Message from Leon (MD):
Black Hat SEO can have negative consequences for websites
Internet marketing can take many forms. It’s a field that combines aspects of design, web coding and link building, along with marketing strategies, in order to increase a website’s visibility. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) plays a major role in Internet marketing operations, improving a website’s organic rankings with relevant search engines in order to better promote its content. It’s a tactic that goes a long way in improving usability and adding value in regards to website content. It can, however, be entirely misused. Black Hat SEO (BHSEO) involves the unethical manipulation of search engine ranking procedures to garner “quick fix” solutions for Internet marketing.
Purple Cow offers professional SEO services that are reliable and above board. Contact us today to find out how we can help improve your website in line with industry best practices.
Underhanded Internet marketing can land your website in hot water
BHSEO involves website optimisation that transgresses the list of acceptable norms put in place by search engines, and increase traffic by taking advantage of ranking criteria. Breaking search engine rules and regulations in this way can give websites temporary leads in placements for selected search terms. However, this process compromises the integrity of the user’s search experience, as it pushes websites that often have very little to do with the search terms in question to the top ranked slots.
Companies offering these services often tout them as innovative or alternative, but the truth is that they are damaging to the SEO process as a whole, and can end up diminishing traffic to your website in the long run.
Internet users want websites they can trust – ranking high for keywords that aren’t relevant will frustrate and alienate your visitors. Moreover, search engines can actively penalise or ban websites caught engaging in black hat manoeuvres.
Select black hat SEO strategies that you should avoid include:
- Spamdexing – Search engine crawlers are specialised applications that scan website content for relative keywords. Spamdexing involves using unrelated keywords, phrases and links in the content of a webpage in order to mislead search engine crawlers. Black hat SEO targets popular keywords – regardless of their pertinence to the site – and litters a webpage with them, presenting search engines with the “relevant” content they prefer for ranking.
The implications of this are twofold:
- Websites become irrelevant – Users are conned into clicking links that they think have relevance to their search. When they find out otherwise, they aren’t inspired to revisit, recommend or investigate the website in any way. These websites are an annoyance to users, and won’t rally any kind of support from visitors or search engines.
- Fraudulent sites are in constant danger of being found out – With advances in algorithms and search crawl applications, spam sites stand more chance every day of being uncovered, penalised and possibly banned from search engines for their transgressions. This can be particularly damaging to online businesses.
- Keyword stuffing – Similar to spamdexing, this takes a more intensive approach to misrepresenting a website’s content. Long lists of popular keywords are disguised as article text, or sometimes even hidden directly behind other content, written in the same colour as the background. Search engines like Google remove websites entirely from their search indexes if they engage in keyword stuffing.
- Page hijacks – This convoluted form of black hat SEO involves recreating a competitor’s website exactly, then attempting to get it ranked. Once ranked, the site’s links redirect to a competitor’s web pages or even that of an unrelated spammer.
Black hat search engine manipulation degrades the value of your website
Ultimately, unethical website management and construction always comes out in the wash. While it might put your website ahead in rankings initially, being caught in the act by a major search engine has the potential to ruin an online business. Contact Purple Cow today to find out more about our professional SEO services, and put your best foot forward.