When you’re starting out as a blogger, it can feel like the deck is stacked against you. It’s frustrating to pour tons of effort into a blog only to have your hard work pass unnoticed. Proper SEO can offer a route out of the doldrums, and there are plenty of legitimate strategies that can help you boost your blog’s place in search results. But not everyone is content to play by the rules. Some creators are willing to push the envelope and this is where black hat SEO enters the picture. 

What is SEO?

Search engines like Google and Bing are an essential component of the modern Internet. Without them, it would be far more difficult to navigate cyberspace since we could only visit a site if we knew its address. But the Web is mind bogglingly vast (there are approximately 600 million blogs out there), and even the most chronically online among us have only experienced a minute fraction of the content it offers. 

Search engines have come to play the role of a guide. We tell them what we’re looking for, be it cheap flights to Orlando, the Golden Horus name of Ramesses III, or the identity of that scary-looking bug you found in your bathroom. In response, they present us with a list of (hopefully) relevant results, with the ones at the top being the ones the search engine thinks will be the most useful to you. To create these rankings, the search engine has to analyze each potential result. Therefore, SEO is all about helping them understand why your site deserves a higher place on the list.   

SEO strategies

One thing to bear in mind is that SEO isn’t eternal and unchanging. On the contrary, it’s constantly evolving, shaped by both technological change and the desire of developers to give their search engines a competitive edge. Typical SEO strategies revolve around the strategic use of keywords and the use of links, both internal and external. 

White hat SEO vs. black hat SEO

Different search engines have different rules for evaluating content. SEO strategies that adhere to these rules are classified as white hat SEO. An example of this would be making sure that your site measures up to Google’s EEAT framework. 

Black hat SEO, on the other hand, doesn’t care as much about the rules, or it tries to game the system by following the letter of the law rather than its spirit. These strategies can include:

• Keyword stuffing. White hat SEO only uses keywords that are actually relevant to your content whereas black hat SEO uses the most popular keywords even if they’re only tenuously connected to the content. A colleague of mine once worked for a news website that was addicted to keyword stuffing. When he wrote a review of Diablo III, the post was tagged with irrelevant keywords like “Lamborghini Diablo.” Keyword stuffing can also result in unnatural prose since these terms are often repeated ad nauseam in the text.
• Cloaking. This is the digital equivalent of a Potemkin village. Basically, the creator shows search engines a piece of content that’s dramatically different from the one shown to actual readers. 
• Site reputation abuse. Like a parasite, this involves third-party content being hosted on a host site to benefit from its superior place in search rankings. This means the third-party content gets a better ranking than it normally would. This can result in some truly bizarre mashups, like Forbes, which is primarily known for business news, dominating search terms such as “best CBD gummies,” “how to get rid of roaches,” and “best pet insurance.”  

The problem with black hat SEO is that it often compromises the user experience. Tagging a review of Diablo III with “Lamborghini Diablo” might get more eyes on the page, but it’s going to leave many readers unsatisfied since people looking for information about the sports car aren’t necessarily going to care about the video game and vice versa. If people feel like you’ve led them on a wild goose chase, they’re probably not going to be repeat visitors.

Penalties for black hat SEO

Using black hat SEO doesn’t just alienate readers. It can also result in severe penalties for offending websites. At the end of the day, search engines want to make sure their users are happy with the results they see. If the top results are a bunch of sites that don’t actually add value, it’ll damage the search engine’s reputation. 

In response to site reputation abuse by Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN, Google implemented a change to their policy that saw their affiliate businesses experience a dramatic decline in search visibility. 

In extreme cases, search engines can respond to black hat SEO by removing a site from their rankings entirely. 

Stick to people-first content

The moral of the story is that, when it comes to SEO, creators should always resist the temptation to try to game the system. 

• Black hat SEO includes tactics like keyword stuffing, cloaking, and site reputation abuse.
• Even if black hat SEO provides a short-term boost, it’s unlikely to be beneficial in the long run. 
• It can have major consequences for sites using these techniques. Not only can it alienate readers, but search engines can punish the offending site by downgrading their visibility or even removing them from search results entirely. 

Instead of resorting to digital skulduggery, creators should focus on creating high-quality, people-first content. If readers are impressed with your work, they’ll become a regular part of your audience, and they may even recommend you to friends and colleagues. Being a blogger can be frustrating, but it pays to take the high road. 

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