What is Grey Hat SEO & Techniques? (Ultimate Guide)

If you are into the online world, you definitely have heard about the terms white hat SEO and black hat SEO. While both are entirely different, there is another in between that you might not have heard about. Grey hat SEO – you might be wondering what is it?

So today, we will try to find out in detail everything that you must know about the search engine optimization strategy. It includes understanding grey hat SEO, the way it differs from the black hat and white hat SEO, and the most common grey hat activities you can opt for to improve visibility and ranking.

If you are someone to recently be a part of this business, you might find this guide interesting and knowledgeable. Since we will talk in detail about it, you don’t have to worry but keep reading to know more about grey hat SEO and its powerful techniques. 

Define grey hat SEO

Grey hat SEO is another search engine optimization practice that combines black hat and white hat SEO. You must know that grey hat SEO is even more challenging than white hat SEO as it exploits some search engine guidelines to improve page ranking. Grey hat SEO techniques require a lot of experience and knowledge as it is done in a very manipulative yet genuine approach.

It is the basic definition of the grey had SEO. However, this would not tell you in detail about its technique. So in order to help you learn the strategies and overcome the challenges, you will face in the process, here I have prepared a thorough guide. Make sure you read it to understand grey hat SEO techniques in detail.

Grey hat SEO techniques: 

Making use of the expired domains: 

It is a very common strategy used in a grey hat technique that creates a borderline between white and black hat SEO. Remember that this is a riskier endeavor, making it inevitable for marketers to pay attention and remain vigilant to every step they take.

It means that you require buying domains that the users have not paid for, and it has expired. But you have to make sure that the domain has a lot of authority as it has quality backlinks in a considerable number pointing to the website. You require finding out the expired domains with high authority for your purpose.

One can apply grey hat SEO techniques in a variety of manners.

• You can visit the website named Wayback machine to find the old archived content. Then you have to re-publish it on the website to find out the way it was performing before the domain expired. It is a great way to acquire a successful website with targeted traffic instantly.
• You can make use of 301 redirects for redirecting the power with the current domain. It is again a great way to improve the domain authority.

Making use of private blog networks or PBN

PBN or a private blog network is a website group controlled by you. It is generally used to create bank links with a single website to acquire a higher ranking on Google. The primary purpose of creating a private blog network for the grey hat SEO strategy is to develop links with one main domain and improve its domain authority.

Creating PBN backlinks was predominantly the black had SEO strategy. However, if you make sure that you can keep it private without letting others know about it and cover the tracks adequately to ensure Google is unable to detect it, this technique can be a lot helpful. However, all you need is to pay attention and be very vigilant in using this grey hat SEO technique.

Link trading: 

Trading links or buying links are the second most commonly used things in grey hat SEO techniques. Most Webmasters use this technique to improve their authority and website ranking. However, a lot of things need to be kept in mind to ensure that it seems natural.

It is technically a black hat SEO tactic as Google guidelines do not encourage buying or trading links. And so, while you are doing so, you require ensuring about the techniques.

Such a great heart SEO strategy or available in different forms:

• You can choose to buy the guest post opportunity, which includes getting backlinks to the website.
• You can choose to purchase link placement on the existing article which Google has indexed.
• You can choose to trade links with a site owner.
• You can sell services or products in exchange for links to someone from another site.

Building blogs and micro-sites: 

When you build a blog or microsite, it is one of the most commonly chosen grey hat SEO techniques that can quickly improve the ranking on search engines without the fear of getting penalized.

It is more like PBN. However, the only difference is that it is a safer technique. The only reason that it comes with more security is that you do not own domains which you are making use of to get backlinks to the website. Apart from this, it is also a public network and not a private one.

Suppose you are looking for some most common examples of creating microsites in order to improve your marketing. In that case, it consists of setting up blogs on different Web 2.0 and other content curation sites with massive domain authorities like Weebly, blogger, medium, life journal, Tumblr, and much more.

