How to Avoid Black Hat Links and Stay on Google’s Good Side

Some links can actually harm your site’s reputation and performance, and even get you penalized by Google. These links are called black hat links, and they are the result of unethical and manipulative link building practices that violate Google’s guidelines.

In this guide, we will explain what black hat links are, why they are bad for your site, how to spot them, and how to avoid them. We will also discuss some common black hat link building techniques that you should steer clear of, and how to deal with them if you have them on your site.

By the end of this guide, you will have a better understanding of black hat links and how to stay on Google’s good side by following white hat link building strategies.

What Are Black Hat Links?

Black hat links are links that are obtained through deceptive or spammy methods that aim to game the Google algorithm and improve search rankings artificially. These methods often involve violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, which outline the best practices for creating a high-quality website that provides a good user experience.

Some of the methods of generating black hat links include using automated programs, private blog networks (PBNs), link farms, paid links, hacked websites, spam comments, and more. These methods are considered black hat because they do not add any value to the web or the users, but only serve to manipulate the search engines and trick them into thinking that a site is more popular or relevant than it really is.

Black hat links are usually low-quality, irrelevant, unnatural, or hidden from the users. They can also be toxic, meaning that they come from sites that have been penalized by Google or have a bad reputation. Having too many black hat links on your site can negatively affect your site’s ranking, traffic, and trustworthiness.

Black Hat SEO Is the Alternative to Gray or White Hat SEO

Black hat SEO is one of the three types of SEO strategies that differ in their approach to link building and compliance with Google’s guidelines. The other two types are white hat SEO and gray hat SEO.

White hat SEO is the opposite of black hat SEO. It involves following Google’s guidelines and using ethical and organic methods to build links that are relevant, valuable, natural, and user-friendly. White hat SEO focuses on creating high-quality content that attracts links from other reputable sites in your niche. It is the best way to improve your site’s ranking and reputation in the long term.

Gray hat SEO is somewhere in between white hat and black hat SEO. It involves using methods that are not explicitly forbidden by Google, but are not entirely ethical or natural either. Gray hat SEO involves bending the rules or exploiting loopholes in the algorithm to gain an edge over the competition. It can sometimes work in the short term, but it also carries a risk of being penalized by Google if detected.

The main differences between these three types of SEO strategies are their impact on your site’s ranking, risk level, and sustainability. Here is a table that summarizes these differences:

As you can see, black hat SEO has the worst impact on your site’s ranking, carries the highest risk of being penalized by Google, and is not sustainable in the long run. Therefore, it is advisable to avoid black hat SEO and stick to white hat or gray hat SEO strategies instead.

The Problem with Black Hat Links

You might be wondering why some people still use black hat links if they are so bad for their sites. The answer is simple: they want quick results without putting in much effort or money.

However, this short-sighted approach can backfire badly and cause more harm than good. Here are some of the problems with black hat links:

• They can get you penalized by Google: Google has a team of human reviewers who manually check websites for violations of their guidelines. If they find any evidence of black hat link building on your site, they can issue a manual action against your site, which can result in a drop in ranking or removal from the search results altogether.
• They can get you penalized by algorithms: Google also uses algorithms to detect and filter out spammy or low-quality links. These algorithms are constantly updated and refined to catch any new or emerging black hat techniques. Some of the most famous algorithms that target black hat links are Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird. If these algorithms find any black hat links on your site, they can automatically lower your site’s ranking or devalue your links.
• They can damage your reputation: Having black hat links on your site can also hurt your site’s reputation and credibility among your users and peers. Users can lose trust in your site if they see that you are associated with spammy or shady sites. Peers can also lose respect for your site if they see that you are using unethical or manipulative methods to rank higher. This can affect your site’s traffic, conversions, and loyalty.

Why Do People Build Black Hat Links?

