Improving the visibility of a website on a search engine is a laborious and complex process, encompassing many on-page and off-page techniques, such as keyword research, link building, tags, adapting the website’s HTML and so forth. Naturally, all this takes time. In order to avoid all the work and obtain quick results, some website developers or low key search engine optimisation providers choose the shortcut, consisting of dishonest search engine optimisation methods, also known as ‘black hat SEO’.
They are called dishonest methods due to the fact that they seek to foil search engines and implicitly potential visitors, placing a multitude of keywords on your website, which are actually irrelevant to its content, as many times the list of keywords is the only information displayed on it. This technique is known as keyword stuffing. Black hat SEO’ is all about putting up an appearance before the crawlers (robots) by simulating the right kind of content, which for real users will be unavailable. For example, if a person is searching for SEO services and types keywords such as ‘SEO UK’, ‘SEO Wales’ or ‘SEO Cardiff’ into a search engine, the first results coming up should be real providers of these services. Any unrelated website encountered among them is likely to have gotten there by unethical techniques – and not likely at all to stay there long.
There is also a technique called cloaking, which means directing crawlers to a certain page ( referred to as a doorway page) and users to another, to technically put up this appearance of relevant content. For instance, a website might want to appear as if it provided a web designing service, and be found when entering search terms like ‘website design Cardiff’ or ‘web design Wales’. It’s technical part will create that facade for robots through a doorway page, if well put together, yet real users will not find any service of that sort on the website, which is both frustrating and a waste of time. Those who employ these methods can be sure whoever stumbles upon their website will not be coming back. Hidden content is also used, as well as link farming. The latter uses certain programs to create links between a number of websites for them all to link to each other. That is by no means as operative as putting links to one’s website on genuinely trusted websites, which is highly beneficial and increases the ranking.
Needless to say, the results of such deceitful search engine optimisation campaigns are as effective as a botched surgical procedure and as durable as a poorly built house. Some people assume that they can first advance their website in terms of ranking and develop the content at a later time, benefitting from the expediency brought on by fraudulent tactics, but they never usually get that far. Search engines have a very strict policy with regards to this type of unsubstantiated advancement and will eliminate such websites from their listings. They perform regular searches to find them and eliminate them, in order to maintain their own efficiency and reputation.