Risky Black Hat SEO Tactics to Avoid

Every website owner wants their website to rank higher on the Google search engine page, and for this, they use different organic methods that are not paid for. These efforts are extra efforts from the website owner’s side to improve the ranking of their website. There are two methods: White Hat Seo Methods and Black Hat Seo Methods.

White hat SEO methods are the best practices to improve the rankings the search engine approves. These are ethical practices approved by search engines. Whereas black hat SEO methods are contradictory to white hat SEO methods. They use tactics that are not approved by search engines. They are unethical tactics that can lead to penalties or the banning of your website. They may help you increase your page rankings but are risky and disapproved by the search engine services guidelines.

Let’s talk about some risky Black Hat SEO tactics that should be avoided to be in the good books of search engine results.

Risky Black Hat Seo Tactics: –

Keyword Stuffing –

First, let us understand what keywords are. Keywords are the words that perfectly describe the content on your site and the common words that users use to search your content. They are essential, predictable, and common words that can be easily remembered. 

 Now, the usage of the right keywords helps increase traffic on your website and eventually helps in a higher ranking of your website on the search engine results page.

Keyword stuffing is using the exact keywords or phrases repetitively in your content. This usually is irritating for the reader and will put your content off.

There Are Two Types of Keyword Stuffing :

1. Visible stuffing- This refers to the act of using the exact phrases and keywords again and again in your content.

For example, if you are writing about luxury perfumes, consider the number of times you use the words “luxury” and “perfume.” Using words or phrases irrelevant to your topic but increasing traffic is also a part of keyword stuffing.

2. Invisible stuffing – refers to excessive usage of keywords that are not visible to the reader—for example, repeating words or phrases in your Alt text or writing words in white font on a white background, which won’t be visible to the reader.

     Let’s see why keyword stuffing could be better for the website.

• Penalties – Keyword stuffing is against the rules of Google search services, so if your site is guilty of the same, the penalty might apply to the page or the entire website.

• Loss of users – Every website aims to provide a smooth user experience. If there is visible keyword stuffing in your content, the user will come to know about it, which will irritate him, leading to a bad user experience and them leaving the website and not returning.

• Brand image – If you start losing users and have a terrible user experience, eventually, it will harm your website’s traffic, dwell time, and bounce rate, leading to a fall in the rankings.

• Banning of the website – Your website may face penalties for keyword stuffing, but in some cases, there are chances of your site getting banned by the search engine.

 Cloaking –

A website has to provide content to search engine bots or crawlers to get a ranking on the SERP. Cloaking provides different content or URLs to users and search engine crawlers to manipulate the site’s ranking on SERP.

In this technique, a different set of content is provided to users, and a different set is provided to the Google bots. It is advised to avoid using cloaking on your website to avoid being blacklisted or banned by search engines.

Article Spinning –

Every reader likes fresh and not repetitive content. Article spinning is exactly the opposite of fresh content. It means taking an article and changing words and sentences, using synonyms, and producing 2-3 extra articles with the same content to save time and have more content. Usually, spun articles have words that are not common in the native English language.

How does this affect SEO?

Well, considering the fact that spun articles use translated words and synonyms, it’s difficult to read and also not attractive for native readers since they use different words and phrases that are not native.

This eventually leads to a bad user experience and losing users, and if the search engine finds the article to be spun, they might penalize the website or even ban it.

Buying Links –

Good links help your website generate traffic and eventually improve your website’s ranking. Getting good links for your website is a task due to which there are practices of buying links for your website. Some sites look into buying links to improve their performance.

Although it will help the website if caught by search engine bots, it will penalize or ban the website. So it’s better to refrain from buying links from mysterious sites.

Plagiarized or Duplicate Content –

There are various sites that have content similar to yours, which is normal. That does not mean that you go on to copy another site’s content to get content for your website. 

Here are some reasons why you should avoid plagiarized or duplicate content:

• Search engines penalize duplicate content: Search engines strive to provide users with the most relevant and high-quality content. Therefore, when they detect the same content, they may lower your website’s search engine rankings or even remove it from their index.

• Damages your website’s credibility: When visitors notice that your content is copied from other websites, they may lose trust in your brand. Plagiarism and duplicate content can damage your website’s reputation and negatively affect your business.

• Legal consequences: Plagiarism is a serious offence that violates copyright laws. Using copyrighted material without permission can result in legal actions, hefty fines, and even imprisonment.

Page Swapping –

Page swapping is a black hat SEO tactic that replaces a page’s content after search engines index it. This technique is used to deceive search engines and manipulate rankings, but it is risky and can result in severe penalties.

Here are some reasons why you should avoid page swapping:

• It violates search engine guidelines: Page swapping violates the guidelines set by search engines. This practice is unethical because it manipulates search engine rankings by showing users and search engines different content.

• It harms user experience: Page swapping can harm the user experience because it displays different content to users than what they expected. This can lead to clarity, frustration, and trust in your brand.

• It can lead to search engine penalties: Search engines take page swapping seriously and may penalize your website by lowering your rankings or removing it from their index. Once you have been penalized, recovering your rankings cannot be easy.

URL Hijack –

Some websites or URLs are pretty famous and ranked higher. To gain users and rank higher, some websites use the same name as famous sites with minor changes in the spelling and misleading the users; this is also a black hat SEO tactic.

Here are some reasons why you should avoid URL hijacking:

• It violates copyright laws: URL hijacking violates copyright laws and can result in legal consequences. This practice is considered intellectual property theft and can lead to legal action and monetary penalties.

• It harms user experience: URL hijacking can harm user experience by redirecting users to a website they did not intend to visit. This can lead to frustration, distrust, and brand credibility loss.

• It can damage your website’s reputation: URL hijacking is a deceptive practice that can damage your website’s reputation. It can lead to negative reviews, lower search engine rankings, and a loss of trust from your target audience.

For example, using adibas.com misled people into thinking it was adidas.com.

Conclusion, 

In the world of SEO, it’s crucial to steer clear of risky black hat SEO tactics that may promise quick results but ultimately lead to significant harm. Techniques such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, article spinning, buying links, using plagiarised content, page swapping, and URL hijacking violate search engine guidelines and jeopardise a website’s reputation and trustworthiness. They can result in penalties, user dissatisfaction, and even website bans, making them unsustainable choices for long-term success.

Instead, website owners should prioritise white hat SEO methods, delivering relevant content, building genuine connections, and adhering to ethical practices. By doing so, they can achieve sustainable growth, maintain their online credibility, and foster a positive user experience that benefits both their audience and their website’s ranking in search engine results.