How to Report Sites Using Black Hat SEO to Google?

With an increasing number of businesses realising the importance of digital presence, the competition to rank on Google is getting wild and brutal. 

While most SEOs operate ethically and abide by Google guidelines, we can’t deny the fact that there are always exceptions.

Some businesses and SEO vendors prefer taking the easy way by breaking or bending the rules of search engines. It’s (in)famously termed as black hat tactics in the SEO community. 

So when you come across websites that use such black hat SEO tactics, you can:

• Ignore and let them take the valuable ranking positions (sometimes at the cost of your ranking), or 

• Take responsibility for cleaner internet space and report it to Google.

If you choose the latter, we’ll show you how to report sites that use black hat SEO to Google. 

But let’s dive into some basics first. 

What Is Black Hat SEO?

The SEO tactics that violate the search engines’ guidelines to manipulate the search results are referred to as black hat SEO. Here, the idea is to exploit the loopholes of search engine algorithms. Black hat SEO aims to gain top rankings in search engines like Google at the expense of user experience, content quality and fairness in the competition. 

However, all the major search engines have published guidelines on practices to follow and avoid. For instance, here are Google Webmaster Guidelines. It outlines the techniques webmasters should follow to improve website ranking transparently.

In addition to the recommended practices,  they’ve clearly mentioned the techniques (discussed in a later section) you must avoid. These black hat tactics lead to penalties like site removal from search results.

Why Should You Avoid Black Hat SEO Techniques?

Here are the reasons you must avoid using black hat SEO tactics:

1. Short-Term Gains with Long-Term Penalties

Black hat tactics may work for you in the short run and give you some quick gains. However, they’re not sustainable in the long run. 

It’s because Google may take some time to determine if your site is using such tactics. So, initially, you may successfully manipulate the algorithms and rank high. But eventually, when Google figures out your tactics, your rankings and traffic both will drop. 

2. Risk of Google Penalties 

By violating the guidelines, you always run the risk of being penalised by Google. The penalty could be in the form of lower rankings for your site or a complete omission from Google’s search index. 

3. Negative Impact on User Experience

User experience (UX) is one the top priority of Google. And using black hat SEO tactics downgrades the UX on your site. So, the users may leave your site quickly, which is a signal of negative UX to Google. This can adversely affect your ranking, traffic, leads, and conversions. 

If you’re not sure whether your SEO strategies are aligned with Google’s guidelines, you can hire external SEO services to audit your site and make it white hat SEO compliant. 

Common Black Hat SEO Techniques

Before we learn how to report black hat SEO sites to Google, first, let’s understand some of the most commonly used black hat SEO techniques. 

1. Keyword Stuffing

When you try to stuff your content with the keywords you want to rank for, it’s called keyword stuffing. It used to work a decade back, but not anymore. Google algorithms are much more advanced now. 

2. Paid Links

Building a solid backlink profile is a marathon, not a sprint. That’s why many SEOs take the easier way and buy backlinks to improve their site’s authority and ranking. Google considers this a part of link schemes and your site may get penalised for participating in link schemes. 

3. Doorway Pages

These are the sites or pages created to rank for specific search queries and lead users to the same destination. For example, having multiple domains or pages targeted at regions where your business doesn’t operate, you just want to funnel traffic from those regions to your target page. 

4. Cloaking

It’s when you present different content or URLs to search engines than what you show your users or vice versa. It’s a deceptive tactic aimed at manipulating rankings. 

5. Manipulative Redirects

There’s nothing wrong with using redirects with the right intentions like preparing for site migration, page no longer exists, content consolidation, etc. But if it’s a sneaky redirect that takes users to a different page than what it showed in search results, it’s a black hat tactic. 

6. Hidden Text

For example, when you use white text on a white background or a font size of zero, users can’t see the text, but search engines can. SEOs and webmasters use this technique to load pages with excessive keywords in order to rank. But it hurts your SEO more than it does good.  

7. Spammy AI-Generated/Spun Content

Creating quality content takes time and effort. Hence, some black hat SEO practitioners use AI content generator software that generates multiple unique content pieces by spinning the original article. They mostly use such content pieces to publish on low-quality sites to get backlinks from them.  

However, backlinks gained from such sites hardly pass any link juice that can help boost your ranking.

8. Negative SEO Attacks

This technique is not just black hat but also unethical and malicious. Here, the practitioner’s attempts are not to rank their own site. Instead, they try to sabotage competitor websites with negative SEO attacks. 

