Online visibility experts have probably heard of the expression known as blackhat SEO. Blackhat SEO embraces a collection of strategies used to boost a website's or page's ranking in search engine results, but through methods that violate the search engines' terms of service.
Basically, blackhat SEO is a shortcut that could get your site to the top of search engine rankings quickly. However, these techniques are usually seen as unethical, and search engines like Google can heavily penalize sites found using them.
A popular blackhat technique is keyword stuffing. This entails filling a webpage with key terms or numbers to manipulate a site's ranking in Google search results. They might come across in a list, group, out of context or in a hidden div.
Establishing link farms is another common tactic. Here, websites are linked together in a circular network to increase the rank of all the pages in the circle. However, if a site is linked to from a high number of unrelated sites, it may also be penalized.
Cloaking is an even more extreme blackhat method. This is when different content is presented to search engines than to users, essentially redirecting users to alternate pages without their consent.
Despite the potential penalties, why do people use blackhat SEO? The straightforward answer is: to achieve quick results. These methods give websites the illusion of popularity, boosting them up the search results rapiidly.
However, the gain is fleeting. Search engines now incorporate sophisticated algorithms which identify these fraudulent techniques. Once they're identified, penalties can include reduced rankings or even being removed entirely from the search index.
As a result, many websites are shifting to white hat SEO strategies. These are techniques that aim to build a website's prominence in legitimate ways. Some methods are creating relevant content that provides valuable information to the reader, optimizing website tags, or creating a positive user interface.
To sum up, while blackhat SEO may come across as here a fast way to improve your site's visibility, it's a risky game to play. It's more advisable to focus whitehat SEO methods, which improve your website through legitimate means, thereby providing sustainable success.