So I saw that this question appears a lot in many forums that I usually visit, therefore I decided to give my thought about ti.


Black-Hat SEO is usually legal.

For example, in real life, picking flowers isn’t illegal, however, if you pick a lot of flowers from someone’s yard, that can make him mad, and he can actually sue you.

So when a webmaster participate in Black-Hat activities, he is usually just not following the other website’s Terms of Use, and that isn’t necessarily illegal. But if the other website decided to file a complaint against him, he can actually do that (Civil Complaint).

Not illegal, just un-ethical.

Blackhat isn't 'illegal' unless it involved theft. Blackhat SEO would involve using loopholes, tricks, secrets, code, etc. to get the Search Engines (the SE in SEO) to rank your domain/page/whatever highly.

What was considered 'blackhat' 4-6 years ago is commonplace now. Most of the stuff from back then doesn't work anymore, which is why the scam artist BS WSO sellers are now selling it, of course.

Originally Posted by meannn

Not illegal, just un-ethical.

If you're gonna talk about ethics, you're gonna need to open up your own forum to hold all the bullshit.

You're not taking anything from them, you're giving them a comment on their site for free.

You should be able to sue them.

Not Illegal

I'm not an expert in SEO but isn't it more like planting another plant, sometimes a sunflower between roses, in others' gardens?

I think it depends on what a specific website is saying about breaking their TOS.

Originally Posted by mark27

You're not taking anything from them, you're giving them a comment on their site for free.

You should be able to sue them.

Haha. I'll prepare a list of sites who I can sue for removing my comment.

It's like saying driving is illegal...

It's how you drive that keeps you inside the law or not. 'Black hat' is NOT a definition; it's an idea that means different things to different people. For the majority of us, it just means aggressive SEO with some level of spamming and working around the big boys TOS.

It's not about shafting each other or hurting the little guy; we're all trying to make a living.

To some though, BH means hacking, fraud, illegal activity etc.

For me, I'd rather be able to sleep at night and know that my day was about building my business, rather than trying to burn someone else's down or hurt anyone in the process.

@OP Yes it is.

FBI , CIA, DEA, NSA will be after you.

Violating a website's TOS - is a severe Federal Crime.

Visiting a black hat forum is also illegal - I suggest you remove all records from your computer, delete everything.

PM me for an address, I will tell you where you can ship your computer & hard drive & all networking equipment and I will get it destroyed for you, and no one will be able to trace you again.

Agreed. Blackhat seo may be unethical at times perhaps, but there is a clear cut line that distinctively separates it from being illegal at all, unless we're talking about all the awesome "illegal" downloads shared here

its not illegal u only use tools and tactics
i dont see nothing ellegal on that really

Google states in its TOS that placing backlinks in order to rank higher in the search results artificially (on purpose) is a breaking of its TOS, and thus blackhat. By this definition, All SEO is blackhat. Blackhat is kind of like the word Thuggish. You can stand on the corner looking thuggish, and be a part of an even larger group of thuggish individuals that by sheer magnitude of persona, get respect and play on that respect from within the community around you, even getting away with not playing nice by societies rules and benefiting from it. However, if you or your buddies carry it too far, and start to violate the local, state, national, or International legislation through intimidation or deceit (non FTC compliant websites), selling drugs(pharma), or racketeering (yes, I am thinking of you MegaUL inc), then your blackhat activities then become illegal, and the authorities will then consider those that associate with you "gang members".

You can play the game, but if you are doing illegal activity, being behind a VPS is just like havin the btCH hold the dopE.

Breaking the rules of the city park will most likely just get you kicked out of the park, but breaking the law will get you locked up.

That being said. Offshore baby, Offshore. But they've build Predator drones for that!!

Originally Posted by timothywcrane

Google states in its TOS that placing backlinks in order to rank higher in the search results artificially (on purpose) is a breaking of its TOS, and thus blackhat.

If google chooses to index my site and then rank it in accordance to their
algorithms, then who the fuck are they to say I broke their TOS?
I didn't force myself on them. I might be placing backlinks because it
makes my edick bigger.

Nothing wrong with it at all. Whole world needs to toughen up a bit.

Its manipulative,

if you manipulate something which is related to money or finance,than its illegal.

So yeah black hat is illegal.. indirectly.

Blackhat is cutting edge. Thats all.

That's interesting. This is my first time here. Hope I will learn more about Black Hat SEO.

Originally Posted by WizIMS

So I saw that this question appears a lot in many forums that I usually visit, therefore I decided to give my thought about ti.


Black-Hat SEO is usually legal.

For example, in real life, picking flowers isn’t illegal, however, if you pick a lot of flowers from someone’s yard, that can make him mad, and he can actually sue you.

So when a webmaster participate in Black-Hat activities, he is usually just not following the other website’s Terms of Use, and that isn’t necessarily illegal. But if the other website decided to file a complaint against him, he can actually do that (Civil Complaint).

Its not illegal, illegal is illegal not blackhat lol.... It's just unethical and some people will steer clear of it for that reason.

It's not "illegal" at all. And it's only "unethical" if you are spamming. If your approach increases the amount of good content on the web, that is a good thing not bad.

Stop saying it's not illegal!

Let people think that, less competition for us.

its amazing / dumbfounding what some people define as black hat - im sure i saw someone on here a week ago asking for advice on using a stolen credit card.

