Why Black Hats are Bad

We all remember those black clad baddies fronting up to Gary Cooper in High Noon and we know a black hat means the wearer is willing to employ whatever despicable means necessary to achieve their malign goal. But when it comes to the online world of SEO, where there are less revolvers and more html references, how bad can a black hat really be?

As one of Britain's fastest growing industries competition is intense in the race to stay four steps ahead of the game against the plethora of other SEO providers all trying to innovate and increase the profile of their website clients. There is an immediate temptation to find ways to cut corners, exploiting Google loopholes and using underhand tricks to con people into clicking on links just to increase a web pages hit rate, fulfilling the primary function of SEO at minimal cost and effort.

Cheap Black hat SEO providers who are willing to use things like automatic content generators, or erroneous links are also creating content of a lower quality, basically spoiling the internet for everyone else. When reader comes across some shoddily written article they might accidentally click on it, they might even be conned into following a link to the company's site, but they won't enjoy it, they won't take the company's products seriously and the negative experience will affect how they approach other content they come across in the future.

Customers aren't stupid, they can tell when corners have been cut and are being subjected to poor and erroneous content from a SEO marketing and they will understand that the company must have no respect for their customers. Therefore, although it may have meant a brief influx of website traffic, in the long term customers will become disenfranchised with the company.

This cynicism doesn't just apply to the Blackhat firm in question, but will have a harmful impact on customers outlooks on all internet traders. Like if a customer has a terrible experience at a certain restaurant it will put them off visiting any restaurants at all for some time.

So using cheaper methods of SEO have a negative long term impact. Blackhat companies also face the risk of Google penalisation if they get caught, Google's algorithms are constantly being updated because it is in their interest to keep content they promote at as high a quality as possible.

That's not to say that the high seas of internet endeavour are filled entirely with piratical cutthroats, SEO can be, and is, conducted ethically. Creatively producing quality content might take a little longer, but is a longer term and more secure investment that benefits not only users but businesses.