Over the past few years, the internet has witnessed a proliferation of homogenous websites. Now this proliferation has led to fierce competition in the online world. Every brand wants its website to gain as much exposure as possible. In short, it wants to achieve a higher page rank in the search engines. However, with the increase in number of similar websites, it seems rather improbable. Only the ones using the right strategy and offering quality will manage to attain a high spot, that too after loads of efforts.
That being said, not everyone is willing to put in that much time and effort to improve their website’s ranking. So to avoid this situation, they resort to “Black Hat” SEO techniques for a short-term traffic boost. But little do they realize that it will land them in trouble. Moreover, Black Hat SEO techniques with all their benefits (such as increased traffic, higher rank in no time) may appear enticing and promising, but highly dangerous and importantly “illegitimate”.
Why Is Black Hat SEO Harmful?
You will come across many SEO professionals and companies that advocate the idea of employing black hat SEO techniques. But no lie is bigger than the truth. No matter how convincing and conducive it may sound, in actuality it’s “spam”.
Apart from its unethical nature, Black hat SEO may prove to be highly dangerous for your website. It may lead to serious consequences. Given below are some of the major damages that it can cause to your site:
Possibility of Getting Banned
This is undoubtedly the biggest risk of using black hat SEO methods. Many people fail to realize its seriousness and end up getting their websites banned from Google. Google is constantly updating its algorithm for spam reduction and therefore, making the search engine efficient in tracking out ‘spammy’ websites.
Mediocre User Experience
Another major detriment of using such techniques is that it deteriorates the user experience considerably. With excessive keyword usage and unnecessary linking it becomes somewhat unpleasant for the user. After having an awful experience surfing your website, he/she will surely never think of coming back. So after some time, you’ll see the number of people visiting your website decline.
Violation of SEO Rules
Black hat techniques are a blatant violation of SEO rules and therefore, are subject to punishment. If you are lucky enough not to have your website banned, your page rank may slip to a position where no will ever manage to find you (along with a few other penalties).
So if you don’t want your site to be in jeopardy, always employ white hat SEO tactics. They may be time-consuming, but the end result will be worth the effort.