What is Black Hat and how can this strategy harm your website?

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In an increasingly competitive environment, who doesn't want quick results with big gains? Some techniques can even help you achieve these goals, however, they are not the most suitable for reasons such as lack of ethics, also performance and long-term results .

One of them is called Black Hat SEO , a set of techniques intended to optimize a page in search engines, but with very questionable methods and disapproved by Google itself, since these actions follow the opposite path to what the best SEO practices indicate .

So, how about you read this entire article on the topic turn leads into sales with overseas chinese in worldwide data and make sure you don't use any of these practices in the future? In this post we will cover the following topics:

What is Black Hat SEO?
What is the difference between White, Grey and Black Hat SEO?
Why not do Black Hat?
How does Google penalize Black Hat SEO?
What are the main techniques used?
Alternatives to Black Hat SEO that actually deliver results
Keep reading!

What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO is a set of actions to trick Google's algorithms in search of better rankings.

To generate organic traffic and achieve a better position in the SERPs , SEO techniques are widely used, however, there are questionable and long-term ineffective ways to achieve this.

Using the right keywords, increasing a page's authority, and building links efficiently make a page rank among the top results in a search engine. But some people bypass this system and adopt deceptive practices to achieve the same goal.

Black Hat SEO is the opposite of what Google recommends, mainly when it comes to quality content and a positive user experience . These techniques aim exclusively for the top of the search results, placing their pages at all costs in the first positions, with little or no planning.

Black Hat SEO represents any action that aims to manipulate the rules and best practices stipulated by Google, or even Bing , in pursuit of better rankings. The results may be relevant and often come quickly, however, the price to pay is high and can definitely jeopardize all your marketing work.

What is the difference between White, Grey and Black Hat SEO?
Now you know what it is, but you still don't understand why it's called that , do you? The Black Hat is a reference to western movies of the past, where the villains were usually identified by the color of their hat, while the "good guys" wore the accessory in white.

This idea, however, was not restricted to black and white films of the past and is also used within Digital Marketing. Therefore, in addition to Black Hat SEO, there are also White Hat and Grey Hat. You already know the first term, but how about learning more about the other two?

White Hat SEO
Practices that seek to optimize the performance of a page according to Google's guidelines and rules are considered White Hat SEO. That is, those that put the user first, such as producing relevant content on blogs, participating in social networks and even adopting a responsive design .

White Hat, therefore, belongs to the “good guys” who try to improve the performance and ranking of their pages in the right way, following the rules of the game and without harming any of their competitors. Simply by offering the best possible user experience within your Marketing plan.

Gray Hat SEO
Have you ever heard of the term grey area ? It occurs when a situation or a certain action is not expressly bad or good, it is something doubtful. Gray Hat SEO, therefore, happens when a practice for performance optimization is not considered good, but it cannot be defined as bad either.

It represents a plan that usually follows SEO best practices, but ends up using Black Hat in specific situations, in search of a faster result. Very common, for example, when we talk about sending email marketing without receiving permission or commenting on posts with link building in mind.

Why not do Black Hat?
The first reason not to use Black Hat SEO within your Content Marketing strategy is simple: you are not thinking about the user, that is, you are not producing material that is relevant to your buyer persona . In this way, you end up being unfair to the person you want to convince to become your consumer.

Furthermore, you are not being honest with your competitors either. Of course, everyone is competing for users' attention and resources, however, it is necessary to play fair and try to outdo other competitors with honest techniques and, above all, by offering the lead a higher quality service and/or product.

Black Hat SEO can even generate quick returns, for example by placing your brand among the first results in a search, however, it does not do so by offering relevant content to its users. This directly implies the timeline: it works in the short term and has little relevance in the medium and long term.

Therefore, it becomes unfeasible to plan solid actions that aim, for example, at customer loyalty .

You may even generate more traffic by attracting visitors based on your position, but you cannot build a strong relationship with users, who tend not to continue on a page after realizing that the content is not that relevant. Consequently, the bounce rate tends to increase.

Consider the following example: you click on a page precisely because it appears among the first results; you access it and find repeated keywords and content that is not very relevant or attractive. What do you do? You leave this site immediately.

Another important point to remember when we talk about reasons not to use Black Hat techniques in search of a better ranking is Google. Yes, the most popular search engine in the world does not approve of this type of practices and, when it identifies them, it can penalize you, harming all your Digital Marketing planning and actions at once.

How does Google penalize Black Hat SEO?
The penalties that Google can apply vary in weight. However, the penalties usually involve:

a drop in the rankings;
PageRank reduction ;
reduction in organic search traffic;
restriction on the posting of new content and publications;
In addition to punishments, there is also the possibility of expulsion.
To make it even easier to understand how Google works in these cases and how the dreaded "manual actions" work, watch this video from Google Webmasters .

If you have suffered a punishment that you consider unfair, the only alternative will be to optimize the site with quality content and be attentive to the changes you make. Therefore, Google will remove the page from its list, considering that it does not normally use Black Hat practices, since it considers the site as a whole.

That is, if there are no significant number of irregularities, Google acknowledges that it was a mistake and backs off. Furthermore, the only alternative to reversing a penalty is to try to identify the problems and correct them immediately.

What are the main techniques used?
Before avoiding a practice or action, the first step is to know it. That's why we've separated the main Black Hat SEO techniques so you know exactly what not to do when optimizing pages . Check them out below!

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