[SEO Dictionary] Definition of Black Hat

In search engine optimization, the term black hat refers to sneaky, underhanded techniques that some people employ in order to cheat the search engine ranking algorithms.

Black hat SEO generally makes use of aggressive techniques that focus on attracting search engines rather than pleasing readers.

Some examples of black hat SEO include:

• Keyword stuffing
• Adding invisible text
• Using unrelated keywords
• Changing website content after it has been ranked
• Cloaking, or delivering pages other than what the searcher expects
• Using hidden links

Anything that is designed to trick search engine crawlers or cheat the carefully planned algorithms that search engines use to determine a page’s value, or anything that is designed to mislead searchers, can be considered black hat techniques.

Black hat techniques usually result in a penalty from Google, which can cause your site to disappear from the search engine results altogether.