If you are somewhat familiar with search engine optimization, you may have heard the term “Black Hat”. Good topic for Halloween – no doubt. Black Hat is the name assigned to a search engine optimizer that practices unethical techniques to boost a client’s rankings in search engine results.
A Black Hat SEO (vs White Hat SEO) uses strategies that are not approved by search engines. Their intent is to trick Google and the other major engines. One common deceptive technique is to use invisible text (i.e. text colour is the same as the web page background). This hidden text (usually keywords and keyword phrases) can only be viewed by search engines – not humans.
To ensure relevancy and accuracy, search engines actively search out unethical optimization tactics. If you are identified as a “search engine spammer”, expect a dramatic drop in your search ranking position. Or even worse – you could get placed on a search engine blacklist and get permanently banned.
Now that is a scary thought!