For example, bombarding competing sites with spammy backlinks and/or paid negative reviews, or even extreme attacks like hacking the site. With that in mind, consider conducting a periodic backlink audit to check to ensure that your site doesn’t have spammy backlinks. 

9. Phishing

These are pages created to steal users’ personal information. They are intentionally designed to look like the pages of other popular and trusted sites so that users trust them and give away their information.  

10. Exact Match Domain (EMD) Misuse

EMD refers to keeping the domain name exactly the same as the keywords you intend to rank for. Examples include choosing domain names like healthinsurance.com or roofingservices.com. 

While it’s not unethical, having the exact match domain makes your site more vulnerable to Google penalties. That’s because it increases the occurrence of backlinks with an exact match anchor text and keyword stuffing on landing pages.  

11. Mimicking Competitor’s Domain Name

Some black hat practitioners also use sneaky tactics like buying a domain name identical to an established competitor. Their intention is to rank for the branded keywords and steal competitors’ traffic.

However, it can be more challenging than rewarding because you may face trademark infringement claims and pay heavy fines. 

Why Should You Report Black Hat Spam?

Reporting black hat SEO can ensure a fair and competitive digital landscape, protect users and help maintain the integrity of search results. Here’s why it matters:

Promoting Fair Competition

As a business owner, you should promote fair competition. So, by reporting the black hat spam to Google, you can help Google create a level-playing field for all webmasters where no particular site can enjoy an unfair competitive advantage. 

Protecting Users from Malicious Content

Think of it from a business perspective: If your primary channel for customer acquisition is organic traffic, you should also help Google improve the quality of search results. 

Besides, if a site that uses black hat tactics ranks in the search results, then users — which also includes your target audience — may not get the best quality information. That’s because these sites may end up outranking the sites with quality content. 

At the same time, bear in mind that this feature shouldn’t be misused to report the competitors that follow Google’s guidelines (or white hat SEO techniques), and you’re not able to outperform them. It’s as good as the negative SEO attack we discussed earlier. 

Improving Search Result Quality

Reporting black hat SEO helps Google maintain the integrity of search results. Websites that exploit loopholes may not provide the best user experience, and their ranking can distort the quality of the results users see. Reporting such websites allows you to support Google’s mission to deliver relevant, trustworthy content that meets users’ needs.

How to Report Black Hat SEO Sites to Google for Free?

Now that we’ve discussed the whats and whys of reporting black hat SEO techniques, it’s time to learn how to report a spam website. 

Besides, let’s also understand Google’s take on reporting spam in their own words: 

Reporting Scenarios

Here are the key reporting scenarios that can help you take action against black hat SEO tactics. 

1. Report SEO Spam

If you observe spammy backlinks or excessive and unnatural keyword stuffing (to get high rankings on SERPs) on your competitor’s website, you can report them. This helps Google identify websites that aim and work toward manipulating search rankings unfairly.

2. Google Report SEO Abuse

You can report manipulative practices that lead to unfair search results, such as cloaking, doorway pages, or hidden text. These tactics impact the search engine’s ability to offer high-quality, relevant, and valuable content to the users.

3. Report Negative SEO

If you’re a victim of negative SEO, such as spammy backlinks or DDoS attacks aimed at hurting your site’s ranking, Google provides a way for you to report these issues and protect your online reputation.

4. Report Links for SEO Abuse

Leverage backlink analysis tools like Ahrefs or Moz to gain evidence of link schemes, paid link abuse, or other manipulative tactics. Report these links to Google to help them maintain the integrity of search results.

If you find content in Google’s search results that you believe is ranking because of spam, paid links, malware, or other quality issues, use one of the suitable Google abuse forms on this page: Google’s Report Quality Issues Page. This will help you report a website to Google. We have explained this in detail in the upcoming step-by-step guide to reporting black hat SEO.

Step-by-Step Guide to Report Black Hat SEO to Google

Here are the steps that will answer all your queries regarding how to report a website to Google.

Step 1: Understand Google’s Webmaster Guidelines Thoroughly

Before you proceed to report black hat SEO sites to Google, you must clearly understand the Webmaster Guidelines. 

This can help you:

• Analyse and appraise your own SEO practices.
• Know the difference between white hat and black hat SEO tactics.
• Identify the categories of black hat spam that you can report to Google.

