What does "Black Hat" mean to you??

11 replies
It doesn't seem like a week goes by where someone is talking about "black hat" in a negative context. I do use black hat techniques in my marketing and getting ranked so I know what the connotation means, at least for me.

But I was curious......

What do warriors think of when someone uses the term "blackhat"? What images come to mind? What does the word mean to you and how would you define it?

I know most of the warriors may consider themselves squeaky clean and beyond reproach. I was just curious what other warriors think...if it is more of a caricature (like a thief hiding in the shadows or some pimply faced kid that automates tens of thousands of backlinks inbetween world of warcraft). Are you pigeonholing this segment of the internet?
#black hat
  • Profile picture of the author web_india
    Black Hat mostly relates to the techniques which are not supported by search engines but can help you temporarily manipulate rankings on google/yahoo. Once the controversial techniques are detected by search engines they will label it as "Black Hat".

    If you are serious about the search engine optimization then make sure that you do not use any controversial or Black Hat techniques listed at :
    Avoid these SEO Techniques SEO HAWK
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    • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
      The VERY ACT of SEO is agianst google's webmaster guidelines. There really is no such thing as white hat SEO.

      Based on past posts, I know some folks are probably going to gang up on Simon for being 'black hat', so I wanted to point this out.

      That being said, the topic was "What does "Black Hat" mean to you??".. I will venture that most people will draw the line so that their actions are on the 'right side' of the line - it's just human nature.
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      -Jason

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      • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
        Originally Posted by jasonl70 View Post

        The VERY ACT of SEO is agianst google's webmaster guidelines. There really is no such thing as white hat SEO.

        Based on past posts, I know some folks are probably going to gang up on Simon for being 'black hat', so I wanted to point this out.

        That being said, the topic was "What does "Black Hat" mean to you??".. I will venture that most people will draw the line so that their actions are on the 'right side' of the line - it's just human nature.
        drat...you took my punchline, lol. In all seriousness, the only reason I was wondering was because so many people make very broad statements about the blackhat community on the whole (I imagine that the hacker community is judged using the same brush).

        And yeah...aside from on site optimization, SEO is really a black hat skill...this is something that very few white SEO folks really won't address.

        If you are submitting to directories, paying for backlinks, linking articles back to your site for SEO purposes or basically doing anything that will manipulate the search engine rankings (other than what may happen naturally), then you have one foot in the black hat world and one foot in the squeaky clean white world.
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        • Profile picture of the author Asher
          To me, Black hat methods are simply a faster way to get things done but is closely followed by "Whatever you do, don't get caught" kind of concept.

          One recent example I can think of is Digital Point's owner for cookie stuffing.
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          • Profile picture of the author Marian Berghes
            i saw a lot of people that think blackhat means doing illegal stuff. so for everyone that thinks that.... blackhat does not mean that...blachhat is basically a way to get what you want trough some maybe un-honest methods, but not necessarily illegal
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            • Profile picture of the author Chris W. Sutton
              blachhat is basically a way to get what you want trough some maybe un-honest methods,
              Is that how black hat is justified nowadays? It's okay because it's "unhonest?"

              Just out of curiosity, is it okay if people brand you as an "unhonest" person because you aren't doing anything illegal? Quite frankly, I would never want to be known as a dishonest person but I guess that's just me!
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              • Profile picture of the author Asher
                It's basically just getting what you want faster and you'd better hope you don't get caught for it.

                For example, you have to get to a certain place to get something and you know a shortcut - but the shortcut's a one-way alley that people don't use a lot. So you can take your chances and go through that shortcut hoping no other vehicles use it.

                Something like that.

                It gets the job done but as long as you don't get caught for it. My 2 cents.
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              • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
                What does black hat mean to me?

                Drum roll....I have no idea.

                I wouldn't know a black hat method of doing something if it bit me on the
                butt.

                I don't want to know either because I don't want to be tempted to use
                something that might get me in a lot of trouble. I've worked too hard to
                build my business and let's face it, I'm a human being and temptation is a
                very hard thing to resist. Anybody who says it isn't is lying to themselves
                and everybody else. It's like walking down the street and finding a bag of
                money. Who wouldn't be tempted to keep it? But the right thing is to try
                to find out who it belongs to.

                So I have no idea what black hat is. If anything I'm doing IS black hat, I
                don't know it and so far nobody has come down on me for it.

                And that's just the way I like it.
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  • Profile picture of the author primuskannan
    Black hat----------->subversion.

    To me black hat represents manipulation, duplicate or keyword stuffed content, stealing content, degrading competitors websites by unethical means and creating blackhole websites.

    aka "Make money by riding on other's back minus the hard work"
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    • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
      Vince Runza seems to wear one quite often
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      Bare Murkage.........

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      • Profile picture of the author TopNotchContent
        I think the tag line at the bottom of your post puts it well, "It's my vocation in life to push the envelope...People NEED to stop me and say maybe I went too far.."
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        Need an article writer? Get high quality 400 word articles for only $10...check out my samples at http://GuaranteedArticles.com.

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  • Profile picture of the author MaskedMarketer
    Its at least good to know black hat methods, so you can protect yourself if need be...
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    "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor
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    "I Pay Less Attention to What Men Say. I Just Watch What They Do."
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