What is Black Hat SEO? Definition and context
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2025 4:21 am
Black Hat SEO encompasses various strategies to improve web positioning , which “trick” search algorithms and contradict the guidelines of Google and other search engines. The problem with these strategies is that, in the long term, they have the opposite effect and negatively affect your site’s online presence .
This happened, for example, with one of our france mobile database clients when he didn't even know us. From one day to the next, he went from being fourth in the results pages to being expelled from Google... But let's take it one step at a time.
SEO refers to the set of techniques that make a website appear among the first results of searches performed on a browser. The higher the links to a site appear in the results pages (or SERP), the better positioning or ranking it is said to have.
There are a number of factors that influence a website's ranking in the SERPs. For example, the number and quality of backlinks and clicks its pages receive, and the keywords it contains. These give search engines clues about how well the site answers certain queries.
Black Hat SEO techniques act on them in a “dishonest” way. This is because it goes against the directives of most search engines, which seek to guarantee the quality of their service. Why? Let’s see.
This type of SEO does not involve writing content that is useful to users, but rather content that tricks search engines into believing that it is. Broadly speaking, this would involve creating pages with a good number of backlinks and specific keywords , which receive several clicks .
Based on these factors, search engines will rank the pages in question high up in the search results . This way, they will be able to receive enough clicks to stay high in the SERPs, even if their poor content should place them much lower in the rankings .
This happened, for example, with one of our france mobile database clients when he didn't even know us. From one day to the next, he went from being fourth in the results pages to being expelled from Google... But let's take it one step at a time.
SEO refers to the set of techniques that make a website appear among the first results of searches performed on a browser. The higher the links to a site appear in the results pages (or SERP), the better positioning or ranking it is said to have.
There are a number of factors that influence a website's ranking in the SERPs. For example, the number and quality of backlinks and clicks its pages receive, and the keywords it contains. These give search engines clues about how well the site answers certain queries.
Black Hat SEO techniques act on them in a “dishonest” way. This is because it goes against the directives of most search engines, which seek to guarantee the quality of their service. Why? Let’s see.
This type of SEO does not involve writing content that is useful to users, but rather content that tricks search engines into believing that it is. Broadly speaking, this would involve creating pages with a good number of backlinks and specific keywords , which receive several clicks .
Based on these factors, search engines will rank the pages in question high up in the search results . This way, they will be able to receive enough clicks to stay high in the SERPs, even if their poor content should place them much lower in the rankings .