Black Hat Techniques: The Road to Destruction
Having designed and built a great website, it's understandable that we would want as many people as possible to see it and appreciate our work, whether the site was created simply to provide information, or to sell products or services.
Unfortunately, it's sometimes the case that the search engines seem to neglect our websites. Maybe they fail to index the site at all, or find it but then hide it deep in the search engine listings for our main keywords.
Search engine optimization is all about trying to improve our rankings. If done properly, it can be extremely successful.
There are various search engine experts and beginners who look to use a set of search engine optimization techniques that have been called black hat techniques.
They have been named in this way because many professionals in the sector view them as being unethical. They can take various forms, from cloaking to doorway pages and hidden text links.
One thing that they all have in common is that they are all attempts at fooling the search engines, rather than trying to improve the visitor experience.
Black hat techniques can sometimes have dramatic initial results - that's part of their appeal. Unfortunately, in the long run, they usually have significant negative effects.
Website's employing black hat techniques can find themselves buried in the lower reaches of the search engine rankings, or simply banned from the major search engine's altogether.
If you want to find success then black hat techniques are best avoided.
About the authorIf you need to contact a search engine expert then consider Search South, where Keith Barrett is employed as a search engine consultant. This article may be used by any website publisher, though this resource box must always be included in full.
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