Black hat SEO techniques and penalties

White, grey and black hat SEO, spam techniques, penalties and recovery. 34 terms, each with what it means, why it matters for SEO and what to do about it.

Algorithmic penalty

An algorithmic penalty is a ranking drop caused by Google’s automated systems, not a human reviewer, with no notice in Search Console.

Article spinningBlack hat

Article spinning is rewriting existing content with synonyms or software to pass it off as new, which Google treats as scraping or scaled content abuse.

Automated queriesBlack hat

Automated queries are searches sent to Google by bots without permission, covered by Google’s machine-generated traffic policy.

Black hat SEOBlack hat

Black hat SEO is the use of tactics that break search engines’ spam policies, such as paid links, cloaking or keyword stuffing, to rank faster.

Clickbait titlesGrey hat

Clickbait titles promise more than the page delivers to win clicks. Compelling titles are fine; misleading ones are grey hat and can backfire.

CloakingBlack hat

Cloaking is showing search engines different content from what users see in order to manipulate rankings, which breaks Google’s spam policies.

Comment spamBlack hat

Comment spam is posting links in blog comments, forums or profiles to gain backlinks, which breaks Google’s link spam and user-generated spam policies.

CTR manipulationBlack hat

CTR manipulation is using bots or paid clickers to search for a keyword and click your result, to fake user signals. It breaks Google’s rules.

Deindexing

Deindexing is when pages or a whole site are removed from a search engine’s index, so they no longer appear in results at all.

Doorway pagesBlack hat

Doorway pages are near-identical pages or sites built to rank for many similar searches and funnel visitors to one destination, against Google’s policies.

Expired domain abuseBlack hat

Expired domain abuse is buying a lapsed domain and using its old reputation to rank low-value or unrelated content, against Google’s spam policies.

Google penalty recovery

Google penalty recovery is the process of finding and fixing spam policy breaches so a site regains rankings after a manual action or demotion.

Google spam policies

Google’s spam policies list the practices that can get a site demoted or removed from Google Search, from cloaking and link spam to scaled content abuse.

Grey hat SEOGrey hat

Grey hat SEO covers tactics that are not banned outright but sit close to Google’s spam policies and can become spam when overdone.

Hacked content and injected spamBlack hat

Hacked content is spam pages, links or redirects placed on a site without the owner’s permission by exploiting a security hole.

Hidden text and linksBlack hat

Hidden text and links are words or links placed on a page so search engines see them but visitors cannot, a breach of Google’s spam policies.

Keyword stuffingBlack hat

Keyword stuffing is filling a page with keywords, numbers or place names in an unnatural way to manipulate rankings, against Google’s spam policies.

Link exchangesGrey hat

A link exchange is an agreement between sites to link to each other. Occasional relevant swaps are fine; excessive ones are link spam.

Link farmsBlack hat

A link farm is a group of sites or pages that exist mainly to link to each other or to anyone who joins, in order to inflate rankings.

Link schemesBlack hat

A link scheme is any attempt to create links mainly to manipulate rankings, such as buying, swapping or automating links, which is Google’s link spam.

Manual action (Google penalty)

A manual action is a penalty a Google reviewer applies when a site breaks its spam policies, demoting or removing pages until the issue is fixed.

Negative SEOBlack hat

Negative SEO is the use of black hat tactics against someone else’s site, such as spammy links, hacking or fake reviews, to hurt its rankings.

Paid linksBlack hat

Paid links are links bought to pass ranking credit, without rel="sponsored" or nofollow, which breaks Google’s link spam policy.

Private blog network (PBN)Black hat

A private blog network (PBN) is a group of sites, often on expired domains, built only to link to a money site and boost its rankings.

Reconsideration request

A reconsideration request asks Google to review a site after you fix the issue behind a manual action, so the action can be lifted.

Scaled content abuseBlack hat

Scaled content abuse is producing many pages mainly to manipulate rankings, with little value for users, whether made by AI, people or both.

Scraped contentBlack hat

Scraped content is material copied from other sites and republished, with little or no change or added value, against Google’s scraping policy.

Site reputation abuse (parasite SEO)Black hat

Site reputation abuse, or parasite SEO, is publishing third-party pages on a trusted site mainly to borrow its ranking power, against Google’s policies.

Sneaky redirectsBlack hat

Sneaky redirects send users to a different page than the one search engines saw, to deceive them, which breaks Google’s spam policies.

SpamBrain

SpamBrain is Google’s AI-based spam prevention system, used to detect spam content and link spam in search results.

Structured data spamBlack hat

Structured data spam is schema markup that misleads, such as fake review stars or markup for content not on the page, to win rich results.

Thin affiliate pagesBlack hat

Thin affiliate pages are affiliate pages that copy product descriptions or reviews from the merchant and add no original value, against Google’s policy.

White hat SEOWhite hat

White hat SEO is search optimisation that follows Google’s guidelines: useful content, a crawlable site and links you earn rather than buy.

White hat vs grey hat vs black hat SEO

White hat SEO follows Google’s rules, black hat SEO breaks its spam policies, and grey hat SEO sits in between, where tactics can tip into spam.