What is “Black Hat SEO”?

“Google’s™ Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide,” (©2013). Retrieved September 12, 2013, from ‘https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35291?hl=en’

    • What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?
    • What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It’s far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts.

By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:

    • owns shadow domains
    • puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
    • offers to sell keywords in the address bar
    • doesn’t distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
    • guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
    • operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
    • gets traffic from “fake” search engines, spyware, or scumware
    • has had domains removed from Google’s index or is not itself listed in Google