Google Says Sometimes Black Hat SEO Works & You Don’t Get Caught

Google’s John Mueller admitted on Twitter that sometimes black hat SEO and risky practices work and you don’t always get caught. But he added that sometimes you can get caught and “not getting caught doesn’t mean it works.” But he added building a business on these practices “seems like a terrible idea.”

Even worse, is to use these risky tactics for your clients without communicating the risks to your clients.

Here is the tweet:

There are lot of risky practices; sometimes you don’t get caught, and sometimes it even works for a while (not getting caught doesn’t mean it works). I wouldn’t build a business on it, and doing it for unaware clients seems like a terrible idea.

— ???? John ???? (@JohnMu) October 20, 2021

Several years ago, I knew a lot more SEOs involved in the black hat space than I do now. It was super easy and even less risky in the early 2000s but today, it is much harder and way more risky.

So I wouldn’t recommend the advice that says, oh, my competitor is doing this black hat method and they rank well, I should do it too. It might one day catch up with them and their business might suffer in a big way. Build something that is stable and consistent that will last the length of Google time…

Forum discussion at Twitter.