Unfortunately, there are some SEO companies out there that rely on the old black-hat methods — the shortcuts that abuse the system to try and get short-term gains. They may work for a while, but the long-term effects of those methods are damaging. Penalty after penalty, lower and lower rankings and, in the worst case, complete removal from search engines.
I’ve never been a fan of that kind of “win at all costs” mentality. Nor are the ethical SEO companies I know. The tried-and-true, long-term way to SEO success? It’s slower, it’s not as exciting, but it’s the right way to do SEO. It’s sustainable, user-focused, and simply abides by what search engines are actually asking for.
What Are Black Hat SEO Tactics?
Ok, the name is pretty self-explanatory: it’s just about trying to trick Google. For the most part it’s just a way to manipulate the search engines to improve your position in the rankings as quickly as possible with no care for the visitors of the website.
Of course, it might work to some degree but it’s more a high risk/high reward type of operation. The search engines aren’t as easy to fool as they used to be and you may find yourself facing Google penalties or, worst-case scenario, having your website removed from the search engine results.
Trustworthy agencies never use it.
1. Keyword Stuffing
Keyword stuffing was one of the oldest tricks in the book. It is the process of repeating the same keyword again and again on a given page. In the old days of SEO it used to be an effective tactic, but now it will just result in unnatural and unfluent content that is hard to read.
Why We Don’t Do It? – We want our content to be read by humans and not by bots so we use our keywords in a natural and organic way throughout the content where it makes sense. If your content is valuable and topic is defined properly then you will have no issues in terms of rankings. Search engines have become a lot more intelligent over the years so you can’t just repeat a word every 5 seconds and hope for the best.
Are you thinking you might be going overboard?
Don’t worry! There are tools available that can analyze your content and let you know if your keywords are getting out of hand.
Here are a few we like:
- Yoast SEO – This is a plugin for WordPress, but if you’re using WordPress Yoast is the easiest way to get a quick overview of your keyword density.
- SEO Review Tools – Keyword Density Checker
- Small SEO Tools – Keyword Density Checker
- Semrush Writing Assistant – Another plugin that works in real-time providing SEO tips which also covers keywords.
- Ahrefs Content Analyzer – Useful for deeper content analysis and keyword frequency tracking
2. Cloaking
Let’s go with something a bit trickier this time. Cloaking is when you present a different version of a page to a search engine than you do to a human visitor.
For example, search engine crawlers might see a page plastered with keywords to try and rank high, but a human visitor sees… well, something else entirely. Good luck getting away with that one.
Why We Don’t Touch It: We’re just not that kind of people. We just can’t do it. If the content you’re presenting to search engines is different to what real users see, we can’t say we’ve done our job. We won’t even try. Anyhow, Google can see what you doing. Its an old way to scam search engines and Google has figured it out years ago.
What We Do Instead: We focus on content that is relevant, easy to understand, and consistent. No secret stuff. No shady business. Just things that are actually helpful and gain the trust of people.
3. Hidden Text and Links
Okay, let’s go a bit shadier now. This involves sneaking in some extra keywords in a way that they don’t show up on the page to a human visitor. Perhaps the text is the same color as the background, or you’ve placed links in a very small font, or pushed them off the side of the screen entirely.
The logic goes that search engines will crawl the page and see them, but no one will ever know. Google bots are getting better at detecting this sort of thing though, and can “see” pages in almost exactly the same way human visitors do.
You also probably won’t get credit for hidden content in any case because it’s probably not actually visible to anyone.
Why We Stay Clear – It just doesn’t feel right, does it? The easiest rule to go by with this one is simple: if your audience can’t see it, it doesn’t belong there. We try and build pages that are easy to read, simple to use, and as useful as possible. If you see it, it’s there for a reason—and that’s exactly how it should be.
4. Buying Backlinks
Oh, the good ol’ fashioned backlink sale. Everybody’s trying to sell backlinks, and everyone is tempted to buy them. Just throw some money Google’s way and let them know how great you are, right? EASY PEASY. Okay, but we’ll come back to you after your rankings drop. Google is not dumb, and they know when you’re buying links.
Do not do it. It has been literally, for YEARS the number one, black and white, do-not-ever-do-it kind of offense you could commit. “Do not buy or sell links” has been part of the guidelines for like a decade.
Why We Don’t: Fine, we’ll do the dirty, hard, slow work of creating content people want to link to ourselves! Yes, we’ll write the annoying emails and pitch the ever-loving crap out of you for links! We will crawl our own faces off to find those links! Yes, we will probably work harder. Yes, it will take longer. But the links will stick. And, oh yeah, we won’t be up all night every night for months terrified of getting slapped with a manual penalty.
