Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving a website so that it ranks higher in search engine results and attracts more organic (non-paid) traffic. Strong SEO Services increase visibility, drive qualified visitors, and fuel sustainable growth for businesses online.
Grey hat SEO sits in the messy middle between white hat (ethical) and black hat (clearly malicious) practices. Grey hat tactics often exploit loopholes or push policy boundaries. They may produce short-term gains, but they are risky in 2025.
Search engines, especially Google, have matured their spam detection and policy enforcement (including updates and clarifications through 2024 and 2025) and can now identify and penalize many borderline tactics more quickly than before. Relying on these strategies can lead to ranking drops, manual actions, or long-term brand damage.
This article walks through 10 grey hat SEO techniques you should avoid, explains why they used to work, details the risks and penalties, and offers safer white-hat alternatives you can use instead.
Quick note on policies and penalties
Search engines publish spam and webmaster guidelines that define forbidden behavior and give examples of what triggers enforcement. In recent years, Google has updated its policies to target reputation abuse and manipulative third-party content, and its spam updates (for example, in 2024) made detection of borderline strategies more aggressive. If you rely on risky tactics, you may face manual actions, algorithmic downgrades, or complete removal from organic search results.
1. Keyword stuffing in disguised forms
Keyword stuffing historically meant overloading a page with repeated keywords, often in unreadable ways. In 2025, the tactic has evolved into disguised keyword stuffing such as keyword-dense HTML comments, repeated keywords in microdata or schema in unnatural ways, keyword-loaded alt attributes, or generating long thin-content sections where keywords are mechanically inserted.
Why did it work before?
Early search engines relied heavily on on-page keyword signals. The more times a keyword appeared, the stronger the perceived relevance.
Risks and long-term harm
- Modern algorithms detect unnatural keyword density and context mismatches. The result is a ranking demotion for targeted pages.
- Keyword manipulation can compromise copy quality and user experience, leading to higher bounce rates and lower conversions.
- Manual actions are possible if the pattern appears to be deliberate manipulation.
White-hat alternative
- Use topic-focused content and semantic SEO. Write naturally, use related phrases, and answer user intent.
- Employ structured data correctly, but only to describe content honestly. Do not stuff schema fields.
- Optimize for entities and user intent rather than keyword frequency.
2. Private Blog Networks (PBNs)
A Private Blog Network is a collection of sites created solely to link back to a target site to boost its rankings. PBNs often reuse expired domains, spun content, and recycled templates to mask their purpose.
Why did it work before?
Google’s ranking algorithm historically weighed link volume and anchor relevance heavily. A network of sites linking to your site could inflate perceived authority quickly.
Risks and long-term harm
Google treats PBNs as link schemes. Once discovered, they can trigger severe penalties, including manual actions and de-indexing of the linking network and the target site. Recovering from a PBN penalty is often long and costly, requiring link removal or disavow, along with manual spam reevaluation.
White-hat alternative
- Invest in real outreach: editorial guest posts, partnerships, transparent sponsorships, and content that earns links organically.
- Create linkable assets: original research, tools, data visualizations, or compelling guides that real sites naturally link to.
3. Cloaking and sneaky redirects
Cloaking serves different content to search engines than to users, for example, showing spiders optimized pages while users see different content. Sneaky redirects send users to unrelated or promotional pages while search engines believe the destination is legitimate.
Why did it work before?
Cloaking allowed sites to present content that was easier to rank for while hiding sales or spammy content from human visitors.
Risks and long-term harm
Cloaking and deceptive redirects are clear violations of search engine policies and can result in immediate and severe penalties, including removal from search results. Recovery is difficult, and trust is harmed.
White-hat alternative
- Present the same content to users and search engines. If you have geo or device-specific versions, implement them transparently with canonical tags and hreflang where appropriate.
- Use server-side or client-side redirects legitimately, such as for moved content, A/B tests with proper annotations, or 301 and 302 statuses.
4. Manipulative guest posting
Guest posting has long been a legitimate tactic. It becomes manipulative when used only for links. This includes low-quality guest posts placed on irrelevant sites, repetitive author bios stuffed with keyword anchors, or networks of thin guest posts designed purely to pass link equity.
Why did it work before?
Search engines value backlinks. Scaling guest posting could generate many links quickly, lifting rankings.
