Search engine optimization is a method of gradually and organically growing your audience through practices such as including the right and relevant information for your visitors on your website. Local SEO service providers sometimes use fake reviews, wrong images, and irrelevant links to different websites to fool visitors.
There are three types of SEO: white hat, grey hat, and black hat. In order to build their brand and website faster, some businesses use black hat SEO tactics, even in local SEO.
What is Black Hat SEO?
New businesses or websites are often in a hurry to build a position in the market. To do that, they start with SEO to attract organic traffic. However, sometimes they choose black hat SEO tactics and avoid web guidelines, which becomes the downfall of their website.
Examples of Black Hat SEO Tactics
Here are some black-hat SEO techniques that you should always avoid at any cost:
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Anchor Text
Anchor text is text to which you add internal links to your website’s other pages. It has different types, for example generic, exact-match, partial-match, naked link, images, etc.
When you use the same anchor text words that direct to the same link or to a link that has no relevance to the text you linked to, then it falls under black hat SEO tactics.
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Alt Tags/Text
Alt tags are placed below the images you use on your blog or website. The alt text should contain approximately 125 characters and should be descriptive of what the image is about.
When you stuff keywords that don’t actually make sense in the sentence or use the same keyword in more than two images, it is called a “black hat” SEO tactic.
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Spam or Wrong Comments
Another black hat SEO technique includes comment spam on any blog or website. SEO practitioners comment on their website links on other blogs.
Another way this technique is used in local SEO for small businesses is by buying comments and reviews on their GMB profiles to help gain potential customers’ trust.
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Hidden Links and Characters
Some black hat SEO practitioners use JavaScript to hide links, hide keywords behind images, use the same colour text on the same background, link small characters like hyphens, use 0 text size, and so on.
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Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing means using the same keywords over and over, using different variations in the same paragraph, etc. When you use tools like Yoast SEO, Ahrefs, or SEMRush, they show you how many keywords are enough to get website crawlers’ attention. More than the suggested number can ruin your SEO.
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Plagiarized or Duplicate Content
Google, or any search engine, prefers original and high-quality content for a site to put on the front page. Some website owners or bloggers use plagiarized or duplicate content to avoid the work. This also falls under black hat SEO.
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Using Keywords that are Not Related
Using relatable keywords is the key to making your content worthy of the first page of SERPs. Keywords are the most important part of any SEO practice.
Some people use keywords that have high search rates but are not related to their content. This can also be considered a click-bait for crawlers.
Why Avoid Black Hat SEO Techniques?
There are plenty of reasons to avoid black hat SEO. Some of them are given below:
- When you stuff keywords on your blog, it affects its readability and sounds repetitive. This way, a visitor can get annoyed with the repetition and low-quality writing and won’t come back to your website.
- Black hat SEO may give you fast results, but they don’t last long. The audience and web crawlers eventually notice your content, which leads to distrust of your brand.
- Web crawlers notice every little detail on your website, including hidden links. If someone plans to fool the crawlers, they will get it back from the crawlers, resulting in their site getting banned or getting a low rank in the SERPs.
Conclusion
Unethical methods like black hat SEO or grey hat SEO may give your website traction for some time. But if you plan to stay in the market for a long time, then using these tactics is not a good idea.
Moreover, if you are searching for ways to increase your website’s traffic or to boost your sales through white-hat SEO practices, contact us at OMR Digital. We are a professional digital marketing agency that offers services for SEO, PPC advertising, marketing, web development, and so on. Get started with our expert team now!
