You are probably not the only one who wants to skyrocket their website to that coveted page one ranking on Google’s search page results. Right now, Search Engine Optimization is one of the most crucial aspects of digital marketing. No matter what your business is, be it e-commerce or not, you can benefit massively from getting that page one exposure. However, SEO can be challenging for a lot of people. Since Google and other search engines continuously change their algorithm, it can be challenging to keep up with methods that actually work.
But that’s not the only thing that’s challenging. Coming up with a successful SEO campaign involves intricate and immersive work. With SEO, you are always working. Everything needs to be updated and monitored. Content management, link building, website design, and user experience are only a few things that need to be worked on. 
This is probably the reason why many people want to go the “easy way.” And if you’re considering doing the same, you need to think twice. Don’t get lured into cheating. Black Hat SEO or any other illegitimate methods could ruin your chances of getting ranked. Or worse. It can even get your site banned by Google.
The truth is, Black Hat SEO will get you nowhere fast. And if you genuinely want to get your page ranked, all you need to do is go White Hat. In this guide, we’ll talk about what Black Hat SEO is and all of the strategies you should avoid entirely.
What is Black Hat SEO?
Simply put, Black Hat SEO is deceptive Search Engine Optimization techniques, in a way that they are done to trick search engines into ranking a site highly. Their goal is to get a site rank higher than it actually deserves. This involves tricking search engines’ “spiders” or “bots.”
Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. But Black Hat SEO techniques will land you into tricky waters. Instead of ranking highly, if caught, Google will you penalize yours for these practices. Penalties for such improper techniques can go from lowering your rank to outright banning you from search engine results pages.
2018 Black Hat SEO Techniques
1. Keyword Stuffing
Keywords are the backbone of search engine optimization. Google checks keywords to find out if a website is an appropriate match for a search. Keyword stuffing involves peppering website content with keywords you are trying to rank for, regardless of readability. In short, it is excessively optimizing content with keywords by overusing them throughout your website.
What you should do instead: Focus on readability and relevance. Work on creating content that is useful and relevant. Write things that people will actually read and optimize it with keywords only when it is appropriate.
2. Hidden Texts and Links
This technique involves just that – hiding keywords and links and making them invisible to readers. You might think this could work. However, search engines see through these tricks because these extra keywords don’t usually make sense on websites, even if readers can’t see them.
What you should do instead: Links should only be included where it is appropriate and when it is genuinely relevant to your content. If you create content that people naturally relate with, Google will reward you for it.
3. Link Buying
This is done by paying other websites to link to yours so that your site can attain Domain Authority. Again, this is not considered at all White Hat. Google frowns on webmasters who buy or sell links – even paid guest posts. Why? Because this simply reads as paid advertisements and not at all useful to their users. After all, quality wins every time.
What you should do instead: Build link a building campaign that focuses on getting backlinks honestly from high-authority pages.
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