Black-hat link building refers to acquiring backlinks to a website through deceptive and unethical means (according to search engine guidelines). This can include reaching out to websites & asking to buy link insertions, creating private blogging networks, or participating in link exchange schemes. 

Unlike white-hat link building practices, which focus on quality and building relationships, black-hat techniques focus on quantity and are meant purely to manipulate Google’s algorithm. Black-hat link builders prioritize scaling quickly without regard for search engine guidelines or the quality of the links being acquired. 

Google has a Link Spam detection algorithm, updated regularly, that aims to remove spammy backlinks from ranking signals. This means that, more often than not, spammy backlinks built at scale won’t negatively impact your rankings – but their positive impact may disappear with the next link spam update.

However, if you aggressively engage in black-hat link building tactics, there is a risk that your website may get penalized by Google (either manually or algorithmically). This will result in a loss in rankings, and in extreme cases, a complete ban from Google’s search results. Google has also allowed users to manually report instances of link spam. A manual report will likely result in a manual review by Google – which poses a higher chance of getting a penalty. 

Contact Fire&Spark to learn more about the value of link building for your business, and content creation that will result in a natural rise in backlinks.