5. Private Blog Networks (PBNs)
Picture this: Google. Staring at a sea of blog posts and websites. But they’re all just cheap, generic masks covering the exact same person. Same links. Same posts. Just a bunch of made-up websites that all point back to the same place.
Sweet, RIGHT? Only, Google’s found out, and they’re getting real close with what looks suspicious these days, and those links they’re gonna come tumbling down. And when that happens? Say goodbye to your rankings (if you even get them to begin with).
Listen to Neil Patel himself:—Google hates PBNs.
Why We Don’t: We want real links. Links from real, trusted places. Links with value. Links we have to earn. Sure, it’s harder. Sure it’s slow. But it’s real.
6. Duplicate Content
Oh, tricky duplicate content. Sneaky little devil. Why? Because some of the time Google will penalize you for it. Sometimes not. But sometimes it just hurts you anyway because your site just doesn’t have a clear winner to point to for ranking and Google is all “I don’t know what to do here so bye!”
What we do instead: – We make every single page on this site unique. It has it’s own value and it’s own “voice.” We don’t recycle posts. We don’t copy and paste content. If we absolutely have to for some reason (maybe because we have a wholesale section with the same product multiple places for some reason, or an about us or contact page)? We canonical that sh*t. It’s clean. It’s honest. It’s search-friendly. It’s not sexy, but it works, and it makes our site look good for real humans, too.
7. Link Farms
Link farms are SEO trickery at its most transparent. A link farm is basically just a website created for the purpose of linking outwards with as little consideration as possible for quality or value. Most of the links they’ll provide you with are low-value, spammy, and tangentially related (at best) to your website.
Why We Stay Away: We want to earn links the old-fashioned way. Links from live websites that have actual value. Link farms usually provide little to no value, and can even get you penalized in some cases. So, yeah… We stay far away.
8. Negative SEO
Negative SEO is a pretty low and dirty tactic. It’s basically anything you can do to bring down one of your competitors: spamming their site with low-quality backlinks, creating duplicate content of their pages, and anything else you can think of to bury them in SERPs.
Why We Don’t Practice It: C’mon now… That’s just not how we roll. We’re trying to bring up our clients, not push down someone else. Plus, most of the time, it just takes too long. Stick and carrot work a lot better, and it’s the strategy that lasts.
9. Excessive Anchor Text Manipulation
Anchor text manipulation is when you use the same keyword-rich anchor text for all of your backlinks. It’s technically invisible to the reader, so it might not seem like much. To Google, it looks like cheating. If you overdo it, it’ll set off the warning bells and do more harm than good.
Why We Avoid That – We try to keep our anchor text natural, and in line with the content. Context first, keyword second. It’s more subtle, but it’s also more effective.
10. Clickbait and Deceptive Titles
Clickbait can work, but only for as long as it takes to get someone to click on your link. They’ll be disappointed, leave, and not come back. And, Google knows. SEO.co even states that “clickbait types of headlines usually attract worthless search traffic. This will eventually cause a significant decrease in your organic search rankings.”
Why We Don’t Rely on Clickbait: Because we write headlines that are honest and directly related to the content. Accurate, transparent, and useful. It takes a bit longer, but it’s the only way to build. It might not feel as flashy, but it also brings the right people: people who are actually interested in what you have to say. No fake, no gimmicks, just the real deal.
The Real Reason Some SEO Agencies Are STILL Doing Black Hat Stuff
Candidly? I think a lot of it comes down to one word. Pressure. There’s this constant “perform or else” mentality. Fools rushing to get results, damn the cost. Yeah, we’ve all worked with those, right?
All I can say is, not every SEO agency is in it for the long haul. Let’s get into some reasons I hear as to why black hat tactics are still around.
1. Pressure to Get Quick Results
I don’t blame you, I don’t blame me, and we don’t blame clients. You don’t want to spend months, even years, before you start to see results. We’re all the same.
SEO can be so painful at times because it’s just… gradual. Growth doesn’t happen overnight. That’s why many agencies come under fire for not performing.
Clients hear “SEO is a marathon, not a sprint” and are told it will take time. Some believe it. Others, not so much. “Show me results yesterday” is the credo some clients adopt, and that’s a recipe for disaster.
Suddenly, agencies are forced to go to extremes to get a client to page one ASAP. Keyword stuffing, shady link building, spammy pages galore—all methods to artificially rank for a SERP. It may work for a while, but it’s a façade. Shiny on the outside but very flimsy on the inside.