Risks and long-term harm
- Google’s link spam policies penalize manipulative link schemes. If guest posts look like they exist just for links, both the host site and the author site can be penalized.
- Low-quality guest content also damages brand reputation and provides no real traffic or authority.
White-hat alternative
- Pursue high-quality, relevant guest contributions that genuinely add value to the host audience.
- Use natural author bylines and avoid keyword-optimized anchor text in author bios. Use brand or URL anchors instead.
5. Automated link-building software
Automated tools promise to build thousands of backlinks by mass-submitting to directories, comment sections, link farms, or scraping opportunities and posting automatically.
Why did it work before?
Volume could manipulate link signals. Automated scaling created a perception of popularity.
Risks and long-term harm
- Automated links are often low-quality and obvious to spam-detection systems. They contribute to unnatural backlink profiles and can trigger penalties.
- These links rarely send meaningful referral traffic and can waste budget and time.
White-hat alternative
- Use outreach automation only for workflow, such as finding prospects or templating outreach, but keep content personalization and relationship-building manual.
- Track link quality such as DA/DR, relevance, organic traffic, and referral potential, not just raw numbers.
6. Hidden text and links
Hidden text or links are content elements that humans cannot see, but search engines can. Examples include white text on a white background, CSS-hidden sections used solely to stuff keywords or links, or off-screen positioning.
Why did it work before?
Search engines would index the hidden terms, increasing perceived relevance without affecting user experience because users did not see the spammy content.
Risks and long-term harm
This is a classic violation of search engine rules and is likely to result in manual or algorithmic penalties. It constitutes deceptive behavior and undermines user trust.
White-hat alternative
- Use visible, helpful content and adopt progressive disclosure. For example, use “Read more” for user experience, but ensure content is visible to users.
- If using CSS to hide non-indexable technical content, such as structured data for non-visible UI, ensure it is purposeful and not for SEO manipulation.
7. Over-optimized anchor text schemes
This is the deliberate use of exact-match, keyword-rich anchor text across many backlinks, for example, “best HVAC repair” linking to a site dozens of times.
Why did it work before?
Anchor text was a strong relevance signal. Exact-match anchors could push a page to rank for those exact phrases.
Risks and long-term harm
- Search engines now consider anchor text distribution and context. Over-optimized anchors look manipulative and can trigger algorithmic filters or manual actions.
- A skewed anchor profile also looks unnatural to human reviewers and can lead to devalued or penalized backlinks.
White-hat alternative
- Aim for a natural anchor mix that includes brand, naked URLs, long-tail variations, and some descriptive anchors.
- Prioritize relevance and user experience over exact-match optimization.
8. Paid links disguised as “sponsorships”
Buying links but pretending they are editorial, or using sponsorships or advertorials while leaving links followable without rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” to pass PageRank.
Why did it work before?
Paid links could instantly add authority. Marketers tried to hide them to avoid detection.
Risks and long-term harm
Paid links that pass PageRank violate Google’s guidelines and partner policies. They are explicitly classified as link spam. Sites discovered buying or hiding paid links risk penalties. Transparency and correct use of link attributes are essential.
White-hat alternative
- If you pay for placement such as sponsorship or advertorials, mark links with rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” per guidelines and be transparent in the content.
- Invest in bona fide PR and content marketing that earns natural links.
9. Duplicate or spun content tactics
Duplicate content means copying whole pages or sections across multiple domains. Spun content uses automated rewriting to produce many slightly different versions of the same article.
Why did it work before?
Quantity sometimes confused early algorithms. More pages could look like more coverage.
Risks and long-term harm
Duplicate or spun content provides a poor user experience, is easily recognized as low-quality, and can lead to ranking demotion. Google’s systems now aggressively filter low-quality and duplicated content. The brand cost in credibility outweighs any temporary traffic bump.
White-hat alternative
Produce unique, audience-focused content. When republishing is required, use canonical tags and provide added value such as commentary, localization, or expanded analysis.
10. Fake reviews and testimonial generation
Generating fake positive reviews on review platforms, fabricating testimonials, or paying for testimonial placements that are not genuine.
Why did it work before?
Positive social proof can influence conversions and local SEO presence. Fake reviews attempted to shortcut reputation building.
