Many SEO experts use different SEO techniques to develop their websites and make them easy to search. They use their techniques in such a way that the search engines somehow have to make their websites the most searched ones with heavy internet traffic and maximum visibility is ensured in search results. The approved and legal techniques used by the SEO experts to do so are called white hat techniques, which have to go through a strict process of checking. White hat SEO techniques, if simply put, are considered legal and cannot be penalized.
However, some dealerships tend to use black hat SEO techniques and strategies to improve their website’s search ranking and increase site traffic. Black hat SEO tactics are the ones that should be avoided as they are the total opposite of white hat SEO strategies, which means they are not legal and can get the dealerships penalized. While black hat SEO tactics can help improve the site’s search ranking and that too in a very short time, they can also put the dealership’s reputation at risk and cause the dealership huge fines if caught. The experts who use such techniques try to fool the search engines into thinking that their websites is much more useful than others are and relevant.
Black hat SEO should be avoided by all dealerships. However, if any dealership has to use them for whatever reason, it is highly recommended to use them with full caution and take safety measures into consideration. Some of the black hat SEO techniques that should be avoided are as follows:
Invisible Texts
Experts use hidden or invisible texts, which help them hide links too hence allowing them to improve the internal link structure of their website. This also helps them increase the keywords. However, it is just another spam as hidden texts are used to highlight JavaScript coded texts and increase the word count.
Replicate the Content
Experts using black hat SEO techniques usually copy the content from other websites. They also set template web pages, which redirect the users to their site for promotion. The traffic is also redirected to group of affiliates. However, these templates do not offer any original content. Plagiarism is also one of the techniques, which have to be avoided at all costs. It is when content from other websites is copied and said to be one’s own. If caught copying, the dealership can face charges for copying with informing.
Parasite Hosting
Parasite hosting is where SEO professionals hack other sites, which are in the top search results. What they do is redirect the traffic to their website instead of the original site. This hacking can be caught if the owners of the original website keep a strict security check on their website. Parasite hosting first began in 2007 and since then many professionals have been using it. It is one of the most illegal tactics used by SEO professionals hence dealerships are strictly recommended to avoid this.
Cloaking
This is another black hat technique, which allows the experts to code their websites in such a way that different versions are presented to users and crawlers. Different content is presented to the search engines while users get to see entirely different content. Cloaking basically deceives the users and the search engines. Meta tags/description stuffed content is provided to the users whose IP addresses are identified. While this technique is very useful in providing related content, it is also very risky as the chances of getting caught are much higher.
Doorway Pages
Doorway pages provide a very little related content about what is required. In fact, they redirect the user through multiple sites to a final page. The traffic is redirected to different pages without informing. You may also have experienced this when you click on a link to open, let’s say, a trending story but you face many sites getting opened one by one and finally to a landing page. They sometimes also provide related content and in such cases, they are called content-rich doorways. Users often get irritated by the doorway pages as too many websites are opened. Dealerships usually use these to get more traffic diverted to their websites.
Google Bombing
Many SEO experts use this technique not to improve their site’s search result ranking but to reduce their competitor’s rankings. This can be done by making negative comments about the competitor’s site go viral. SEO professional using this technique also make pages and links, which gets immense amount of traffic and those pages, are used to spread negativity about the rivals’ sites. This makes search engines make their sites search ranking lower but this is a very short termed strategy as it does not take much time for search engines to realize the spam and get the site’s ranking to its original place. A very serious action can be taken against dealerships that employ SEO professionals who use such a technique.
Copy-Pasting/ Poor paraphrasing
While reputable dealerships hire certain team of writers to write original content for their websites, some dealerships tend to get the content copied from other sites. SEO experts use articles and blogs from other sites and upload them on their site with little or no editing. However, this can be caught easily using anti-plagiarism applications widely available on the internet. In addition, once caught, a very negative impact will be caused to the website. Therefore, it is much better if dealerships hire their own writers who would help them display original content instead of copying.
Dealerships should avoid using black SEO strategies as they can only give short-term benefits and long-term problems. If caught using black hat SEO tactics, dealerships can also face heavy fines and charges. The reputation of the dealership gets at risk too with a chance of getting off from the search engines’ list. It is much better to hire those SEO professionals who use white hat techniques. This might be a bit expensive initially but will benefit the company in the long run.
