Black Hat Search Engine Optimization

Black Hat Search Engine Optimization
by Takara Alexis

Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are looked down upon and used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner. Black hat SEO techniques commonly include breaks in search engine rules and regulations. A lot of what is known as black hat SEO actually used to be legit, but some folks went a bit overboard and now these techniques are frowned upon by the general SEO community at large.

These black hat SEO practices will actually provide short-term gains for the website in terms of rankings, but if you are discovered utilizing these unethical techniques on your Web site, you run the risk of being penalized by search engines. Black hat SEO really is a short-sighted solution to a long-term problem, which is establishing a Web site that provides both a great user experience and all that comes with that.

Some black hat SEO techniques are to avoid are keyword stuffing, invisible text, and doorway pages: Keyword stuffing is basically packing long lists of keywords and nothing else onto your site which will eventually get you penalized and dropped by search engines. Using invisible text is when you put lists of keywords in white text on a white background. The idea is to attract more spiders to your website and gain a higher rank. However, this will just disappoint viewers when they see the content.

A doorway page is basically a fake page that is used purely for search engine spiders. Users will never even see the page; it is a weak attempt to index a site higher.

Black Hat SEO is tempting; after all, these tricks actually do work, for a short period of time. They do end up getting sites higher search rankings; that is, until these same sites get noticed and banned for using unethical practices. It's just not worth the risk. Use efficient search engine optimization techniques to get your site ranked higher, and stay away from anything that even looks like Black Hat SEO.