Written by: Grayson Thrush

There are a number of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that can increase your search rank. While most are generally considered ethical and fine
to use, there are a number of tactics that fall under the moniker “Black Hat SEO.” These include methods employed solely in an attempt to cut corners and trick search engines into increasing your page rank (PR).

These techniques are widely considered unethical, and should not be used. If for no other reason, keep in mind that if you do use such practices you may get caught and therefore banned from the major search engine indexes. Nevertheless, some unscrupulous SEO analysts do attempt to game the system.

Keyword stuffing is an extremely popular Black Hat SEO tactic. This involves placing keywords on a website with such frequency so as to make to overall content nonsensical and cumbersome. Some analysts will even utilize hidden and random placement of keywords in order to artificially increase keyword
density.

Link bombing, sometimes called link washing, is an attempt to increase your search ranking by having a large number of sites link to a page with identical anchor text. For example, link bombing often occurs in blogs, where a site owner replies to multiple blog postings linking to their website.

A doorway page is low in actual content, and is instead stuffed with repeating keywords and phrases designed to increase the search rank of the page. Doorway pages contain little or no content. They are instead optimized for a number of terms that aren’t connected to the site’s primary content.

There are many Black Hat SEO methods for increasing search rank, and these are but a few. These and other such techniques should be avoided as a point of pride and honor. Moreover, they should not be used because in the long run they are not likely to be successful. Search engines such as Google are becoming increasingly sophisticated when it comes to detecting Black Hat SEO tactics.  Make sure you speak with your SEO company to ensure they are not using these tactics to protect the future or your company's domain!