The Importance of Wearing a White Hat
Ever since man invented search engines, there have been individuals whose sole missions have been to exploit their algorithms for their gain. In many ways, this attitude is the foundation of search engine optimization; however there are some tactics that search engines frown upon more than others. These tactics are typically referred to as black hat SEO tactics.
Black hat SEO tactics represent the actions that the search engines deem unacceptable and for those that are caught performing them, can represent SEO suicide. Google, Yahoo, and Bing have all been known to severely penalize and in especially egregious cases, entirely blacklist companies that rely on black hat SEO tactics. We at DBS understand that these unethical strategies are only favorable in the short term and that an honest, ethical approach, utilizing white hat tactics is the only strategy that will ever result in marketing success. Despite our beliefs, many companies fall victim to the allure of these dubious tactics. In this week’s post, we will educate you on some of the most common black hat SEO tactics.
Redirects
Redirects, when used as they were intended, are not considered black hat. In fact, 301 redirects are the preferred way to redirect an old domain to a new location without being destructive to their linking structure. Redirects become black hat when they are used fraudulently to acquire links. Just last month, we ran into an instance where a competitor of one of our SEO client’s unethically utilized a 301 redirect to gain links. Link directories often allow non-profit organizations to acquire a link free of charge. This particular company created a non-profit, informational website to gain links. After gaining free links for that URL, they redirected it to their commercial website. Had they simply promoted their commercial site, they would have had to pay for these links or would never have gained them in the first place.
Keyword farms
A keyword farm refers to a website or blog that utilizes excessive keywords and hyperlinks to acquire “keyword rich” links to a parent website. This tactic has become one of the most utilized tactics by outsource SEO companies. For that reason, they are normally characterized by broken English and incorrect grammar. This strategy is based on the concept that the search engines will be unable to recognize the websites as spam, and will award them the same benefits that acquiring legitimate links offers companies.
Hidden text
Hidden text has two forms and both are deceiving. One method is to set “keyword dense” text to the same color as the background. Another technique simply decreases the size of the text to an illegible level. Hidden text is very similar to keyword farming with the exception that this technique is done covertly. The benefit of this tactic is the same as above; websites that successfully fool the search engines gain many targeted keywords without much effort.
Cloaking
Cloaking is a particularly advanced technique used to dupe the search engines that presents different information to a search engine than a human would see. There are a variety of ways to cloak and many of these techniques are still completely imperceptible to search engines. Cloaking is frequently used in affiliate marketing to deceive the search engines. Google’s ad network requires the domain of the display URL of a PPC ad be the same as the domain of the destination URL. Cloaking allows individuals to circumvent this rule, and turn users who click on the ad directly to the affiliate’s converting page.
So what should you do if you discover that a competitor, or in a worst case scenario, your very own marketing company is utilizing these tactics? When a competitor uses unfair tactics to beat you it is entirely fair to report them. Their unethical actions give them an unfair advantage and should not be rewarded. To report a company to the various search engines, click on the following links:
If your own marketing company is using black hat tactics, you may want to consider finding a new SEO partner. In the event that this happens, feel free to contact us. We think we may be able to recommend someone. 