Originally Posted by deviatus

Stop saying it's not illegal!

Let people think that, less competition for us.

haha that's funny. However, there isn't that much competition anyway because most Black Hatter's waste their time on garbage services and products like scrapebox blasts.

Quality work takes either time or money and 99% of people aren't willing to give either.

Nope, not illegal. Although Google would like you to think that to hide it's algorithmic flaws..

As soon as the thought comes that you need off-site SEO for your business and that you are not going anywhere with all the on page SEO, means it will violate one condition or the other as per g00gle TOS. But who cares...

I am not doing extra-ordinary stuff that no one is doing in the world like making a car that will take me to moon bla bla... That would not need SEO at all. No one here has invented anything like that for sure... We all are competing with each other in one way or the other. The only way we can achieve our goals is by going against G's TOS. There is no other fk.. work around.

"For me White Hat, Grey Hat, Black Hat are one and the same thing."

If something is not flowing NATURALLY then it is XXX Hat.

Example you have a jewelry store, only things listed will be stuff, their prices, add to cart and so on there is no way you can get a visitor for next decade if you go by TOS.

You open your money site and ask to yourself. How do I xxx?

Well some serious ones end up on forums like BHW, etc. start learning new tricks yes NEW TRICKS.

This is evolution my dear friend. NOT FOR US, but for g00gle. We keep making new tricks here they make new changes at their end to counter us some of them and trap us. We again invent something new here at which might be countered by G sometime later.

We here at BHW or similar forums are always ahead of G in one form or the other.

There is nothing illegal, unethical absolutely nothing. Here are some of the things that have evolved in last decade or so

1. Back in 2000 H1 tag controlled with css to hide it completely was enough to make SE's happy
2. Web Directories
3. Link Exchange
4. One Way Links
5. Forum Links
6. Article Directories
7. Bookmarking
8. 3 way linking
9. Wiki Links
10. Tweet's
11. Link Wheel
and so on

We invented them all and it was at a later stage that G's algorithm were developed to counter all these. Does not mean they lost weight or importance but excess of any of these will definitely penalize you for sure.

The focus was on page earlier then it shifted heavily towards backlinks and now it is loosing importance. Soon or later it will be like 50-50 on page and backlinks (roughly).

Say To yourself - My online business is my bread and butter I will do anything to stay ahead of others OR to catch up with others. I will keep doing my job. Let G do its.

Every bloody tool / service is there in this forum. Pick them wisely and you are ahead.

Originally Posted by omida86

Nope, not illegal. Although Google would like you to think that to hide it's algorithmic flaws..

Exactly!

No, I dont think its illegal. Its just the way it is, and most people arent really black hatting the system. Rather using tricks and holes to get to the top!

It's like taking a shortcut when most people are taking the longer route. I don't think it is illegal unless you are stealing of course. Search engines also benefit from black hat techniques as they discover glitches and loopholes in their algorithms. Blackhatters deserve to be rewarded for their ingenuity and cutting edge techniques.

for me it is more like the unconventional way to do SEO.

Because we 'game' the system the system (search) has to get better, that's good 4 everyone who uses the internets,... and keeps us chatting here.

Originally Posted by oxonbeef

If google chooses to index my site and then rank it in accordance to their
algorithms, then who the fuck are they to say I broke their TOS?
I didn't force myself on them. I might be placing backlinks because it
makes my edick bigger.

hahahahaha lmfdo

Blackhat is a cat and mouse game, you'll always be chasing.

Whitehat is following the book, very boring, not as fun, but at least IT WORKS.

I think it all depends:

Your Business > Money = White-Hat
Your Business < Money = Black-Hat

I'm not saying one of these are wrongs, it's just about perspective. (I do both.)

Originally Posted by ardley216

Whitehat is following the book, very boring, not as fun, but at least IT WORKS.

If only it were that cut and dry. . . can someone shed light on what exactly is white hat. To my knowledge truly white hat is creating something and hoping others find it interesting. Post a few videos about it .. and boom your in the millionairez club.

As posted earlier it was noted . .

Originally Posted by timothywcrane

Google states in its TOS that placing backlinks in order to rank higher in the search results artificially (on purpose) is a breaking of its TOS, and thus blackhat. By this definition, All SEO is blackhat.

Did i miss something?

The question is kind of backward. The real point is, if it's illegal it's not blackhat, not under it's proper definition.

Oh and on a separate note,why is the word blackhat not recognized by the forum dictionary? Weird.

ok the question is what is black hat SEO
when you know what is black hat seo then we can determine if its legal or illegal

BlackHat is free 0_0 WhiteHat is expensive -_-

BlackHat For Life baby

Originally Posted by WizIMS

For example, in real life, picking flowers isn’t illegal, however, if you pick a lot of flowers from someone’s yard, that can make him mad, and he can actually sue you.

That makes no sense in black hat SEO. You spam 1 site or 100, it will still be spam!

Originally Posted by xenix9

OP Yes it is.

FBI , CIA, DEA, NSA will be after you.

Violating a website's TOS - is a severe Federal Crime.

Visiting a black hat forum is also illegal - I suggest you remove all records from your computer, delete everything.

PM me for an address, I will tell you where you can ship your computer & hard drive & all networking equipment and I will get it destroyed for you, and no one will be able to trace you again.

Hahaha ! Nice one ! What a cool guy you are !