March 14th, 2010 by Nick

Corruption can be found in the world of SEO as much as anywhere else. Specifically, you will find the abuse of search engines in the attempt to gain higher rankings for a website. While there are established ways of improving a website’s chances to get picked up by both human users and search engine spiders (called white hat SEO) there are also ways of doing so that are seen as unethical (referred to as black hat SEO).

What’s the difference between white and black hat SEO?

White hat search engine optimization can be defined as the use of practices of improving the search engine results of a website which are suggested and approved of by search engines themselves. They typically focus on good design, the use of well-researched keywords within unique content and consistent link building amongst other tools.

Black hat search engine optimization, conversely, is the practice of methods that search engines do not approve of. They are based on deception and they result in a poorer experience of search engines for users. This poorer user experience obviously results in a downgraded perception of the search engine, hence why the search engines so thoroughly disapprove of them.

Why use black hat at all?

People are drawn to the use of black hat techniques because they bring faster results in the battle to get higher ratings, while white hat techniques involve lengthier processes and are more labour-intensive. Using black hat techniques allows you to get large numbers of people to access your site in a relatively short period of time. Ultimately, the lure of potential high numbers of traffic is irresistible for some but is considered a very bad way to go about SEO.

Where can you use black hat tools?

Black hat can be found on on-page SEO as well as off-page. On-page SEO tactics (on-page referring to the use of content on the pages of the website) include hiding text and links. Black hat approaches to keywords involve continuous keyword repetition, far and above what is found in normal speaking or writing. The inclusion of doorway pages and mirror pages are both seen as a violation of the Terms of Service provided by many search engines and including either could be grounds for banning. Doorway pages spam the index of a search engine and drive traffic to other pages, while mirror pages, which are near duplicate versions of websites or pages, are used to target different keywords.  Both are regarded as black hat SEO.

Off-page SEO provides plenty of opportunity for black hat too. Link farms artificially boosts links by forming a group of separate, highly interlinked websites with 100+ outbound links per page. The use of irrelevant keywords in link-ads, garbage links, link churning and hidden inbound links are all regarded as black hat and will provide a sound basis for the banning of your site if you are discovered using these methods.

What happens if I get caught?

Should your site be discovered using black hat techniques that are in violation of the Terms of Service as outlined by search engines then you might be shocked at the severity of the penalties and the effect on your online reputation management. It involves everything from reducing the rankings of those sites or removing their website addresses from their databases completely.

The penalties, when considered against the largely short-term benefits, suddenly make black hat SEO a lot less appealing.

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