With a lot of competition in ranking on search engine result pages, it can be expected for a company to feel pressured about showing up and seeing results. For some, it can be a reason to try frowned-upon techniques. However, doing these things will not benefit your business.

Avoid having problems with your website SEO performance by working with the right SEO agency and staying away from using black hat SEO techniques. But what does black hat SEO mean, and what activities should you avoid? Keep reading to find out.

What Is Black Hat SEO?

Black hat SEO can be defined as a practice of doing something to get a high ranking in search engine results. These practices are mostly used by people who want to take advantage of search engine algorithms to generate more traffic. While there are white hat SEO techniques that you can use for your business, these black hat techniques are only used for the sake of ranking better.

There are certain kinds of SEO techniques that you should stay away from. Here are the most common ones.

1. Invisible Text

Black hat SEO starts with invisible text. This area in the document is hidden and makes it invisible to human eyes. These texts are usually used for keyword stuffing, a common practice of manipulating a search engine to rank higher on a specific keyword.

2. Duplicate Content

Another black hat technique is duplicate content. This is when the same content is copied and is published on your website more than once. If you don't know what this means, then here are the most common examples:

• You have a site for SEO for small businesses, and you think it is appropriate to use the same content on other websites you own.

• You have a blog and post on different sites, but you forget that you also have other platforms where you can post the same exact article.

You can find this example on many business websites, but it is not the best practice. What you should do is create unique and relevant content. The goal of the internet is to provide new content.

3. Link Farms

Link farms are created with the sole purpose of generating link juice. These sites usually have low-quality content. Some unscrupulous marketers use this technique to create backlinks.

Unfortunately, Google is aware that this is happening, and they have the tools they can use to identify, penalize and sanction those who do this. If you get to this point, you can be sure that your website will not show any improvement if you have been detected for black hat SEO.

4. Cloaking

Cloaking is when you show certain things to a search engine and a different version of the same content to a human. It is just an attempt to get higher rankings and a no-no from Google.

5. Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is an activity where marketers try to use a specific keyword several times in the content. This can be a problem because search engines can easily detect it. If you will not put it in the right form and use it the right number of times, you can be penalized by the search engine.

Final Thoughts

Even if you have seen others do it, it does not mean you have to do it too. Black hat SEO techniques are not something you should be doing for your business because you will only end up hindering your website's SEO performance. You should focus on creating a website that is engaging, relevant, and can provide quality content. If you do this, then you will be able to achieve positive results in a short time.

Make sure you do SEO right by working with us at Distinctive MS. As the best SEO agency in Toronto, you can rest assured that the strategies we use will help your business grow without placing it at risk. Message us today for more information.