2. Don’t Understand Best Practices
We all know that shiny façade doesn’t last. Google isn’t stupid. It catches onto these so-called “quick wins” in a matter of weeks or months.
For those unaware, when Google catches on, your rankings plummet. You are then smacked with penalties on certain SERPs, and your site is all but blacklisted.
I know more than a few of these horror stories that took months, if not years, to recover from. And recovery means recovery. Why start all over, just to repeat the same process for the next client? Good SEO agencies know the proper channels and they understand there’s only one way.
Slow going, yes. But you’re solid. It’s sustainable. Trust is built. And your business actually grows.
3. Cutting Corners to Save a Buck
Okay, fine, some agencies do it for the money, not the results. Black hat tricks are cheap and easy and fast. Buy a bunch of links. Stuff a page with keywords. Takes you all of 5 minutes, right? But that’s because there’s a reason writing good content and building links and helping real people find and stick with your site is hard. It’s hard because it’s also actually doing your job. Hard also costs time and requires skill and yes, money.
But here’s the downside: The problem is, the longer you skimp today, the more it can cost you tomorrow. Google penalty? Gone in rankings and suddenly, that traffic you were depending on to drive clients has slowed to a trickle. Your clients are asking questions and you don’t have a good answer. All of a sudden you’re not just invisible, you lack credibility. Reputation takes a hit. And don’t get me started on how hard it is to regain trust.
4. They Don’t Know What They Don’t Know
Gasp, I know this one is painful, but hear me out. I can’t tell you how many people still use SEO tactics from ten years ago. Like the ones from 2012? Google has become exponentially smarter and savvier and they’ve hired hundreds of SEOs. Remember those sneaky black hat shortcuts that used to be “hidden in plain sight?” The Algorithm has moved on. It sees them now, from 50,000 miles away.
Guess what happens: Penalties get applied. Traffic drops. Clients freak out. If you’ve hired an agency that isn’t investing the time and resources to be on top of those changes, it’s not only bad for your clients business, it’s bad for your reputation.
5. Trying to Keep Up with the Big Dogs (Industry Competition)
This one is so common, and also I can understand it. Small agencies. New agencies. An agency that just started and suddenly everyone’s rankings went to crap and the big dogs with decades of history are up in rankings and crushing it. “If I cut corners, maybe I can compete.” I get it. It’s tempting to try and level the playing field when you don’t have years and years of positive results to show clients. But here’s the thing about shortcuts, especially when chasing something you can never really catch up with. They almost never work. They usually just make things worse when it all catches up with you.
6. Pursuing Short-Term Results
We’ve all seen agencies addicted to short-term thinking. Huge traffic spikes. Overnight rankings. It’s flashy. It looks like success. It can be accomplished by cheating. Clients see that graph with the spike and they get excited. “Wow, my site is skyrocketing with this team!”
But here’s the catch: The problem is this spike rarely lasts. Google notices. Penalty. Rankings start to disappear, traffic tanks, and you’ve also burned bridges. That “success” can sometimes turn into a nightmare headache.
7. Lack of Oversight
In certain markets or industries online, it may feel like SEO guidelines are just “recommendations.” Agencies may notice and think, “Meh, what’s the point of following them all?”
Oh, the point is that you can get slapped down by Google in an instant. It can happen in some “looser” markets, too. And those markets can be very harsh with penalties when someone riles up Google. But when this happens, it bites hard. SEO is all about accountability—regardless of the market.
8. Relying on Automation Tools
Automation can be tempting, especially in larger-scale operations. Content-writing bots, link-building bots, etc. It can sound productive. It’s not.
Search engines are excellent at noticing the patterns left behind by automation and AI.
Here’s the risk: Thin content. Spammy links. Awkward language. They all add up to poor user experiences. Users bounce, and your rankings drop. Now, the agency has a new problem: Clean up the trash they (potentially, unknowingly) created in the first place.
SEO Black hat is a slow motion trainwreck. Eventually, it will implode. Google doesn’t care about excuses, explanations or timeframes. Cheating will always get discovered. And when it does, it’s not just a rankings problem—it’s a credibility problem. In SEO, credibility is the most important currency.
9. Clients Who Want Guarantees
On occasion, you have that client who walks through the door and asks the question that no SEO agency wants to be asked: “Can you guarantee me #1 on Google?” I understand it – who wouldn’t want a silver-bullet answer? It’s also an easy ‘yes’ for an SEO agency that’s looking to say it.
Money, happy clients, results overnight – it sounds great on paper. But it’s a lie. The truth is that there are no guarantees with SEO. If an agency is offering this to you then they are bluffing – or worse, using underhand tactics.