Without understanding the above differences, you shouldn’t report spam to Google, or it can backfire. For instance, Google prohibits deceptive SEO practices like keyword stuffing, paid link schemes, cloaking, etc. If you find a website engaging in these tactics, you have valid grounds to report it as it’s a clear violation.

Once you have a clear understanding and come across the sites that use practices that can surely be classified as black hat SEO, you can proceed further as instructed in subsequent steps. 

Step 2: Document Evidence

Let’s say you came across websites that use unethical SEO practices to manipulate search engine results. They could be specific web pages or entire websites. 

You must collect and document solid evidence before submitting your report. Google won’t take action without proof. So, start by collecting:

• URLs of the violating pages
• Screenshots of suspicious content
• Detailed description of the issues

Moreover, if you want to report paid links, capture the section where the website sells backlinks. If the issue is phishing, screenshot the fake login page.

Once you gather all the necessary proof, proceed to step no. 3.

Step 3: Choose the Correct Reporting Form

Google has classified spam activities into four different categories and also provided different reporting forms for each category. Hence, you should identify the correct category for reporting a particular case and submit the form accordingly.  

The categories include: 

1. Spammy Content 

Sites that use black hat tactics such as hidden text, doorway pages, cloaking, and sneaky redirects would go under the Spammy Content category. They use it to attain better positions in Google search results.

However, it deteriorates the content quality and users’ search experience. That’s why Google wants you to report spammy content using this form. 

2. Paid Links Spam

According to Google’s guidelines, the links within the content should be editorially placed, and its intention should only be to provide readers with relevant additional information. However, many SEOs and webmasters buy and sell backlinks to exchange the PageRank advantage. 

Google calls it link schemes, and they can degrade the quality of search results. 

You can report paid links spam with this form.

3. Malware

If you discover a site that seems to be infected with malware or looks like it’s spreading malicious or unwanted software, you can report it to Google using this form.

4. Phishing

If you encounter a page that has been designed to be used as a disguise for another website with the purpose of stealing users’ information, it could be phishing spam. And you can report phishing pages with this form. 

Step 4: Submit Specific Details

Once you’ve identified the correct category to report spam and you click the relevant form, you’ll be presented with the page where you can fill in the details of spammy activities. 

For instance, you clicked the Spammy Content form. The page would look like this.

Image Note - Show an arrow towards the URL and highlight the page issue.

Include the exact URL(s) of the violating pages and describe the issue concisely, such as spammy content, deceptive, low quality, paid links, etc. 

Next, choose a suitable category, such as hidden text and links, cloaking sneaky redirects, etc. Highlight the exact query that shows the issue.

For instance, you can add an explanation like: “Searching for “best SEO services” on Google shows this page. However, when visited, it redirects users to a gambling website, reflecting cloaking.”

Image Note: Highlight the cloaking and sneaky redirect field and additional details with an arrow.

Although adding the additional information is optional, you should provide specific details to Google to highlight the exact issues. 

Step 5: Track Your Report

Once you’ve filled in all the details, submit the form. You’ll see an acknowledgement screen confirming that spam has been reported successfully, as shared in the screenshot below.

However, Google doesn’t provide feedback on how successful the reporting was or what actions they took. So do not wait for such a response.

Also, don’t be discouraged if you don’t see visible changes in the search results since Google may take some time to review the spam reports. And it can be days, weeks, and sometimes months before you see the difference. However, you can track progress in several ways. Google may issue a manual penalty to the violating website, which could result in lower rankings or deindexing. 

If you reported malware, you might later see a warning on Google that says, “This site may be hacked.” 

Tools for Reporting

Here are the key tools to report black hat SEO sites to Google for free.

Google Webspam Report Form

This tool is your go-to for reporting spammy content or SEO tactics that violate Google’s guidelines. It allows you to report different types of violations, all under the same form. Just choose a suitable scenario from the following form to report.

For instance:

• Spammy Content: You can report a website with low-quality content or keyword stuffing for spammy content. These pages are often filled with irrelevant keywords to manipulate search rankings.
• Paid Links Spam: You can report a website selling or buying backlinks via the “Paid Links Spam” option.
• Any Other Spammy SEO Tactic: This includes tactics like cloaking or using doorway pages. Use this option if you notice a website using these black hat SEO tactics.

Google Safe Browsing

This free-of-cost tool by Google allows you to report websites that spread malware or engage in phishing attacks.  

