What is Black Hat SEO?
Black hat SEO is a broad term that encompasses several techniques used to increase website traffic but deliberately designed to avoid any negative consequences for the websites concerned. This type of SEO is popular with affiliate marketers who wish to increase the visibility of their websites in certain specific industries, for example, high-end electronics. The affiliate marketer will generally purchase links from other websites, which have agreed to backlink his websites. However, the Black Hat SEO techniques involved are slightly different and are more designed to achieve the desired effect.
Black Hat SEO is generally considered a devious and underhanded form of search engine optimization, designed to get ahead of the search engines and deliver results contrary to the ones set out by the search engines. It consists of several tactics, including link farming and repetition of keywords, to manipulate the rankings or relevance of websites indexed in a way inconsistent with the original purpose of the search engine’s indexing system. The most popular Black Hat techniques include directory submission, keyword stuffing, and scripts to automate web server processes. Although these techniques may work to a certain degree on a small scale, the long-term effect can have a drastic effect on a website’s search engine ranking.
Some search engines have been accused of censoring certain types of content, such as information related to the business industry. While this is not true, most search engines do implement some form of filtering system to ensure quality content is returned for rankings. One way to obtain a higher ranking is to submit original, informative, and beneficial content to the visitor’s experience. Original content attracts visitors, which improves the visitor’s experience. In addition, Black Hat SEO helps to build the webmaster’s reputation and brand awareness. In today’s competitive online environment, it is vital to establish a strong Internet presence to compete with other webmaster’s websites.
