Black Hat SEO practices is an issue in
Digital Marketing worthy to be addressed. To start off exploring the current
trends in black Hat SEO, we should refresh ourselves with the definition of SEO:
Search Engine Optimization which “is
a marketing discipline focused on growing visibility in organic (non-paid)
search engine results. SEO encompasses both the technical and creative elements
required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search
engines.” The key elements to note in this definition are first, ‘organic’;
meaning non-paid results opposite of SEM: Search Engine Marketing. Secondly, ‘discipline’;
meaning that there are rules and guidelines to follow. So, Black Hat
essentially means the mal-practices of SEO.
This article from Positionly.com
identifies and presents the common Black Hat practices in SEO:
The
list of common practices include:
- Paid links: Which is explained by it’s title; when people pay for links for SEO.
- Spam comments: Commonly seen and identifiable by all of us, those obviously bot generated comments sprinkled across the web; containing links.
- Duplicate content: pasting sections of identical content across multiple domains, resulting in skewed organic search and poor user experience.
- Cloaking: Masking totally different content with relevant URL and presenting it to the user, in order to create false click through rate.
These are only some of the common
practices of Black Hat SEO. I believe it is important for us marketers to be
aware of these practices, as they are rather prevalent. Also, it is important
for us as users to recognize when a click lands in faulty web-content as it
could be the result of Black Hat SEO.
However, the most crucial part remains in
knowing the consequences of such practices; and to avoid being tempted by these
acts, as most of them are simple to execute. The consequences of Black Hat SEO
could but rarely result in banning of the website, but penalization is common;
which involves paying negative SEO and lowers your website rank. Ultimately eliminating
all efforts of the Black Hat practice, and probably losing much more in the
process.
So as Marketers,
we have to ask ourselves the final question: will it be worth it?
Rose Yin
Article '8 Risky Black Hat SEO Techniques Used Today'
@positionly. "8 Risky Black Hat SEO Techniques Used Today." Positionly Blog. N.p., 08 Oct. 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
Source: 'The Beginners Guide to SEO'
"SEO: The Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization from Moz." Moz. N.p., 04 Mar. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.
