Editing Black hat (computer security) (section)

== Strategies ==

=== Concealing ===
One of the most famous black hat methods is to utilize nasty "[[doorway pages]]", which are intended to rank highly for specific search queries. Accordingly, the substance of these doorway pages is stowed away from both the clients and the web indexes. Doorway pages are designed to deceive search engines so that they cannot index or rank a website for synonymous keywords or phrases.

=== Keyword stuffing ===
Another form of black hat [[search engine optimization]] (SEO) is known as keyword stuffing, which involves repeatedly using the same keywords to try to trick search engines. This tactic involves using irrelevant keywords on a webpage (such as on the homepage or in [[metadata tag]]s) to make it appear more relevant for particular keywords, deceiving people who visit the site.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-06 |title=Black hat SEO |url=https://www.twaino.com/en/definition/b/black-hat-seo/ |access-date=2022-11-27 |website=Twaino |language=en-GB}}</ref>

=== Link farming ===
[[Link farm]]ing occurs when multiple websites or pages link to a particular website. This is done to profit from the [[pay-per-click]] (PPC) advertisements on these websites or pages. The issue is that the links only point to the specific website because it promises something in return, when in fact they are only there to increase traffic to the desired website and its popularity. These websites are unethical and will damage the credibility of the website's other pages, possibly reducing its income potential.

=== Shrouding ===
Shrouding involves showing different content to clients and web search tools. A website may present [[search engine]]s with information irrelevant to the website's real content. This is done to boost the website's visibility in search results.

=== Spamdexing ===
[[Spamdexing]] is a form of black hat SEO that involves using software to inject [[backlink]]s to a website into search engine results. This is done solely to raise the website's ranking in search engines.

=== Unethical redirects ===
A [[URL redirection|redirect link]] is considered unethical if it takes the user to a webpage different from the one indicated in the link. For instance, it is unethical to have a link that should take the user to the website "ABC" but instead takes them to "XYZ". Users are tricked into following an unintended path, even though they might not be interested in the website they land on.