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Definition of the term, "black hat seo"

black hat seo

Also known as: "unethical SEO"

Black hat SEO is a term coined by the SEO industry to describe SEO techniques that are deemed to be unethical. The term (and it's counterpart, "white hat SEO" which refers to ethical SEO techniques) was more prominent in the early years of SEO as the industry grew and it became more apparent that certain techniques were viewed unfavourably by search engines.

Not really used as much these days, although some self confessed spammers have adopted the phrase as an ironic or mocking reference to the sometimes heated debates that took place on popular SEO forums a few years back.

Modern day SEO could be described as more "grey hat" - search engines have greatly tightened their guidelines and alorgithms meaning that black hat SEO is much less effective (and generally only attempted by industry veterans). Grey hat SEO has been used more frequently due to the fact that many "white hat SEOs" have begun to push the limits of what they "can get away with" - mainly using ethical techniques, but occasionally testing the water with more unethical approaches to SEO.

Black hat SEO rarely has a long term benefit for websites and is generally used for short term campaigns on throw away domains (as the domains are inevitably banned from search engines and are therefore no use to a traditional business). It is highly recommended that businesses stay away from black hat techniques such as doorway pages, keyword spamming, hidden text, etc as they offer no long term advantage.

Related terms and definitions

• algorithm
• ban (from search engine index)
• best industry practice
• doorway pages
• duplicate content
• ethical SEO
• hidden text
• keyword spamming

eflaunt is a UK Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland. For industry news, please refer to the eflaunt SEO blog.