• Malware: Report a website if you observe it’s distributing malicious software (viruses or trojans). Fill out the form as shared in the screenshot below. This ensures that users don’t end up on dangerous websites and lose their personal and sensitive data.

• Phishing: If you observe a website pretending to be another site (like a bank or online store) to steal personal information, it’s a case of phishing. Fill out the crucial information asked in the form shared below to report these fraudulent websites.

How to Protect Your Site from Negative SEO?

The first step to protect your website from negative SEO is recognising when you’ve been the victim of an attack. 

Here are a few crucial signs that depict you may be the victim of a negative SEO attack:

• Sudden unexpected drops in web traffic.
• Drops in your rankings for specific keywords.
• Alerts from Google about your website practices.
• Multiple copies of your content appear on other websites online.

Now that you know the signs, let’s understand crucial strategies to combat negative SEO, recover from an attack, and prevent future damage.

1. Safeguard Your Website Against Hacking Threats

Hackers may inject malicious code or toxic backlinks into your website without you realising it. This can seriously damage your website and impact your SEO efforts. 

Conduct regular website audits and set up Google Search Console alerts for security breaches or indexing issues. This can help safeguard your site from negative SEO. 

Moreover,  you must use strong security measures such as powerful passwords, antivirus protection, and two-factor authentication. This can help detect negative SEO tactics and help prevent issues from escalating before it’s too late.

2. Maintain Your Backlink Catalog

If you’re not already tracking your backlinks, now is the right time to start. 

For instance, you can leverage Google Search Console to track your backlinks and detect any sudden spikes in toxic or irrelevant links. 

If you find spammy backlinks pointing to your website, submit a disavow file in Google Search Console to tell Google to disregard these harmful links when calculating your website’s ranking.

3. Protect the Content on Your Site

Although it’s an unfair practice to copy someone else’s content, websites are doing it. This can decrease the credibility of the original source without them knowing. 

If you observe websites that have copied and used your content, immediately contact the website owners and request its removal. 

Additionally, you can use canonical tags to ensure that Google recognises your website as the original source of the content. 

What’s more? You can add a copyright notice and clear Terms of Service to your website to save your content from being copied.

4. Take Action Against Fake Social Profiles and Reviews 

Tactics like creating fake social media profiles and false online reviews are gaining momentum. Several fraudsters are implementing these tactics to gain an advantage.

If you notice fraudulent business profiles under your company’s name or fake online reviews, report them immediately to the platform. 

Monitor your social media mentions to catch fake accounts and misinformation early. Respond promptly to genuine negative reviews and report any fake ones to the respective platforms.

When Google Takes Action After Reporting?

When you report spam or violations to Google, the timeline for action can vary based on the severity and type of issue reported. Google typically acknowledges receipt after submitting a spam report but does not guarantee immediate action. 

Their team takes time to review the report and determine whether it violates their guidelines. Depending on the complexity of the report, the investigation can take a few days to several weeks.

If Google finds the report valid, they may take action such as -

• Issuing a penalty that impacts your site’s rankings or visibility in search results.
• Removing or deindexing specific pages or eliminating the spam from search results in case of content violation.
• Flagging the website as unsafe and issuing warnings to users in cases involving malware or phishing.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know the whys and hows of reporting the black hat SEO to Google, use this reporting feature judiciously. 

Remember, it’s a tool to report spammy activities, not a weapon to use against your competitors. 

You can pretty much rank your site, attract quality visitors and convert them into paying customers — all by using white hat SEO techniques. Although it may take time, it’s the right thing to do. 

So, ensure you adhere to Google’s SEO guidelines by reviewing your SEO strategies periodically. 

At the same time, you can reach out to us to audit and analyse your SEO strategy. Our SEO experts can help you achieve the desired results using white-hat SEO tactics.   

FAQs

1.  What is Considered Black Hat SEO?

Black hat SEO includes practices like hidden text, doorway pages, link buying, and auto-generated content. These tactics violate search engine guidelines and are used to manipulate rankings rather than provide value to the users.

2. How to Identify Black Hat SEO?

Look for keyword stuffing, cloaking, unnatural backlinks, or deceptive redirects to identify black hat SEO. These tactics aim to manipulate search rankings while disregarding user experience and content quality.

3. Where to Report Black Hat SEO?

You can report black hat SEO using Google Search Console. For malware or phishing, use Google Safe Browsing.