Reverse SEO

White or Black Hat technique?

[Nicoletta]

Is reverse SEO a white or a black hat technique? Will I be penalized if I use reverse SEO?

[RedBar]

I'll bite ... What's "Reverse SEO" ?

What are you attempting that cannot be done by "regular" SEO?

If you are trying to manipulate something then it could be black hat but saying that all SEO is grey hat since we try to use the given guidelines to our best advantage therefore is there actually black hat v white hat, simply varying accepted shades?

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Actually penalized, probably not. You can however ruin the trust you or your pages have built up and take a beating next core update.

[tangor]

Reverse for who? You?

SEO is a "thing", but it is not "THE THING": Content and user experience are "THE THING". Spend time on that and reap the rewards. The other stuff merely wastes time and effort better channeled into MAKING SOMETHING GREAT.

YMMV

My "seo" is "don't screw up" and "K.I.S.S." --- so far has worked for 20+ years.

[martinibuster]

It's Reputation Management, where you spam forums, create fake blogs, create social media profiles in order to rank someone's name to the top of the search results in order to push down negative press associated with that person's name.

[Dimitri]

I have no idea of what you are really asking, but if you are unsure it means it's fishy and should be avoided.

[engine]

Perhaps Nicoletta would like to participate in this thread?

[RedBar]

@MB

Aha! Thanks, now I remember, wasn't this popular a few years ago however G somehow "discounted" it?

[alexfrost2106]

Black hat techniques can be effective for a while. I’ve seen lots come and go, and most of them did indeed work, some of them very well.

But then the search engines release an update that reduces or eliminates the effect on the black hat technique, and the sites that only used legitimate techniques overtake them. Even worse, many forms of black hat technique trigger an actual penalty, effectively killing all search traffic from the search engine.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

It's Reputation Management, where you spam forums, create fake blogs, create social media profiles in order to rank someone's name to the top of the search results in order to push down negative press associated with that person's name. ~ martinibuster

They do all the stuff you mentioned, but not to push down negative press, they use it to push you down in rankings.

Typically, they've already done all the things you mentioned to sell backlinks, as part of a PBN, but when Google burns the entire PBN at once they pass the toxicity of the PBN onto a competitor of their whitehat sites. At least until the PBN domains expire.

It's a blackhat tactic. Check your search console backlink report for backlinks from domains that get zero Google traffic. Those tend to be toxic, especially to newer websites.

[tangor]

@alexfrost2106 ... Welcome to Webmasterworld!

All good points, and an excellent reminder that g (in particular) is always culling the bad from the good as often as they can.

[christianz]

Will I be penalized if I use reverse SEO?

You will be rewarded, because it works.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Even worse, many forms of black hat technique trigger an actual penalty, effectively killing all search traffic from the search engine.

That's the point! Check your search console Link report to see how many sites with zero Google traffic link to you. Thank your competitors.