Black Hat SEO refers to unethical and manipulative techniques used to improve search engine rankings. These tactics violate search engine guidelines and attempt to deceive search engines or hack online properties for quick gains.
Here are some known examples of black hat SEO:
- Keyword Stuffing – Jamming content full of keywords unnaturally to manipulate rankings. Makes pages spammy.
- Hidden Text – Using same color text as background to sneak in keywords invisible to users. Deceives search engines.
- Link Schemes – Building fake, manipulative links from low-quality sites to boost rankings. Violates Google guidelines.
- Scraped Content – Copying other sites’ content without permission to benefit from their work. Considered plagiarism.
- Doorway Pages – Creating pages optimized only for ranking key terms but provide low-value content for users.
- Link Farms – Networks of sites using excessive links and/or paid links to manipulate rankings.
- Cloaking – Serving engines different content than users see. Considered deception.
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