Understanding the Impact of Black Hat SEO on Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a rising sector in India, with several individuals aiming to associate with the field given its importance. Whether a business has just laid out its foundation or has been in the game for years - digital marketing is a major area of concern, plaguing their minds. A strategic and well-planned digital marketing approach shall put the concerned business at the forefront, driving sales and boosting visibility. 

On the other hand, an ineffective marketing approach shall put the business at a stand still, with either slow or stagnant growth prospects. To get the best out of a company's investment in the marketing team, it's important that you, as a future marketer, equip yourself with the knowledge of the latest search engine updates and other crucial information. In addition, a degree in digital marketing shall do you a world of good!

SEO is an important segment of digital marketing, having to do with increasing brand awareness and visibility of company websites and products. In this particular blog, we are going to discuss the concept of black hat SEO, the knowledge of which shall be necessary as an SEO specialist or a digital marketer in general.

What is Black Hat SEO & is it Unethical?

Black hat SEO practices are a set of approaches implemented in the attempt to boost a particular site/page's rank across SERPs, through means that are in violation of respective search engines' terms of service. The phrase is used commonly to refer to creators of viruses, computer hackers and anybody who indulges in unethical activities with computers. 

Even though black hat SEO strategies can help improve rankings of specific pages, it is important to note that implementing the same may get one’s website banned on search engines completely. This means, eliminating one major source of traffic to the website. Anybody looking to build a career in SEO, requires the knowledge of black hat SEO and its consequences, to carve out a search engine-friendly path to success.

Whether or not black hat SEO is unethical is a discussion that should start with the very title. The phrase, "black hat" originated in use through Western movies to point out the "bad guys". These bad guys wore black hats and the "good guys," wore white hats (a refer to white hat SEO). So, yes, considering the consequences of using black hat SEO techniques can be damaging, they are deemed unethical.

Denounced Black Hat SEO Techniques 

SEO practitioners must not employ any denounced black hat SEO techniques as they can lead to the websites getting completely taken down or banned. It is crucial to abide by Google's  Webmaster guidelines or the guidelines relevant to other search engines. Here are some recognised black hat SEO techniques that have been blacklisted: 

• Doorway Pages
• Keyword Stuffing
• Hidden Texts/Links
• Poor Content Quality
• Reporting a Competitor 
• Unauthorized Redirects
• Content Automation
• Link Schemes
• Guest Posting Networks
• Cloaking
• Link Farming
• Link Wheels 
• Link Networks
• Link Manipulation or buying links
• Article Spinning
• Blog Comment Spam
• Automated Queries to Search engines
• Creating multiple pages/ subdomains/ domains featuring duplicate/ copied content
• Redirecting to pages with malicious intent, like trojans, phishing, viruses or other malware
• Rich Snippet Markup Spam

Instead of implementing any of the above-mentioned denounced techniques to boost rankings of pages as an SEO person, opt for ethical ways to do the same. A methodical approach to teaching search engine-approved ways of boosting content visibility shall help you as a digital marketer in the long run.

Why You Should Avoid Black Hat SEO at All Costs?

Black hat SEO is not explicitly illegal. However, it does violate the search engine-specific webmaster guidelines. So, to put this in perspective for the future SEO specialist - you can engage in black hat SEO tactics, but be prepared to experience a 'hit' in the form of a heavy penalty as punishment. 

By penalty, we mean that your website may drop down tremendously in search results - essentially, accomplishing the exact opposite of what you were set out to do. In the worst-case scenario, the website can be completely removed. In any case, the business will be hampered and its official website will be getting the very least amount of traffic, which automatically means limited consumers.

In addition, search engines have become much more sensitive to black hat SEO techniques, making it almost impossible to go unscathed. So, even though you may see short-term results, black hat SEO does not realistically help meet the searcher’s intent nor satisfy the search engine. It’s best to completely avoid such techniques altogether.

Also Read: White Hat SEO Explained

Final Words

SEO is a major digital marketing tool that boosts a specific website's technical configuration, relevance of the content as well as link popularity. This lets the pages become easily searchable and much more relevant and is pushed up on SERPs to meet user search queries. As a result, a business's page ranks better across search engines and the target audience is more likely to find it. 

However, as we’ve discussed in this very blog, there are unethical ways to achieve the same result, referred to as black hat SEO techniques. These techniques shall be avoided at all costs in order to avoid getting penalized. 

Further, we recommend enrolling into an online MBA course with digital marketing specialization to stay updated with what makes an SEO specialist or a digital marketer, more efficient and ethics-bound in their approach to work. Associate with esteemed institutions like Amity Online University and experience a transformative educational journey from the comfort of your home.

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