If SEO is on your 2025 to-do list for your small business, there are few things you should know. For example, the difference between ethical SEO — and unethical SEO. With new online businesses started every minute, more and more marketers are claiming to be “SEO experts,” but their low prices and shady practices will do more harm than good.

What is “Unethical SEO” And Why You Should Avoid it

Unethical SEO, or better known as “black hat SEO” are tactics that violate Google’s spam policies and aim to manipulate Google’s search algorithm to get better SEO results. Unethical SEO practices may seem to help in the short term, but can damage your website’s SEO and reputation forever.

But, unethical SEO practices are not limited to things Google disapproves of, it also includes tactics and techniques that hurt others or intentionally misuse tools designed to help users and provide aides to those with disabilities.

To put it simply, you should avoid unethical SEO practices because they’re unethical and you’ll end up getting the opposite of the results you wanted, hurting your SEO performance in an often irreversible way.

Unethical SEO Practices You Should Avoid as a Business Owner

While there are thousands of black hat and unethical SEO practices out there, I wanted to share a few of the most common ones you’ll find being used and even sometimes recommended by shady SEO “experts.”

Here are some you should try your best to avoid as a business owner:

#1. Buying Backlinks

This is a huge issue in the SEO industry and one that’s easy to fall victim to. Paying for backlinks might be a tempting idea when you’re trying to grow rapidly, but buying backlinks rarely gives you the results you want.

Backlinks established this way are against Google’s spam policies and often build links to sites that have nothing in common with your own, meaning that any “reputation” or traffic gained that way wouldn’t help you anyways.

Instead, focus on building backlinks to your website naturally by publishing valuable content on your website or collaborating with others in the online space. One high-quality backlink is worth more than a hundred low-quality.

#2. Keyword Stuffing

Keyword stuffing is an SEO practice that unfortunately used to work — that is, before the algorithm and AI got smarter and began identifying the trend. Now, keyword stuffing, the practice of repeating your keyword and variations in your content and metadata in the hopes the page would rank higher, can end up pushing you out of search results altogether.

Rather than “stuffing” your keyword into every nook and crevice of your website, integrate your keywords and their variations naturally throughout your content and backend SEO settings.

#3. Abusing Accessibility Tools

Did you know that alt image descriptions are accessibility tools? Its to help screen-readers describe the content of the image to those with impaired sight. There’s an unethical SEO suggestion or “strategy” that suggests you use your alt. description to further push your target keyword.

Not only does this practice abuse an accessibility tool, it doesn’t work. Unless a keyword is added in naturally, it’s presented as spammy to the Google algorithm. 

#4. Falsifying Google Reviews

While positive reviews on your Google Business Profile can make a huge impact on your SEO, falsifying Google reviews can get your account removed and banned. In many jurisdictions, falsifying reviews is illegal and you’ll get a crackdown from the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). 

If you need more reviews, include it in your off-boarding process after work is complete. Encourage your clients to leave an honest review sharing their experience — the positive part is up to you and creating that experience.

#5. AI Generated Content

AI is not a bad tool to help you create content for your website, but if you’re relying solely on AI tools and chatbots, you can end up with scraped and/or plagiarized content that can be flagged by Google’s crawlers. 

Google doesn’t take duplicated or copied content lightly, and you shouldn’t either. If you’re having a hard time creating content or writing copy, outsource to an expert to help or shop a template from a trusted source.

#6. “Hiding” Keywords

Yes, you can hide keywords on your website, but it’s not recommended, which is why it’s included in this list of unethical SEO practices. Hiding keywords involves using text to put the keyword on your web page and then hiding it by placing it slightly off-screen or matching the text color to the background color. 

There are other methods, but no matter what the method, this practice can get you penalized by Google’s SEO algorithm.

#7. Misleading Redirects

A misleading redirect is essentially using a backlink or 301/302 redirect to point your user to somewhere they don’t actually want to go — or wouldn’t think they’re going based on the text/link they clicked on.

It’s used to manipulate traffic to make Google think that a page and/or website is more popular than it thinks and when more people visit a page, it’s more likely to show up in search results. 

But, Google can usually identify this type of black hat SEO practice rather quickly and the redirect that was helping you quickly turns into proof than you’re attempting to manipulate Google rankings.

Insead of forcing a misleading redirect, make sure that all of your web pages and content naturally interlink and connect — if not through true backlinks, at least through the information they contain and who they’re speaking to (like your dream client).

How to Grow Using Ethical SEO Practices

Black hat, or unethical SEO, is a tempting offer to many — it’s presumed to work quickly and the SEO “experts” offering it tend to do so at a bargain. As a business owner navigating the ins and outs of multiple marketing channels and investments, it can seem like the go-to answer, especially when you’re unaware of what goes on behind the scenes of these strategies.

But true SEO growth comes from using ethical SEO practices which focus on using strategies that place your website in search resutls in front of YOUR people. It’s providing value, knowing exactly what your dream clients are searching for, and showing up as the solution to their problem.

If you’re ready to grow your business using ethical SEO, I’d love to help. Apply to work together for an SEO Starter Kit or Website and SEO Audit here.