Why Google Should Allow Blackhat SEO
Today’s opinion post is by Alex Foster, Head of SEO at Quikster. He has over 15 years of experience in marketing, SEO, and analytics.
I’ve been neck-deep in SEO for years, and there’s something we need to talk about - blackhat SEO. Yeah, that thing that makes most marketers clutch their pearls and whisper in hushed tones at conferences (usually after their third coffee). But stick with me here, because I’ve got a wild thought: What if Google accepted blackhat SEO instead of fighting it?
I know, I know. Sounds completely bonkers. But let me explain.
I’ve watched countless growth hackers cut their teeth on blackhat techniques. They’re basically SEO scientists in a garage lab, poking at algorithms until something breaks or works brilliantly. That kind of deep diving teaches you things about search engines that reading Google’s guidelines never will. If this stuff was allowed, imagine the creative solutions we’d see. Half my best whitelist tactics came from understanding how the shadier stuff works, if I’m being honest.
The whitehat world can feel like a content factory sometimes - everyone churning out the same “10 Best Practices” posts that read like they were written by the same AI. (Speaking of which, I just read my 47th “Ultimate Guide to SEO” this morning. Spoiler: It wasn’t ultimate.) Bringing blackhat into the light could shake things up, push some boundaries, make things interesting again.
Risk-taking is part of any good marketer’s DNA. We’ve all had those moments at 2 AM, hovering over the publish button, wondering if this strategy might tank our rankings. But those risky moves often lead to the biggest breakthroughs. Remember when everyone thought schema markup was sketchy? Now it’s standard practice.
In our dog-eat-dog business world, competition drives innovation. Legitimizing blackhat would open up:
- A whole new playground for tactical experimentation
- Fresh ways to outthink (not just outspend) the competition
- Opportunities for smaller players to compete with the big dogs
Let’s be real - Google’s iron grip on search means they make the rules, and we all dance to their algorithm updates. But if blackhat techniques were fair game, they’d have to step up their game too. Maybe we’d finally see some real innovation instead of just minor tweaks to core updates.
Here’s the thing nobody admits at SEO meetups: we’re all testing boundaries already. That gray area between white and black hat? It’s pretty crowded. Making blackhat legitimate would just bring all that experimentation into the open where we could learn from each other’s successes and face-plants.
The internet’s always changing (remember when keyword stuffing was totally fine?). Bringing blackhat out of the shadows could lead to better transparency. Instead of hiding our tests, we could share results openly. I’ve learned more from my failed experiments than from any “best practices” guide.
Some folks will panic about potential chaos. But remember when mobile-first indexing sent everyone into a tailspin? We adapted then, we’ll adapt now. With some smart regulation, blackhat techniques could evolve into something more ethical and innovative.
Change makes people nervous - trust me, I still twitch when I think about that major algorithm update that tanked my rankings back in 2019. But staying comfortable isn’t how we move forward. Maybe it’s time to stop pretending blackhat doesn’t exist and start thinking about how to harness its potential for good. Because if we don’t adapt, we might just find ourselves obsolete.