If you have ever wondered why black hat SEO practices aren’t too successful, we are happy to say that we have an answer to this!
Ditch Black Hat SEO, Because It Comes to Bite You in the End
Black hat SEO, maybe you have heard about it – maybe you have done it. In its essence, black hat SEO is a quick formula for success, but the success you achieve through that doesn’t really last. There are many arguments why black hat SEO is now good for your long-term business sustainability. But to best illustrate why it may not be ideal for tapping into these “occult practices” of search engine optimization, we would like to make a simple comparison. Take https://casinobonusesfinder.jp/, for example. This is one of the best-ranking sites for its search terms. But if you look behind the site, you will realize that the practices used in it only fall under the category of White Hat SEO.
Tony Sloterman, the product owner at Casino Bonuses Finder, argues that while black hat practices can really propel a page or a website, this success will only be temporary because Google, Yahoo, and the other search engines out there are smart. They will catch up on any faulty practice you are trying to sell as credibility and authority, and they are going to punish it. And when Google metes out punishments, you definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end. Let’s take a look at why a black hat isn’t ideal.
1. Black Hat SEO Doesn’t Create Any Value
The first and major issue that search engines have with black hat is value. It’s argued that black hat practices create no added benefit for the customer because it generally results from inorganic practices that are designed to boost some short-term values. And what short-term values matter to your business?
That is traffic and backlinks, of course! However, if those aren’t organic, sooner or later, the crawlers (known as bots) will catch up and dish out a penalty to go along with that, and no – you do not want that. So, if you can find a way to boost your website while not using entirely organic practices, this is fine, but you ought to ask yourself – is this going to work in the long term and if it doesn’t, can I recover from the consequences?
2. Your Progress Will Crash Before Long
As mentioned before, search engines only care about value, but this isn’t domain authority. Google confirmed it doesn’t specifically measure domain authority but rather uses some undisclosed factors to see if a website is good. For example, Google has access to their algorithms, and we don’t, so for us, it’s best to use these arbitrary criteria introduced by Ahrefs, Neil Patel, and other SEO tools.
But the true issue with black hat SEO is that your progress cannot work in the long term. There are several practices that some SEO experts still excuse today because they believe it’s not too bad and the benefits are potentially quite significant. Some popular black hat practices include:
- Private Blog Networks
- Keyword Stuffing
- Profile Link Spamming
- Cloaked Content
- And More…
Maybe you will get away doing some of these, but Google is too smart for you to avoid forever, and without an organic read of your website, you will have a harder time maintaining your project in the long term.
3. Penalties Are Very Hard to Get Off From
First of all, a penalty is not the end of the world, but you will then have to spend considerable effort on sorting that one out instead of moving your business forward. Penalties are not too uncommon, though, and they are not always the result of purposeful black hat practices.
After all, some practices weren’t listed as the black hat in the previous update, but they have become such now. Moz details how to get rid of these penalties in a quick and efficient way, but our advice is to just focus on organic growth and a sustainable model instead of trying to get ahead in the game.
4. Traffic Will Stagnate or Drop Sharply
If you still use black hat SEO to boost your website, you need to be prepared for some of the bad side effects, which could potentially deplete your business of its steam. As SEM Rush explains in a detailed blog post about black hat SEO, you will sooner or later see the downsides of using these strategies. Yes, your traffic may go up a little, but the truth is that even if it does, it will come crashing after a while, and that is precisely the type of thing you don’t want happening.
5. Over Optimization of Anchor Links Isn’t Always Good
You have all these over-optimized websites these days. They are named after the exact thing they want to rank for. So, for example, a site called bestofficechairs.com will purchase backlinks that are anchored “best officer chairs” from multiple links, but that’s bad because Google knows you are probably paying for those links.