Risks and long-term harm
- Review platforms and search engines have increasingly strict detection and penalties for fake reviews. Businesses can be removed from listings or face public backlash. Fake reviews are also legal and reputational risks in many jurisdictions.
- Even if rankings benefit briefly, customer trust is lost when fakes are exposed.
White-hat alternative
- Encourage genuine customer reviews through follow-up emails and great service.
- Use review generation tools ethically and respond to both positive and negative feedback transparently.
Grey Hat vs White Hat vs Black Hat
White Hat SEO
It focuses on long-term relevance and user value. The goal is to provide helpful content, natural link building, and correct implementation of SEO practices like schema markup.
The risk level is low, and the outcome is sustainable rankings with steady growth.
Grey Hat SEO
They lie in the middle. It aims for short-term gains by stretching or bending search engine guidelines without outright breaking them.
Examples include private blog networks, borderline paid links, and aggressive anchor text optimization.
The risk level is medium to high, and the outcome is often volatile results that can quickly lead to penalties if search engines catch on.
Black Hat SEO
It directly violates search engine rules in pursuit of fast results. Common examples include cloaking, hidden text, malware distribution, and automated spam link building.
The risk level is very high, and the outcome often involves severe penalties such as complete de-indexing, loss of rankings, and even reputational or legal consequences.
Also Read: White Hat vs Black Hat Link Building: What Really Works Today
How to spot if your site has been affected by grey-hat fallout
Look for:
- Sudden organic traffic drops in Google Analytics
- Manual actions notification in Google Search Console
- Unnatural backlink spikes from low-quality sites
- Removal from or demotion in local listings or review platforms
If you suspect an issue, perform a site audit, run a backlink analysis, and file a reconsideration request only after remediation. Search Engine Land and other authoritative guides provide recovery workflows for penalties.
Replace grey hat with durable tactics
- Audit: Run content and backlink audits quarterly
- Content: Invest in cornerstone pages, original research, and content hubs
- Links: Target relevance and editorial context over volume
- Attribution: Use rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” for paid placements
- UX: Improve on-site engagement signals such as fast load times, clarity, and accessibility
- Reviews: Implement legitimate review solicitation and reputation management
- Monitoring: Use Google Search Console, analytics, and third-party tools to detect anomalies early
Also Read: How to Identify and Remove Toxic Backlinks Safely
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is grey hat SEO, and how is it different from white hat and black hat SEO?
Grey hat SEO refers to techniques that fall between ethical (white hat) and unethical (black hat) practices. Unlike white hat SEO, it pushes the boundaries of search engine guidelines. Unlike black hat SEO, it is not outright malicious, but it still carries significant risks of penalties.
2. Why should I avoid grey hat SEO techniques in 2025?
Search engines, especially Google, have enhanced their spam detection with new policy updates. Techniques like PBNs, cloaking, and keyword stuffing are easier to detect and can lead to penalties, ranking drops, or even de-indexing.
3. Do grey hat SEO methods still work in the short term?
Some grey hat methods may produce quick results, but they are unstable and temporary. Search engines continuously roll out algorithm updates, which means short-term gains often turn into long-term losses once penalties hit.
4. What are the biggest risks of using grey hat SEO strategies?
The main risks include algorithmic penalties, manual actions, brand credibility loss, wasted resources, and, in extreme cases, complete removal from search results. These consequences can take months or even years to recover from.
5. How can I tell if my SEO agency is using grey hat tactics?
Warning signs include promises of “instant rankings,” suspiciously fast backlink growth, reliance on PBNs, or offering paid link schemes disguised as sponsorships. Always ask for transparency and check whether their practices align with Google’s guidelines.
Conclusion
Grey hat SEO techniques may deliver fast results in the short term, but the costs, from algorithmic penalties to reputational damage, are real and escalating in 2025. Search engines are more sophisticated, policy enforcement is clearer, and users reward quality and transparency. The best strategy is to build authority the right way: produce high-quality content, earn links through relationships and value, and prioritize user experience.
If you want help auditing your backlink profile, cleaning up risky tactics, or building an ethical, results-driven SEO and link-building program, Link Building Guru specializes in sustainable strategies that protect your brand and rankings. Visit our services page or contact us for a custom audit and roadmap.