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Glossary term: Black Hat
A controversial and difficult to define concept in
search engine optimization that ascertains that certain techniques are actually unethical. Black hat includes techniques such as
cloaking,
doorway pages, and
invisible text. While such techniques are contrary to search engine guidelines, are certainly risky, and may cause one to receive the
Google Death Penalty, it does not become a moral issue unless a company is not appraised of the risks of such techniques.At the extreme, some consider black hat to be anything other than basic content creation.The opposite of black hat is
white hat.