There are plenty of search marketing professionals in the industry willing to use black hat search optimisation techniques to boost the traffic of your website. These kinds of results can be tempting to go for, but as any good search marketing consultant will tell you, the effects are temporary and can in the long run harm your online marketing campaign. With so many black-hat techniques out there, it can be difficult to spot them.
The concept of ‘black hat’ and ‘white hat’ search optimisation developed almost as soon as the industry did. Black hatters abound on the net, offering a quick boost in your search engine ranking for what often seems a reasonable price. They take advantage of the natural impatience most businesses feel when it comes to waiting for a good search marketing campaign to result in traffic.
It may seem a little overdramatic to label good guys and bad guys so clearly, and the issue is often joked about by those who live in the grey areas of search marketing. Black hat search techniques, however, make the internet a less enjoyable place and can put roadblocks in the way of real communication.
There are so many search engine optimisation techniques available that it can be difficult to spot exactly what are bad black hat techniques and those that are preferable. The situation is not helped by the fact that there are also ‘grey hat’ tactics, borderline routes that may or may not be accepted by the search engines. It is clear there are some tactics that are without doubt black hat.
Hiding text or links is absolutely against search engine guidelines and will eventually get your page kicked off the index. Other, similar methods are also out, such as doorway pages, which a viewer never sees but which feed keywords to search engine spiders. Cloaking pages is similarly a no-no. Keyword stuffing may get you noticed initially by search engines but will see you taken off the index eventually.
More methods are created all the time, and sometimes formerly white hat techniques can slip over to the dark side. The essential point with black hat search optimisation is that it is designed to fool search engines without providing any value for the viewer.
How do you tell whether your business website is engaging in a black hat search optimisation techniques? A big part of it is what feels right. Search engines build their rules based on what is fair to the viewer. Checking the guidelines provided by search engines is a good idea if you don’t know what you can or can’t do.
Engaging the services of experts will ensure that you avoid any pitfalls, you can always talk to Peter Woolf about the best techniques to use.
Of course, sometimes you may not be aware that you are using these techniques. There are plenty of SEO firms out there who are willing to use black hat techniques to make a quick buck. The clue here is ‘quick.’ Any company that promises an instant traffic boost is suspect, and should be avoided. Check a company’s reviews and do your research, but also remember that anything that seems too good to be true probably is.