Despite the problems and risks associated with black hat links, some people still choose to build them for various reasons. Here are some of the most common reasons why people engage in black hat link building:

• They want short-term benefits: Some people are impatient or desperate to see results fast. They do not care about the long-term consequences or the quality of their links. They just want to rank higher quickly and get more traffic and revenue. They think that black hat links can help them achieve that goal faster than white hat or gray hat links.
• They want ease of generation: Some people are lazy or lack the skills or resources to create high-quality content and build natural links. They do not want to invest time, money, or effort into their link building strategy. They think that black hat links are easier and cheaper to generate than white hat or gray hat links. They use automated tools, services, or networks to generate hundreds or thousands of links in a matter of minutes or hours.
• They lack awareness: Some people are ignorant or unaware of the Google guidelines and the best practices for link building. They do not know what black hat links are, how to spot them, or how to avoid them. They think that all links are good for their site, regardless of their source, quality, or relevance. They fall prey to scams, myths, or outdated information about link building.

How to Spot Black Hat Links?

If you want to avoid black hat links and stay on Google’s good side, you need to be able to spot them and remove them from your site. But how can you tell if a link is black hat or not?

There are some signs that can help you identify low-quality link building services or networks that offer black hat links. These signs include:

• Fast turnaround time: If a service or a network promises to deliver a large number of links in a very short time (such as hours or days), it is likely that they are using black hat methods to generate those links. Quality link building takes time and requires research, outreach, negotiation, and content creation. It is impossible to build hundreds or thousands of natural and relevant links in such a short span of time.
• Guaranteed links: If a service or a network guarantees a certain number of links for a fixed price, it is likely that they are using black hat methods to generate those links. Quality link building is not predictable or guaranteed. It depends on many factors, such as the quality of your content, the relevance of your niche, the authority of your site, the responsiveness of your prospects, and the competitiveness of your keywords. It is impossible to guarantee a specific number of links for any site or keyword.
• Low cost: If a service or a network offers a very low price for a large number of links, it is likely that they are using black hat methods to generate those links. Quality link building is not cheap. It requires investment in tools, resources, content, and outreach. It also requires expertise and experience in SEO and link building. It is impossible to offer high-quality links for a very low price.

If you encounter any of these signs when looking for link building services or networks, you should be wary and avoid them at all costs. They are likely to provide you with black hat links that can harm your site’s ranking and reputation.

6 Black Hat Link Building Techniques to Avoid

Now that you know how to spot black hat link building services or networks, you should also be aware of some common black hat link building techniques that they use to generate those links. These techniques include:

Using Private Blog Networks (PBNs)

PBNs are networks of websites that are owned and controlled by the same person or entity. They are used to create artificial link juice and pass it to a target site. PBNs usually have low-quality content, no real traffic, and no value for the users.

They are often hosted on expired domains that have some existing authority or backlinks. PBNs are considered black hat because they violate Google’s guidelines on link schemes and manipulate the search results.

Buying Links on Link Farms

Link farms are websites that have a large number of links pointing to each other or to a target site. They are used to create artificial link popularity and boost the ranking of a target site. Link farms usually have low-quality content, no real traffic, and no value for the users.

They are often created by automated programs or services that offer paid links. Link farms are considered black hat because they violate Google’s guidelines on link schemes and manipulate the search results.

Using Automated Blog Comments

Automated blog comments are comments that are posted on blogs or forums by bots or software. They are used to create backlinks to a target site by inserting a link in the comment text or the name field. Automated blog comments usually have generic, irrelevant, or spammy content, and no value for the users.

They are often detected and filtered out by spam filters or moderators. Automated blog comments are considered black hat because they violate Google’s guidelines on link quality and spam techniques.

Adding Links to Plug-ins or Themes

This technique involves adding links to a target site in the code of plug-ins or themes that are used by other websites. The links are often hidden from the users, but visible to the search engines.

This technique is used to create backlinks to a target site from multiple websites that use the same plug-in or theme. Adding links to plug-ins or themes is considered black hat because it violates Google’s guidelines on link schemes and hidden links.

