5 Telltale Signs of a Black Hat SEO

Everyone has been there. Lots of promises at the beginning, perhaps some quick successes, a smile here and there and then a bombshell… The person hired has done something not-so-great and the website they worked on has dropped off the face of the Earth. These people are what are known as “Black Hat SEOs”, because they dabble in the dark arts and are the people who give SEO a bad name – they’re the reason why SEOs sometimes have a reputation as snake-oil salesmen. They’re the guys trying to make a quick buck but, unfortunately usually do a terrible job.

Black hats are usually very cheap, making them a fantastic alternative to more long-lasting SEO provided by the white hats – an Imperial/Rebel type situation.

1. Guarantees

Most black hat SEOs will guarantee amazing results. The above is from a website where the SEO services are very very cheap and low quality. All SEOs know that it is impossible to guarantee results. It’s often the case that it’s extremely unlikely that with a significant amount of work people cannot get to position 1 in Google, it is, however, impossible to guarantee that because of how Google’s algorithmic systems work.

2. No results to show

If they’re unable to present past results, it’s likely because they’re either new to the game (which, to be fair, can happen) or they’ve got something to hide because the sites they have worked on have produced less-than-adequate results.

3. Suggestions of mass links

SEOs all know that links are worth their (electronic) weight in gold, but when one starts talking about massive link campaigns, building unnatural numbers of links per day, month or week, there’s something to watch out for. Links are great, but ones that don’t come from quality sources aren’t worth the time and when there are many built very quickly, it’s clear to Google that something is wrong and a penalty will ensue.

4. A keyword-stuffed website

A keyword-stuffed website is barely usable and unreadable and, guess what, these sites are usually ran by black hat SEOs. Check out the person’s website to look for the telltale signs of an unnatural number of keywords put in place around the website, including the pages title tag, headers and footer – these are the places they’re most likely to be.

5. Attempts to overwhelm with technical talk

Not only is this true of SEO, but also true of every attempted sales pitch. Any good salesman will not only know the jargon, they’ll know when to talk in that way and also know how to explain what it is. Black hats will often try and baffle potential clients in their pitch by trying to sound clever – a tip is to assume that they’re talking nonsense unless they’re explaining themselves well and, as a bonus, presenting successes with these methods.

Conclusion

The above five telltale signs are purely a small selection of ways to spot black hats, if you have any other tips we should share, let us know by adding a comment here (you don’t have to become a member, just add a message as a guest). Even better, if you’ve had any bad experiences, let us know and we’ll try and help rectify the situation in anyway we can.

Written by Jason John Mills