Black Hat Isn't What You Think It Is

When I asked Craig to define black hat versus white hat SEO, his answer surprised me. Most people have it completely wrong.

"People always make the assumption that black hat in particular is like spam hacking. That's not what black hat is. People think mass spamming blog comments, mass pages, AI content - they see that as black hat. Now that's just stupid. That stuff doesn't work," Craig explained.

Black hat is more about bending the rules slightly or being creative with certain things. Like leveraging aged domains - if there's a website with 20 years of history and a backlink profile, why wouldn't you use that over a brand new website?

"If you start today, the chances are competition will be doing SEO for 10 or 15 years. What are you going to do to beat that guy? You can't match them for time. You probably can't match them for the budget that guy spent over the last 10 or 15 years. So you're going to have to leverage something," Craig said.

It's the same way we all entered this space and BS'd our way in. We didn't know what we were doing, but you can't tell the customer that. You have to leverage fake experience when starting out.

Black hat is about leveraging things and maybe deploying tactics Google says you shouldn't use. Google is a commercial organization trying to make money, and they don't want people manipulating their search engine. They're going to tell you things that lead you off the scent.

"They're never going to say guys here's how you manipulate my search engine. They're going to tell you any old stuff that leads you down the wrong path," Craig explained.

The Local SEO Reality Nobody Admits

Craig brought up an example that hit home for me since I work with local businesses. Let's say you're a one-man pest control business with a Google Map listing. Your competition might pretend they've got five locations with pin drops all over. The competition gets five times more leads than the guy playing the white hat game.

"Which one of them do you want to be? You've got food to put on the table for your family. If the other guy's doing it, are you just going to roll over and let them win or are you going to compete and play?" Craig asked.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. If that's what everyone else is doing and that's what's being rewarded, then that's what you do. If Google were officially clamping down on it, fine. But you're not going to sit there while competition has 20 or 50 GMBs cleaning up all the money.

"That is where the gray areas come in because people say that's immoral. I don't care what's immoral. I've got a family to feed and if that's my way to make money and generate leads then that's exactly what I'm going to do," Craig said.

The job is making sure you don't get caught by Google. People use the same business name, same phone number, and Google suspends those accounts. You need to be creative and cover your footprints.

When Gray Hat Makes Sense

I had to ask Craig about what I call gray hat tactics. I usually promote white hat, but I still recommend pest control companies get a GMB location even if they don't have anyone operating in an office - maybe just a location in a friend's back room.

Craig affirmed this is just bending the truth slightly. Even things like office hours matter. If you say you're only open from 8 until 4, when someone at 6 PM looks for you and your office isn't open, your listing goes down. Sometimes you need to make it look like your office is open 24/7.

"What's wrong with that? Telling a few porky pies isn't the end of the world," Craig said.

He emphasized you don't want to ruffle Google's feathers on your main business, but there's nothing wrong with starting a second website with a secondary brand that's more aggressive and black hat. You don't want to damage the bread and butter you're making.

Craig operates in the iGaming space where there are regulated and unregulated markets. Unregulated markets are casinos without licenses in certain countries, and their websites are blacklisted. You have to do churn and burn with multiple websites to get traffic or just let your competition do it.

"These things all have a time and a place to deploy these tactics. If you can go out and do good clean work and be honest and it generates you enough living, then you don't have to deploy those tactics," Craig explained.

A lot of black hat tactics are more relevant to competitive spaces like iGaming or adult niches. For pest control, just doing GMB stuff is enough because most guys aren't playing that same game.

The Reality Check on Competition

Craig put things in perspective about the home services industry compared to what he deals with.

"No disrespect to the home services industry, but people doing SEO in home services are not spending millions of pounds a year on marketing. In the gambling space they're spending that a month because the money that can be made. That's where the aggression, the cheating and the tricks come," Craig said.

In home services, you're only competing against other small businesses who don't even have the resources to get the consultancy to play those games. Some guys pay $5,000 a month for SEO, maybe some pay $50,000. Craig refuses to believe anyone's spending $50,000 a month on SEO in home services because they don't need to.

"It is competitive. It would be unfair to say it's like a shitty little niche that has no competition. But in the grand scheme of things, the level of tactics and knowledge from people working with those clients - you could pretty much get away with doing a good solid white hat job," Craig said.

The Warning About Playing Dirty

Craig shared a story about a friend who did lead gen with 2,000 GMBs. All he did every day was look through his GMBs to see how many got suspended. He'd lose 50 overnight, which was $10,000 worth of revenue gone just like that.

