What really is Blackhat SEO?

I feel like most of the things on BHW are actually Greyhat and not actually illegal or illicit. Rather just skirting the law or being morally grey. So what actual Blackhat stuff is happening here?

Blackhat doesn't have to be illegal
in BHW, we don't discuss illegal things, not the nature of this forum.

To me, Blackhat is crossing a line but not putting myself in legal troubles.

There's no "black" blackhat stuff going on here, but if there was it'd involve taking down competitors sites, optimizing your site through illegal means (bribing), and other stuff that's guaranteed to A) work or B) scam you

Every shortcut way to rise up your website im Google ranking results faster than normal speed is black hat SEO

Its Helps You ranked On Google, That Is BlackHat SEO.

That was anwsered 100s of times at this point,
It's a Black Hat SEO forum, including all other marketing stuff,

illegal stuff is not and probably will never be allowed in here,
sorry, you're just in the wrong forum if you're looking for something else

shekface said:

I feel like most of the things on BHW are actually Greyhat and not actually illegal or illicit. Rather just skirting the law or being morally grey. So what actual Blackhat stuff is happening here?

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Now Google has very bad punishments for blackhatwork. There is a new update every month. So think about long term benefits before doing any seo on the site.

blackhat SEO is not always illegal (though there are methods that are). anything that is against the ToS of google is blackhat such as keyword stuffing, doorways, cloaking, scraped content etc

Think of it this way: shortcuts to the top might seem appealing, but if they're against Google's guidelines, they could backfire. Getting flagged for Blackhat SEO can tank your rankings fast.

Something that goes against webmaster guidelines.

its gaming the google core algorithms

Black Hat SEO is just manipulating Search Engines by doing some strategies ....

In my opinion, "white" doesn't mean everything good or legal and "black" doesn't mean everything bad or illegal. Ideally, "white-hat" and "black-hat" are just symbolic representation used to symbolize if particular SEO practice is officially recommended by search engines (white-hat) or officially denied by search engines (black-hat). For example, optimizing the website for relevant keywords is officially recommended by search engines so it's symbolized with white hat, while keyword stuffing is officially not recommended by search engines so it is symbolized with a black-hat. This representation changes with the time as search engines keep announcing new things that they recommend or deny. So if something white hat or black hat earlier might be no longer the same.

What search engines are announcing is usually their stand but practically it is not giving results according to those announcements. We can't say they are misguiding but they are also not guiding in a way that one can get desired results with.

If we do what is black-hat according to above ideal classification then we will miss the shot and will get penalized. So practically what we classify, do, and discuss in the black hat techniques is not the ideal black hat but is something between both, which is not clearly confirmed or denied by search engines or even if denied publicly but still giving results if practiced carefully. It is also common that we use the terms which are now classified under black-hat but implement them in a way that it lies in the safe area and give good outcomes. So it is a common confusion for some newcomers that we are discussing and implementing the stuffs which are black hat and not recommended by search engines, but in actual we are discussing to do those in a moderate way to get the desired results. So you can still say them black-hat or gray hat as per your convenience but it is something what is working and giving results.

Shortcut way of ranking websites,including some marketing stuff, but we not discussing illegal stuff here.

1SEOWarrior said:

Something that goes against webmaster guidelines.

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What he said

At this point, black hat SEO is more about spam rather than using black hat tactics.

You could go black hat by just trying to do something outside the rules doing other type of things that can get you in problem with authorities is different, times have change and now there is no need to commit crimes to earn money just bend a little bit the rules, using bots, automated comments, fake traffic all that to improve your social media or website, I mean is better do something that can only get your account banned from social media that get you in jail.