Blackhat SEO strategies are tactics used to manipulate search engine rankings without abiding by search engine guidelines. Such practices can result in websites being blacklisted from SERPs or even penalized.
Here is a list of 10 blackhat SEO strategies that should be avoided at all costs:
1. Keyword stuffing – Using too many keywords in content or meta tags in an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings is a sure-fire way to get blacklisted from the SERPs.
2. Cloaking – Serving different content for bots than what is shown to human visitors can be seen as an attempt to manipulate search engine rankings and it will likely lead to blacklisting.
3. Link farms – Creating multiple websites that link back to each other, often with the intent of manipulating search engine rankings, is a big no-no. Doing this can easily result in all related websites being blacklisted from the SERPs.
4. Scraped content – Posting copied content from other websites without permission or attribution is not only unethical but also a sure-fire way to get on Google’s bad side and will likely land you on the blacklist if discovered.
5. Link schemes – Participating in link exchange programs or buying backlinks is another type of manipulation that could easily result in getting blacklisted from Google’s index, so it’s best avoided!
6. Invisible text – Writing text that’s the same color as the background so that bots see it while humans don’t is considered deceptive and may land you on the blacklist if discovered by Google’s team of crawlers and algorithms.
7 . Hidden links & redirects – Using hidden links or redirects in order to secretly pass PageRank from one page to another is a tactic known as “PageRank sculpting”––and Google won’t take kindly to it if discovered. So definitely avoid this if you want to stay off the blacklist!
8. Social media manipulation – Manipulating views or engagement metrics on social media platforms for purposes like increasing search engine rankings can also be seen as an attempt at deceptive manipulation and will likely land you on the blacklist if successful.
9. Duplicated websites & duplicate content – Having multiple versions of the same website with similar (or sometimes exactly identical) content doesn’t make any sense––and definitely won’t help your chances of avoiding the blacklist either!
10. Spam emails & comment spam – Sending large amounts of unsolicited emails or leaving comments on other websites full of irrelevant links won’t do anything for your site’s reputation with Google, so avoid engaging in these activities at all costs!
