Black hat SEO is a successful approach that has been used for many years. However, while it is one of the best ways to rank faster and generate more traffic, it is not without risks. Google takes black hat SEO cases very seriously. And if you are not careful about your tactics, you risk getting your site banned for a very long time, if not forever. To ensure success, you will need to be vigilant. Avoiding sketchy or cheap tactics is the first step. Following are some common black hat SEO techniques to avoid in 2021:
Paid Backlinks
Link building is an integral part of SEO but it is also a challenging part. It is generally difficult to find quality links that are relevant. The white hat way of building links is to research professional places to link to, guest blog, link internally, and create quality content. Black hat SEO practitioners don’t want to put in all this work. So, they often simply buy backlinks. This is not a good approach as it is against Google’s guidelines and rules and can lead to a ban. Not to mention most of these paid backlinks are usually irrelevant or spammy and can result in your site being penalized.
Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing is when you overuse the same keywords through your content in an attempt to maximize visibility and generate traffic. There was a time when this black hat SEO tactic was very popular. But search engines got smarter over the year. Nowadays, they are too smart for it. However, this does not stop some SEO practitioners to try keyword stuffing. You shouldn’t make this mistake. Not only is this tactic outdated and ineffective, but it also makes the content look unnatural and can negatively impact your rankings.
Duplicate Content
Copying and pasting content in multiple places on the site is also a sketchy tactic that many lazy companies still use as it makes content creation easier. As you may already know, search engines prefer original content. If you use this black hat SEO technique, your duplicate content will be ignored by Google. In the worst case scenario, it may even penalize your site.
Invisible Text
Invisible text may sound like a smart tactic but in practice, it fails. This black hat SEO technique involves putting a list of keywords on a page and masking them via the same colour text as the background. In this way, users cannot see the keywords but search engine bots can still read them. This is a cheap tactic that doesn’t really work nowadays.
Cloaking
Cloaking is another common black hat SEO technique that you should avoid. This tactic involves presenting a URL or content to the search engine that is different from what is presented to the site’s visitors. It’s done by delivering content on the basis of IP addresses. It basically tricks the search engines into ranking them higher for target keywords, while the actual content shown to users is completely different. This is a major violation of Google’s rules and guidelines and can result in heavy penalties.
These are some of the most common black hat SEO techniques to avoid in 2021. Keep in mind that search engines are always on the lookout for unethical tactics. So, be vigilant and think outside the box when using the black hat SEO approach.
Also read: Six Easy SEO Hacks to Boost Ranking in 2021