SEO mistakes are often done on purpose.
Trying to fool and trick Google algorithms to get higher rankings can cost your website a penalty that is tough to recover from. So-called black hat techniques are commonly used to manipulate search engine results and are absolute red flags for your organic rankings. We compiled popular black hat techniques below, so make sure to avoid those!
Find out more about white hat SEO.
1. Keyword Stuffing
One method to rank high on search engines is incorporating keywords within the blog post. Long tails and LSI keywords are believed to be the driving force for Google Algorithm to extract as much related and specific information as possible about your website.
However, are you writing for Search Engines or for your audience?
If you think about it, there is no need to stuff your content with numerous identical keywords or completely unrelated ones to trick Google or other search engines. Instead, think about your readers and their experience on your website.
Related Article: How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing?
Moreover, search engines are getting more and more sophisticated in tracking websites, that “abuse” the use of keywords. These websites eventually get penalized by Google and have a hard time recovering from the following punishments:
- Sharp decline of traffic
- Sudden drop of keyword rankings
You don’t want that, right? Then don’t stuff keywords but use them moderately and in a natural manner.
2. Duplicate Content
Another interesting issue in black hat SEO is touching upon duplicate content. Plagiarism is an unethical act, since “copy and paste” behavior steals the work of others and diminishes the authority of your website.
In case the search engine crawler identifies duplicate content, no direct penalty is applied. However, duplicate content will result in lower ranks and traffic.
While duplicate content won’t get you blocked by Google, it will have a negative impact on your website.
3. Link Farms
As backlinks are a major ranking factor, many people try to deceive Google by building so called link farms.
Link farms are websites that are developed with the sole purpose of building links. This means that someone builds additional websites and blogs, next to their main website, to give backlinks to their main website. Those link farms usually have low quality content and many links that mostly link to one website, and are therefore easily detected by Google and other search engines.
Simply said, it isn’t worth the effort. Better focus on natural backlink building techniques and create high-quality content that is worth linking to.
Are you willing risk negative effects on your ranking?
Avoid taking unnecessary risks while trying to trick SEO engines with methods like keyword stuffing and duplicate content. Instead, make smart decisions when choosing your SEO techniques. At the end of the day, your users should be your number one priority.
Share your thoughts on these black hat SEO techniques in the comment box down below.
