat SEO strategies, you will most likely find yourself under a microscope from Google and other major search engines. These websites may even take legal action against you if enough evidence can be found.
Legality of blackhat SEO
There is no legal definition for what constitutes ethical or unethical search engine optimization (SEO). Because there is not, anyone can claim anything they want as SEO practice being “legal” or not. Some things are considered white hat strategies that are intended to bring about positive changes for your website and/or business through optimisation, while others are not.
By this definition, then, any strategy you use to improve your online presence is technically illegal if done with the intention to make yourself look better than your competition. This could mean using keywords in ways that are unnatural or changing the content and tone of a page to promote a product or service.
However, I would like to add another important factor here: will these practices work for your unique situation and long-term goal? If so, then why should you be willing to break the law? You may need to take more creative approaches to achieve your goals, but that does not make what you do any less legitimate.
Read about: Learn SEO
Tips for improving your SEO
Many people begin exploring different strategies to improve their online presence with good intentions. They want to make their website or page reach the top of search results!
Some go the black hat route by doing things like buying fake followers, spamming social media sites to gain exposure, or using deceptive practices on Google and other major ranking websites.
These are not ideal ways to achieve that goal. Spam may get you suspended, and investing in expensive fake accounts does not help your business long term.
There is a way to do it right though! Optimizing your site and marketing via white hat techniques can be just as successful (if not more so) than going all out on the internet promoting.
White hat methods are ethical and in-line with our values as humans. These include displaying quality content, linking to reputable sources, and engaging in conversation on social media.
This article will talk about some easy ways to start optimizing your seo [search engine optimization]. You do not need any special software to perform these acts.
