Watch Out for These Black Hat Tactics That Could Impact Your SEO Results

Top Black Hat SEO Tactics to Watch Out For in San Diego, CA

In a perfect world, everyone would implement SEO strategies that fall in line with industry and search engine standards. However, this isn’t always the case. There are some deceptive marketers out there who use black hat tactics to fool search engine algorithms. Some scammers go a step further and use negative SEO techniques to purposely harm their competitors’ reputations in the hopes of boosting their own online visibility. Whether you’re managing search engine optimization on your own or outsourcing it to the best San Diego SEO providers, watch out for the following black hat SEO tactics.

Using Link Farming

The purpose of link farming is to boost the popularity of another site by getting more incoming links, and this practice can become an issue if a scammer directs a bunch of poor-quality links for irrelevant sites to your website. The intention is to make it look like you’re trying to fool Google, which could result in penalties that seriously diminish your ranking. The solution is to:

• Regularly monitor your links
• Look for signs of link farming like a sudden uptick in backlinks to your site
• Submit a list of questionable links via Google’s Search Console and disavow the backlinks

Duplicating Content

All the amazing content you created for your website and your blog could quickly become less appealing to search engines if it looks like you stole it. Scammers pull this trick off by copying content from your site, passing it off as their own, and getting rid of it before crawlers get to their site. They’ll then reuse your content for link farming purposes. Confused search engine crawlers may end up assuming you’re the one who stole the content. You have two options if this happens to you:

• Contact site owners – Some website owners/managers may honestly have no idea a scammer posted your content on their site. If you explain the situation, they might simply remove it and even apologize.

• Let Google know – If you’re not having any luck being diplomatic, use Google’s Online Copyright Infringement form to report the issue.

Hacking

Scammers sometimes hack directly into websites, and they often do so in subtle ways so the site owner won’t know what’s going on right away. Hacking could include altering HTML code, putting duplicate content on pages of your site that normally aren’t viewed all that much, or swapping out good links for bad ones. The only way to detect potential site attacks is with careful monitoring. Look for things like:

• Sudden spikes in traffic to pages that normally have steady traffic patterns
• An increase in new backlinks to older pages on your site
• A boost in rankings for unusual or abnormal keywords you never intentionally used

Because scammers employing black hat tactics can attack at any time, it’s best to have a solid reputation management strategy in place and be as proactive as possible by constantly monitoring your stats and paying attention to things like fake reviews and poor quality links. The last thing you want is to assume everything is fine only to see Google Analytics reports that paint a very different picture. Being active and engaged with your online followers and customers is another way to minimize the impact of negative SEO techniques that may be targeted at your business.

If you’re looking for a licensed and certified SEO company in San Diego that relies on white hat search engine optimization tactics, turn to Saba SEO. For over ten years, we have helped businesses benefit from a range of winning digital marketing strategies that comply with search engine rules and regulations. Our team can perform a preliminary review of your website and devise a comprehensive SEO plan. We also offer social media management services to increase our clients’ online visibility and mitigate the impact of negative reviews and bad publicity. To learn about our high-quality SEO services, call us at 858-951-1717 today.