In another article, I answered the question, what is white hat SEO? If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend you either check that out now or after you read this article. If you plan on running a legitimate and stable affiliate marketing company, you will not be using black hat SEO, rather, you will only use white hat methods (as I do). So, what is black hat SEO anyway?
Brand new to affiliate marketing? Not even sure what SEO stands for? No problem! Check out my primer article explaining what SEO is.
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Manipulating Search Engines
Back when search engines were just getting started, they were extremely easy to manipulate. For example, a major factor in search rankings was (and still is) inbound links to your website. If a lot of links point into your site, this tells search engines that you are a quality site. Each link is like a vote of confidence.
Unfortunately, spammers quickly found out they can easily manipulate the search engines by creating hundreds or even thousands of low quality website for the sole purpose of linking to their own main website.
And that’s the name of the game with black hat SEO. People who use black hat techniques constantly try to find out how to manipulate search engines in an unnatural way. Sometimes they succeed and when they do, they will see their site ranking very highly in search engines, usually very quickly.
However, this is almost ALWAYS temporary. Search engines are getting smarter by the day (literally). Google has thousands of super computers all over the world and back in 2011, Google started an all out war against spam and black hat methods. If you get caught, you will get penalized, and Google may never rank your website again.
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Black Hat SEO Is Outdated
There is no point in using black hat SEO anymore. Search engines have begun using artificial intelligence and even real human auditors to make sure top ranking websites are doing things legitimately. So, even if you find a black hate SEO method that works, it will only be temporary. After that, you can kiss your website goodbye form the search engines entirely and maybe forever. When you get caught, it’s very difficult if not impossible to recover.
Unfortunately, many internet “gurus” out there try to sell automated software packages or “secrets” to ranking highly in search engines quickly. Stay far away from these so-called experts. They are simply teaching black hat SEO methods and while it may work temporarily, it will not sustain your business long-term.
Types Of Black Hat SEO
I am only telling you these things you so understand what to stay away from. I am in no way, shape, or form advising you to follow these methods. I don’t do it and neither do any other serious and successful affiliate marketers. However, here are some common black hat SEO tactics you may come across:
- Unnatural Incoming Links – The major search engines have made it very clear that paid or otherwise “unnatural” links will get your site penalized in a big way. Many business who paid for incoming links saw their rankings plummet when Google amped up their war on spam in 2011. A “natural link” is one where one of your website visitors naturally posts a link to your site somewhere. Or maybe a website or blog linked to content on your site because they wanted to share the information. Those are natural links. If, on the other hand, you pay people to link into your site or provide services (including providing content to website owners) in exchange for incoming links, you could get caught. I know it seems like it would be hard for Google to track this, but they are getting really good at catching these tactics. Keep things natural.
- Keyword Stuffing – This method no longer works, but several years ago, it was possible to simply include a search phrase on a page of your site as many times as possible. This, in turn, would allow your site to rank higher in the search engines for that search phrase. Whoever had the most keywords stuffed into their page would rank the highest. Again, this no longer works at all, so don’t even bother trying. It will only make your site look like spam.
- Unrelated Content – If you have a website about Ford trucks, then post an article about vacuum cleaners, this will raise some red flags. A few unrelated articles here and there won’t hurt you, but don’t write an article just because you think it can rank well in search engines. Make sure it is relevant to your main website topic.
- Duplicate Or “Spun” Content – This one is a big no-no. Back in they day, some spammers would either duplicate content over and over again (either their own content or stolen content from other website owners) or they would “spin” the content. Spun content is simply taking an article and rewording it to make it seem unique, even though the words are just switched around and rephrased. Some would even use software programs to automatically spin content and create “new” articles. This used to work really well, but Google specifically has become almost scary at being able to detect both duplicate and spun content. Keep everything unique!
- Forum, Blog & Comment Spam – In order to “get the word out” about their website, many site owners would go to as many blogs or websites as possible and post links to their site. Free advertising, right? Wrong. It’s just spammy, and the search engines will penalize you for doing so.
These are just a few of the many black hat SEO techniques out there. Many black hat methods are pretty technical and advanced, but even those methods are no longer working.
Bottom line, create a positive experience for your site visitors by using the CTPM process and ignore the manipulative black hat SEO methods.
Go With The Trend
You can either fight it or accept it. There is no way to quickly and easily rank highly in search engines unless you are in some very obscure niche. Just like any other business, it will take your online business some time to gain trust. Don’t ruin that trust through manipulation, because even if you find something that still works, it’s only a matter of time before you get caught. You might as well focus your efforts on working WITH the search engines instead of against them.
What Is Black Hat SEO? Here’s Everything You Need To Know About Affiliate Marketing & SEO
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