Content Spinning: 

As we all know by now that Google does not like content spinning, and it is something that will violate the guidelines of the search engines. However, it is another most common approach in grey hat SEO. It can be highly effective in improving your website ranking on Google. However, you must know that it is not great practice and is unethical if you keep doing this for the long term.

So, make sure that you read this to understand how it works.

Content spinning is something that means that you take content from a different website and then give it another meaning created by you. So, even when the purpose remains the same, it will not be characterized as plagiarized content. However, if you are smart enough, then you can spin content differently with similar references.

Once you spin the content, you can quickly post it on your website, and it can help you get to rank for keywords that you are willing to target. Spinning content might look similar to duplicate content which is something that totally violates the guidelines of search engines; there are still some differences. So we will help you to understand duplicate content in the next section.

As a pro tip, I will always ask you not to choose this process of spinning content but rather do it smartly. You can use the references or the meaning and create content based on your language. Also, ensure that you are not using a similar structure to the website.

Duplicate content creation: 

Creating duplicate content is a major grey hat SEO tactic that Webmasters worldwide have used. It is a predominant search engine optimization technique that has immense importance in current times.

It is a technique that includes simply copy-pasting a massive block of content on various domains or the same website. It is often not a great practice as it can result in getting penalized by the search engines. However, many Webmasters follow this but in a different way.

There are various ways of duplicating content that you can use for SEO purposes.

• Content that is duplicated is a great way to use and flood with multiple copies on search engines with similar text. The main agenda of doing so is to hope that one of the copies might get ranked with the targeted keywords.
• Webmasters can copy content from a different website and post it on the strong domain. It is a great way to outrun the original content source in order to steal traffic toward the targeted website.
• In order to target the same search queries without the need for writing new content, you can use the local SEO keywords. Making use of these keywords, you can choose to create different pages for every local city. In such a case, each page will have similar content with the only exception of varying city names. It is another strategy that will help rank pages for the targeted keywords keeping other pages suppressed.

Creating automatic content

So you must be wondering what is automated content. The automated contents are the ones that are created by using software in order to get rid of the manual process required for content creation. The only purpose of choosing automated content by the webmaster is that it helps them to constantly get a tremendous amount of content and improve the chances of getting higher ranks in the search engine.

Automated contents are an excellent choice for Webmasters who do not want to use content writers or pay them. However, it also comes with many risks associated with it. Since search engines constantly look for content that uses targeted keywords or phrases, creating content consistently can be a practical choice.

Content automation can be done in two different ways:

• You can make use of Machine learning and artificial intelligence to write the content automatically on the website. The AI content creation tools use the NLG or natural language generation for writing content but do not require any human involvement.
• You can also choose to scrape content from different other websites and then combine two pages into one and post it on your website. Some webmasters also use article spinning here in order to create unique and undetectable content with zero plagiarism issues.

You can use hidden text to increase keyboard density: 

If you have been a part of this area for a long time, you must know that hidden content or text is a form of black hat SEO technique. It totally violates the guidelines of the Google webmaster. However, when it comes to creating grey-haired SEO strategies, you can bend the rules by tricking Google. You can hide it from users but allow search engines to crawl the website using hidden text or keywords.

You must know that this is not only tricky but also a precarious process that you are doing. If Google traces your approach, they will immediately penalize you.

The techniques for grey hat SEO can be done in different ways.

• You can use the keyword-rich text behind the image that you are using on your website.
• You can set the phone size to 0
• You can make use of CSS to get the position off-screen

Cloaking:

Cloaking is a popular SEO strategy where you can present one set of URLs or content to the human users and set another set of content or URL for the search engines. It is a very deceptive grey hat SEO strategy that Webmasters use to trick search engines. The prime objective of doing so is improving targeted keywords’ rankings. If you are successful, you can acquire traffic to your website.

