10 Grey Hat SEO Techniques You Must Avoid in 2022

By Mitali Purkait Ghosh on November 11, 2020

The digital world is ruled by content at the current time and content is being updated and polished through various algorithms and user povs. We know about the most important SEO techniques that we should use to create quality content, but what are the SEO techniques that you should be avoiding at all costs? Before we delve into what are the grey hat SEO techniques that you must avoid in this new year, knowing about grey hat techniques is a must. Most companies still use grey hat techniques because they are not aware of it in the first place. Let aside identifying how they are applying those in their work. So, what is grey hat SEO?

As the name suggests, this SEO technique lies in between the fine lines of black and white hat SEO techniques. Traditionally when it was still used, it could provide great results only when experts were hired. Walking in between the fine lines is not a joke and it is very dangerous for you if you are not 100% sure about how to use it. This is why it is hardly used anymore. Since today’s era is completely content lead, grey hat SEO is a technique that is becoming obsolete. Whereas, White hat SEO techniques have been updated and upgraded throughout the years and still thriving.

Since the inception of SEO till today, it has come a long way. Things have radically changed for the market. With regular updates from Google and more refinement of the marketing techniques, it has become nearly impossible to keep up with the strategies that have been around for years. This is why, it strikingly affects your content when you hire SEO expert. They are always aware of the updates and changes that take place in the digital marketing world. To keep up with the newest trends and Google updates, it has become necessary to get rid of the grey hat SEO techniques that you have been following all this time.

If you are hiring a reputed SEO agency offering internet marketing services in India, they will suggest you get rid of the following SEO techniques that are outdated now. If you keep implementing them in your strategies, it is more likely that your website will be penalized. Our experts at Digital Concepts have come up with the following list that you need to keep in mind. Take a look.

Keyword Stuffing

Used many years ago, this technique was a popular one to rank the website on the SERP. Using too many keywords in the website content, articles, blogs, press releases, and meta tags used to be the norm. But now, things have changed completely. With the updates released by Google, it has become imperative to create content that will be unique and informative. And it should not be on-your-face promotional with too many irrelevant keyword placements. So, if you are still following this technique, then you are risking your website for being penalized. This is something you should not let happen, because then the entire point of hiring digital marketing services would go to vain. Your content would get lost in the sea of content.

Getting Overboard with H1 Titles

Generally, one web page should have only one H1 tag. H1 tag preferably contains the keyword or the key phrase. But often the site owners become too tempted and add multiple H1 tags that will contain more keywords and this ultimately becomes keyword stuffing. The consequences are the same as mentioned in the previous point. When you are stuffing too many keywords in the content using multiple H1 tags, it is a grey hat SEO technique that can put your website at risk. Any best SEO company will ask you not to do this.

Content Spinning and Duplicate Content

Article spinning is a hack that has been around for a long time. There is several article-spinning software that can help you spin the article by reorganizing the sentences and make the article look like a new one. However, a spun article is always of poor quality and has many grammatical errors. Now, with more and more updates, Google has become smart and intuitive enough to figure out which one is a unique article and which one is not. And that is why if you are still using an article spinner to create new content, the search engine will easily flag it. So, instead of that, invest in high-quality content writing. For that, you don’t need to search for high-end agencies. You can always search for an affordable SEO company that gives you the best SEO services.

At this point, you should also know that churning out duplicate content is also a strict no. There is software that can easily detect duplicate content even if you are changing a few words here and there. So, avoid creating duplicate content. You can always hire a copywriter who has a good experience and will help you come up with unique content that will offer you maximum results.

But for better results hiring an agency that provides you the best SEO services. Because instead of hiring one person, you would get a team who would look out for the quality of your projects and provide you the best digital marketing services.

Negative Competitor SEO

Negative competitor SEO is also another technique that you need to avoid at any cost. This technique involves investing in creating a negative impression of the competitors instead of creating a positive one for your brand. The businesses can leave false negative reviews online as well as can make fake online complaints. Creating backlinks from spam site can be another way. This might affect the reputation of your competitor for some time but it won’t help you in the long run. Rather, research on what your competitors are doing and how you can improvise more by offering something more to your target audience.

Cloaking

To put it in simpler terms, cloaking is the practice that shows the user different information than it shows in the search engine. There are different opinions about this practice. Some outright put it under the black SEO technique while others argue about how it can help. But when it comes to the topmost used search engine Google, this practice is an outright violation of its rules. And through the years Google has updated its policies and algorithms which would immediately catch hold of this practice and flag it. This is why it is becoming obsolete and is being omitted from digital marketing services. Cloaking is done by merely changing the meta description and tampering with the website URL. Because that way the content on your site stays intact.

Cloaking is a big no for experts who work with SEO techniques regularly. But many companies do not have an in-house SEO team, which is more than plausible. If your company is in that growing phase, you can always outsource SEO services from affordable and dependable SEO agencies.

Buying and Using Old Domains

Several old domains that still remain, that are not used but that stay very much available in the world of the internet. These domains are often used to create backlinks, which is good for your website traffic. However, with changing algorithms of Google, you now cannot just obtain any old domains that are afloat on the internet, you would have to earn them. Any bulk old domain that you buy, would get omitted by Google instantly. So, it is advisable to use better SEO techniques and if needed you should hire SEO experts to give your content that boost.

Purchasing Links

If you are among those companies that purchase links to boost your website or business, then you should stop immediately. You can be penalized if the purchasing link fact gets noticed. Your entire investment in your website would be equal to zero. Forget getting a great ROI, you would not able to keep your website and it will be flagged down. But if you are using other digital marketing services like sponsoring events or link exchange, then it would be fine.

Social Media Automation

Social media automation here does not mean the usage of scheduled posts tools.  Several other tools let you follow and unfollow 1000 users and create automated interaction on your posts. This though not yet a grey hat SEO technique, is still dangerous and when unveiled would only incur losses to your brand. It is not yet a grey hat SEO technique because Google has not yet included it in its blacklist.

Buying Social Media Followers

This is yet another unlisted grey hat SEO technique, which will make you feel like you are within the crowd and your business is gaining a lot of interactions. The case, however is just the opposite. There is hardly any interaction with your posts lest your website. When you are using this practice, you are also including the danger of infecting any true followers that you might have.  Understandably you need good customer interaction for your brand to grow, but this practice will only give you temporary ones. Gaining true and organic traffic is time-consuming but it is worth the wait. The customers you gain organically will be loyal.

So, instead of this trivial practice, you can hire SEO expert who would analyze your brand, your targeted customer and give you quality content that would draw organic traffic towards your website.

Brand Copycatting

This is the most infamous grey hat SEO technique in the digital market. Some businesses create a similar brand to an already existing one, register under that name in the same industry and steal the existing brand’s traffic. Keeping aside the unethical aspect of this practice, it is still not worth the time that you have to spend in going through the entire process. The amount of time and money spent to just execute this grey hat SEO technique would be all in vain when the original brand takes notice and takes legal action. Instead of the effort, time and money you could spend there, you can easily build up your original brand. You could search for affordable SEO companies who would help you with great content to generate organic traffic.

So, now as you know what grey hat SEO techniques you need to avoid, what are you waiting for? Keep them in mind and strategize white hat SEO for the best results. And for professional help, get in touch with us. Visit https://www.digitalconcepts.in/ or call at +91 980140672 now.

Mitali Purkait Ghosh

Mitali Purkait Ghosh, the Co-Founder of Digital Concepts, brings a wealth of knowledge and innovation to the marketing sphere. Mitali and her dedicated team offer unparalleled expertise in digital marketing and content writing, among other key online strategies.