Introduction:

Every website you find on a search engine page has one common goal: to rank higher on the page. That is, every website wants to be more visible on the internet. This is understandable since there are numerous websites on these search engines, each competing against the other to garner more traffic. So, how does a website increase its visibility in the virtual domain? If you said SEO, you are 100% correct! (Spoiler alert: SEO IS still effective.) Having said that, you also have to keep in mind which SEO techniques should be avoided in 2023 to be able to fully optimize the benefits of SEO. These are called black hat SEO techniques and using them can do your website more harm than good. 

What are SEO black hat techniques?

SEO black hat techniques mean using negative tactics to rank higher on search engines. It is a malpractice that many website owners implement to gain the benefits of search engine optimization within a short time. The results generated by the use of black hat techniques in SEO may be quite generous for starters. But if you are considering long-term goals for your website ranking, these techniques are not just ineffective but do the opposite of significantly bringing down your website ranking. What’s more, if search engine crawl bots detect the use of these tactics regularly, they may even remove the existence of your website from the digital world altogether!This latest post aims to educate website owners about which SEO techniques should be avoided in 2023 (even unknowingly) to avoid extreme retributions from major search engines. 

What are some black hat SEO practices to avoid in 2023?

• Keyword stuffing:

Using keywords that have a high search volume and low SEO difficulty is one of the best SEO practices. However, do not overdo it. Do not include keywords just for the sake of incorporating them. Search engines are developing and so are crawl bots. They can differentiate between where a keyword is needed and where it is not. That is, cramming too many keywords can disturb user reading experience and search engines do not want that. Even if you don’t want that. Because, when a user finds your content too messy due to the overuse of keywords, they won’t open your site any further. You will receive a high bounce rate which can critically affect your website traffic. Give a human touch to your content. Use keywords where required. Use proper keywords that match the intent of your content and not just because they have a high search volume. 

• Article spinning:

One of the major black hat techniques in SEO is this. It involves rephrasing the content on someone else’s website and putting it up as your own. There are even AI writing tools that help with this. While this significantly reduces the time needed to write on a topic, you lose out on originality. Plagiarised content will never meet your SEO expectations. As author Mark Twain said that originality is a myth, and all ideas are second-hand. But what he meant was that you can take inspiration from other content. That is when it comes to writing for a website that complies with standard SEO practices and reads content from other websites. Develop an idea of your own and then put it down (or up on your website!)

• Buying or selling backlinks:

While backlinking is a good way to boost your website visibility, buying or selling backlinks is one of the black hat techniques in SEO. That is, many website owners acquire money in exchange for adding a backlink to your site. The problem occurs when the same backlink appears on too many websites. It is then that search engines start recognizing it as spam. Even buying backlinks violates Google Webmaster guidelines, so you are at risk of being penalized. Instead of backlinking in exchange for money, you can guest-write posts for other websites. If you find a suitable link, include it on your website. Collaborate with other bloggers for the same purpose. This is an ethical way of getting backlinks and backlinking your posts with other similar articles. 

• Misuse of schema markup:

The schema markup is a structured data summary of what your post is about. Often, website owners stuff this vocabulary with keywords in a quest to rank high even though the article does not provide relevant information about the intent of the keyword. This triggers crawl bots into marking your website as irrelevant or not useful. Hence, although your snippet may attract massive data traffic initially, you will lose out in the long run. So, this is an important point to keep in mind when listing down which SEO techniques should be avoided. Remember, by using a schema snippet effectively, your website can rank high on a search engine page. Thus, follow the instructions mentioned in Google’s rich snippet guidelines. 

• Hiding content:

This refers to hiding content from human readers that is otherwise visible to search engine crawl bots. This can be done by camouflaging the write-up by using the same font color as the background, keeping the font size to zero, or even by putting it behind an image. It attempts to boost website visibility by incorporating keywords. Again, it leads to the same consequences as keyword stuffing does, and even worse. 

• Cloaking:

Grave SEO malpractice, this is not the same as hiding content. In this black hat technique of SEO, the website presents entirely different content to its users than it does to search engines. The content may even be different for users using different browser versions. We recommend you follow Google recommendations on how to present the same content to users across all platforms without violating any policy. 

• Blog comment spam:

Commenting on someone else’s post is a great way to boost the post as well as bring attention to your site. But overdoing it as a means of promoting your website is an SEO technique you want to avoid, especially in 2023. The post writer may not only block you from commenting any further but also Google may take action against your account. What you can do is comment about how the post impacted you. Later on, you may add that you have an article on a similar topic, so if anyone is interested to know more about the topic, they can check out your site. You may add a link to it. But be wary of keeping it in moderation. 

• Private blog networks:

These are a cluster of websites (usually owned by a single person) that help boost each other by backlinking their posts. While this used to be a good practice, it was recently listed by Google under “A list of techniques to be avoided in SEO.” Google has also fined and blacklisted these private blog networks. You can surely link posts across different websites you own. But it should not be a regular activity. It should only be done if it is relevant to the article you have posted. 

Why are black hat SEO techniques not recommended?

Black hat SEO techniques can get your website penalized and even blacklisted from top search engine-related pages. 

Conclusion:

Search engines are constantly focusing on user readability and user experience over anything else. That is why they have put several measures in place that can help them achieve that. This includes several common practices to be named under which SEO techniques should be avoided. Although website owners may find them difficult to abide by, one should always be cautious. This is because SEO practice can either make or break your website. Follow the SEO guidelines by Google for a seamless SEO experience and for garnering organic website traffic. 

We Love Digital Marketing:

At We Love Digital Marketing, we constantly update ourselves regarding the latest trends in digital marketing. Our SEO experts regularly revise strategies for boosting organic reach. So if you are lacking in business growth through your website, contact us for guidance. Visit our website to know more about us. 

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