If Google finds out your strategy, you are immediately penalized. So, you must be very vigilant and not keep doing the same thing every time. Remember that it requires high-quality professionals and experienced persons to acquire the best results with grey hat SEO techniques.

You can submit your website to web directories: 

One of the most common techniques, which is also a grey hat SEO technique used by the webmaster, is the web directory submissions. It is something that has been popular for a long time now. Experts used the process to get powerful backlinks from different websites by submitting content to various web directories.

When you keep adding your content to the different website directories, you start getting the backlinks from that website. When you do it at a lesser frequency, it is known as a white hat SEO tactic, but when you follow it religiously and submit a large number of this year to the web directors, it can go otherwise.

Once you keep overusing the strategy for generating a lot of website links, it is considered the grey hat SEO technique. It is more when you start manipulating the keyboard anchor text with the backlink. Remember that you have to be very tactful while using this process. If you are smart enough, it will not be considered grey hat SEO, and your site will not get affected by an adverse decision by Google.

Creating a lot of social media accounts

It is considered the white hat SEO technique when you have one social media account for the company or business on many social networking sites. It is a great way to share links and acquire more exposure to the content. Since social sharing is one of the most incredible ways of improving website traffic and reaching targeted markets, social sharing has been considered a significant need for marketing policy.

On the other hand, when you create many social media accounts, you are violating the rules of the search engines. Linking your website with too many social media accounts is considered a grey hat SEO technique.

Positive reviews in exchange for payment

Google rewards all the websites with an excellent reward when they have a lot of positive reviews. A website with positive reviews will undoubtedly get a higher ranking on the Google search result. This has mostly been followed for the local SEO tactics.

However, there is always a way to manipulate the algorithm and get some favor to improve your ranking by asking people to write positive reviews in exchange for payment. If you’re a product or service provider, any buyer buying a product from you can be chosen for this process. You can always request a positive review and amplify the process by giving a good cashback when they give a positive review. 

It is done completely offline, so it can be a great way to improve your social ranking. This is why it is considered a grey hat SEO technique but this way; you will get great results.

What is the difference between a white hat and a gray hat SEO? 

The difference between white hat and grey hat SEO is grey hat SEO can be a riskier approach compared to white hat SEO. Even when grey hat SEO might not leave your site banned from the search engines or the affiliate site, some challenges are still associated with it. All you need is to make sure that you hire a professional who has the knowledge and can manipulate it in a very professional and undiscoverable manner. However, it is expected that white hat SEO is genuine and 100% safe.

What is the difference between a gray hat and a black hat SEO? 

The primary difference between grey hat SEO and one black hat SEO is the techniques used. Grey hat SEO uses techniques that do not directly violate the rules of search engine guidelines. A grey area means that it is somewhere in between the white and black SEO method, which will not penalize your website. However, if you religiously follow the black hat SEO techniques, when Google finds your strategy, you are immediately punished.

Summary:

So by now, I hope you have some detailed knowledge about the grey hat SEO tactics and how they can be implemented. As I have already mentioned in the guide, grey hat SEO might not be as risky as black hat SEO, but there is some threat associated with it when you keep following it constantly.

As you know by now, that grey hat SEO technique is officially the strategy that is a combination of both black hat and white hat SEO. The prime agenda of Grey hat SEO is to improve the website visibility and to rank in search engines.

So, if you are willing to acquire faster results, you can follow the grey hat SEO techniques but ensure the process. However, if you don’t want to take any chances yet wish to enjoy the best results which search engine optimization, you can choose to hire an SEO expert. Since they have the expertise and knowledge about search engines, they create exceptional strategies to help websites rank and not suffer from grey hat techniques.

Digital Habibi is one of such names in the market available for everyone looking for a quality SEO service. I have been a part of this market for seven years now and clearly understand the need for search engines. Besides, since I stay abreast with the latest updates, I make sure to follow the White hat SEO techniques yet acquire better results within a few months.

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