Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2022

Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2022

Nov 14, 2022

Reading Time: 3 minutes
Black Hat SEO Techniques to Avoid in 2022
Black hat SEO techniques are SEO strategies that try to trick search engines into awarding higher rankings. Search engines like Google typically punish sites that do this with either lower rankings or, if the offenses are bad enough, blacklisting. These are some techniques that you should avoid in your SEO strategy.

Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of inserting your target keyword into your content as many times as possible. Imagine trying to read something that reused the same words over and over again in close succession. It just doesn’t read well and isn’t enjoyable for readers. On top of that, how useful could the content be when it packs the same word into each paragraph without actually providing any new information?

Tip: Focus on LSI keywords, which are keywords that you’d expect to find alongside your primary keyword. For example, if you’re writing about pandas, then you’d expect to see keywords like bamboo, endangered, China, conservation, zoo, etc.

 

Buying Backlinks

Backlinks play a major role in SEO strategies because they’re a signal to Google that your website is considered trustworthy by others. However, if you’re getting those links back to your site by buying them, that’s not a good strategy. Not only is it a black hat technique, but it doesn’t really work to boost your SEO. This is because sites that are willing to sell backlinks aren’t the most reputable, which actually damages your reputation with Google instead of boosting it.

Tip: Having high-quality content is a good way to attract backlinks, but it’s only part of the process. It’s also important to build relationships with others in your industry as well as publications that might be interested in linking to your content.

 

Spamming Comments Sections

Participating in comments sections is a way to build relationships with others in your industry, which can help in getting backlinks. However, there’s a line between leaving comments and spamming. Anyone who spends any time on social media has certainly seen spam comments that are basically just there to link to someone’s site and aren’t relevant to the post or to the conversation that’s going on. This is considered a black hat SEO technique and can get you blocked by users.

Tip: Use the comments section to engage in conversation with others in your industry and your potential customers. Build a relationship over time rather than jumping right in with a spam request or link.

 

Hidden Content

Hidden content is anything on a web page that is colored the same as the background. Hidden content is how people try to hide black hat SEO techniques that are designed to trick the search engines so that it doesn’t create a bad user experience. However, Google can still see the hidden content even if users can’t. Plus, Google can see the hidden tag and will recognize it as being hidden, which will result in a lower ranking.

Tip: Hidden content can be okay if it’s usually visible to both search engines and to readers except in certain circumstances. For example, some websites may include content on their desktop pages that is hidden from mobile versions.

 

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