But here’s the truth: You know what happens with shortcuts – eventually something will go wrong. Google smacks the agency, rankings are lost, so is traffic and trust. No-one wins and everyone looks like idiots when it happens.
10. No Real Ethics in Place
You have those agencies out there that only have one goal: making money.
Long-term vision? Values? Ethics? Not on the agenda. It’s all about short-term results, and no matter what the consequences or risks are, they will push forward with them.
And what happens most of the time? Clients jump ship, Google hands out a penalty and the agency’s reputation is shot to hell and back. Years of hard-earned credibility crumble in seconds. Brutal? Yes. Fact? Yes.
How Good SEO Agencies Actually Build Trust and Win
These are the ones that survive. They don’t play games. They don’t use shortcuts. They build trust – with Google, and with their clients.
This is how they do it:
- Reporting: Clear, concise, no jargon. Reporting that’s readable and (hopefully) useful.
- Tactics: Clean and white hat tactics that focus on long-term success, not short-term gain.
- Keeping up to date: They read blogs, keep their finger on the pulse. Google algorithms change. Good SEO agencies know that.
- Content: It’s all written with real, live humans in mind. Nobody except bots should be able to understand it.
- Links: Backlinks from real sites, with authority and credibility. Not paid-for junk links.
- Search intent: Your site should know exactly what people are searching for – so these agencies make sure it does.
- Technical: Technical SEO isn’t sexy, but it’s important. Google wants fast, slick, responsive sites.
- Clients: They listen to their clients, plan together and move forward in tandem.
- Watchdog: They check for issues and if something is up, they alert their client ASAP.
- Consistency: Brand messaging needs to be consistent. This is their brand too. They get that.
SEO Ethics and Reputation
SEO is not a race. And SEO is not a sprint. The best SEO is a marathon. It’s slow. Sometimes painful.
Search engines want to give their users the best experience – so they reward sites that put their users first. Sites with quality content, useful information and ethical SEO.
And agencies are the same – ethical, trusted SEO companies aren’t cutting corners. They aren’t looking for a quick win. They focus on strategies and SEO that Google loves, so the growth they create is sustainable. Growth that means more than just rankings – but actual, lasting visibility.
Conclusion
Black hat SEO might seem like the easy way. A shortcut. But behind all the smoke and mirrors and big promises? Penalties. Bad Google rankings. Trust issues. Rankings that crumble overnight.
The good agencies are the ones that are honest. The ones that won’t promise you a #1 on Google tomorrow. Because they know that’s a lie. They focus on what works in the long term: clean, effective SEO tactics, solid content and strategies that will work for years to come.
So when it comes time to hire an SEO agency, don’t fall for the flashy promises. Choose the one that’s honest and transparent and who is there for the long term. That’s the one you want to work with.
FAQ
What is black hat SEO?
It’s the dark side of SEO. Black hat SEO involves tricks and schemes to quickly improve your rankings and get you found in Google. Keyword stuffing, spammy backlinks, cloaking, etc. The appeal? Instant gratification. Jump in rank in a flash. But is it worth the risk? Usually not. You’re playing with fire, and the results can evaporate overnight.
Why should I avoid black hat SEO?
Ask any SEO veteran and they’ll tell you that black hat SEO is a huge mistake. It’s a short-term solution with long-term consequences. It’s like playing a game of Jenga but with all the blocks painted black. When the inevitable happens, and it always does, the damage can be severe. You could not only lose your rankings and traffic, but also get penalized by search engines or even banned altogether. In short, you’re better off sticking to the white hat stuff.
What is white hat SEO?
White hat SEO is just using SEO in the way it’s intended: to help users find information by building a solid website and delivering relevant content. It’s about making the web a better place. It also happens to be the only way to get you found in search that works.
Can you guarantee number 1 rankings?
Never. You’ve likely heard this one before, but that’s because it’s an all-too-common con. If someone is promising you to be found on the first page of Google and on position #1, either they’re lying or using black hat tactics. The truth is that ranking for competitive keywords on a high page number is nearly impossible. However, a reputable SEO agency can use a variety of proven tactics to increase your visibility steadily, while also ensuring the results last the long haul
How do I know if my SEO is black hat?
Spotting an SEO black hat can be simple. Be wary if they make the following claims: overnight success, hundreds or thousands of backlinks, a high volume of backlinks per day, no clear explanation of their tactics, no questions asked. These are all red flags. If you’re not sure if the tactics an SEO company is using are up to snuff, ask them and look for clear evidence that they are indeed white hat.