Hacking Websites to Add Links

This technique involves hacking into other websites and adding links to a target site without the permission or knowledge of the website owners. The links are often hidden from the users, but visible to the search engines.

This technique is used to create backlinks to a target site from high-authority or relevant websites that have been compromised.

Hacking websites to add links is considered black hat because it violates Google’s guidelines on link schemes and hacked sites.

Adding Links to User-Generated Spam

This technique involves adding links to a target site in user-generated content that is spammy or low-quality, such as guest posts, articles, reviews, profiles, directories, social media posts, etc.

The links are often irrelevant, unnatural, or over-optimized for the target keywords. This technique is used to create backlinks to a target site from various sources that have low authority or trustworthiness.

Adding links to user-generated spam is considered black hat because it violates Google’s guidelines on link quality and spam techniques.

Is Buying Links Black Hat?

One of the most controversial and debated topics in SEO is buying links. Buying links is the practice of paying money to other websites in exchange for links that point to your site. Buying links can be considered black hat or not depending on how you do it and what kind of links you buy.

Buying links can be considered black hat if:

• You buy low-quality, irrelevant, unnatural, or hidden links that violate Google’s guidelines
• You buy links from link farms, PBNs, hacked sites, or other black hat sources
• You buy links that are guaranteed, cheap, or fast
• You buy links that are over-optimized for your target keywords
• You buy links that have no editorial value or user benefit

Buying links can be considered not black hat if:

• You buy high-quality, relevant, natural, and visible links that comply with Google’s guidelines
• You buy links from reputable, authoritative, and trustworthy sites in your niche
• You buy links that are fair, reasonable, and transparent
• You buy links that are diversified and balanced for your target keywords
• You buy links that have editorial value and user benefit

Buying links can be a risky and tricky strategy for SEO. It can either help you improve your ranking and reputation, or hurt you with penalties and lawsuits. Therefore, you should be very careful and selective when buying links, and always follow the best practices for link building.

How to Remove Black Hat Links?

If you have black hat links on your site, either intentionally or unintentionally, you should remove them as soon as possible to avoid any negative consequences. Here are some steps you can take to identify and remove black hat links from your site:

• Check Google Search Console for Manual Actions: Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to monitor and manage your site’s performance on Google. One of the features of Google Search Console is Manual Actions, which shows you if your site has been penalized by Google for violating their guidelines. If you see any manual actions on your site related to unnatural links, you should take immediate action to resolve them.
• Perform a Backlink Audit: A backlink audit is a process of analyzing your site’s backlink profile and identifying any low-quality or toxic links that can harm your site’s ranking and reputation. You can use various tools and services to perform a backlink audit, such as Ahrefs, Moz, SEMrush, etc. These tools can help you find and evaluate your backlinks based on various metrics, such as domain authority, relevance, anchor text, spam score, etc. You should look for any signs of black hat links, such as low-quality, irrelevant, unnatural, or hidden links from black hat sources.
• Remove or Disavow the Links: Once you have identified the black hat links on your site, you should try to remove them or disavow them. Removing the links means contacting the website owners or webmasters and asking them to delete the links that point to your site. This is the best and most effective way to get rid of black hat links, but it can also be time-consuming and challenging. Disavowing the links means telling Google to ignore the links that point to your site. This is a less effective but easier way to deal with black hat links, but it should be used as a last resort. You can use Google’s Disavow Tool to submit a list of links that you want Google to disregard.

By following these steps, you can clean up your site’s backlink profile and get rid of any black hat links that can harm your site’s ranking and reputation.

Wrapping Up

Black hat links are links that are obtained through unethical and manipulative link building practices that violate Google’s guidelines and manipulate the search results. Black hat links can harm your site’s ranking and reputation, and expose you to Google penalties and legal actions.

Therefore, you should avoid black hat links and stick to white hat or gray hat link building strategies that follow Google’s guidelines and use ethical and organic methods to build links that are relevant, valuable, natural, and user-friendly.