Craig told him: "I don't know how you can sleep at night setting up a business like that because that business is always doomed to failure."

All 2,000 GMBs were fake. Craig suggested he set up normal businesses for real instead of always cheating. If you can do legit lead gen or whatever you're doing in that space, that's the goal. You don't need to worry about things getting suspended.

"Sometimes it seems more interesting to be doing the dirty cheating stuff and people get excited by that, but comes a lot of stress with those tactics as well. If you can do it legit, it's always a lot better to do it that way," Craig said.

He also warned about working with client businesses. If you're doing black hat for another person's business with 10 to 15 employees, you're taking food off 10 other tables by cheating. It's not your right to cheat for someone else's business. If you're doing affiliate or your own stuff, play whatever game you want. But be very careful with what you deploy for clients.

"When Google comes down on you, they come down hard and it's hard to shake them off," Craig warned.

How Google Has Changed

Craig said Google has been getting more aggressive over the years. There are too many people doing SEO now and too many doing jackass SEO. Google needs to clean up the mess, so they're waiting for you to slip.

On a local level, we've seen a lot more accounts getting suspended. Google now does manual reviews asking for footage outside the premises. If there are 10 businesses listed at one address, it instantly goes for manual review.

"If you're going to do that stuff, pick a bloody business location that doesn't have 10 other businesses at it for goodness sake," Craig said.

Fake reviews used to work well. Recently we've seen lots of reviews disappear because Google deleted unused Gmail accounts that were rarely logged into. When they deleted inactive profiles, the reviews were wiped out too.

CTR manipulation used to work with tools like Micro Workers - traffic was traffic. Now Google looks at mobile proxies, GPS location of the device, and all this stuff to filter out the junk.

"So many people don't understand the mechanics of what they're doing and don't understand why it no longer works. CTR clearly still does work, just the way you're doing it is wrong. You've got to evolve your skills," Craig explained.

The GMB Hack That Keeps Coming Back

Craig shared something wild about GMB vulnerabilities. Years ago, there was a hack where you could suggest an edit to a competitor's GMB and change the business date to something in the future, which would close down their GMB listing. You could essentially shut down all competition.

Google patched that about two or three years ago. But about two months ago, it opened up again and you could do it again.

"For me, Google have got patches upon patches and sometimes when they do a core update, some of that stuff just starts working again. What worked two years ago may not work now, but equally stuff that people said no longer works two years ago may also work now," Craig said.

You have to test, tweak, and see what works for you. Google would never tell you that vulnerability exists, but it absolutely did happen. Craig was the one who reported it to Google to get it patched because he wasn't waking up every day checking his GMBs.

The Future Isn't Just Google Anymore

When I asked about the future, Craig said something that pains him as an SEO: it's not all about Google anymore.

"If you asked me this question 10 years ago, I'd be like it's all about SEO. Now when it comes to business, I'm like get traffic from Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, SEO, pay-per-click, newsletter, YouTube," Craig said.

Organic search is getting pushed further and further down page one to where everything else has been seen before you. You need to diversify traffic sources and strategies.

Can you manipulate YouTube easier than Google? Of course you can. That's where Craig sees things going - diversifying traffic sources instead of relying only on Google.

The AI Content Reality Check

When I asked about AI content, Craig didn't sugarcoat it. He's tried everything - even before ChatGPT, they used Jasper, and before that SEO Shaker for mass page spam.

Last year they launched a website with 1,200 AI-generated pages. They got good growth for three or four months, then it died. They couldn't recover it no matter what they did - took all content off, put real content on, built real links, everything.

"It's hard to recover because Google had just went bang, black mark right through your name," Craig explained.

He believes Google gives you the benefit of the doubt at the start, which is why it sometimes works for a few months. Then they catch it and you're done.

"I still think that human editing - I'm not saying don't use AI - AI is great for research, for structure, giving you an outline. But I do believe that human editing and stuff like that is really important," Craig said.

He uses AI but also runs content through Grammarly and other tools to check for AI patterns. If Grammarly can tell AI wrote it, Google can tell. He hasn't found a way to make pure AI out of the box stick for the long term.

The Natural Link Myth That Keeps People Broke

This is where Craig really challenged my thinking. He turned it back on me: Google says don't buy links, they'll reward amazing content with natural links. But for all the pest control and other websites I've worked on, have they ever gotten a natural link from Google because it's amazing content?

Basically zero.

"If you were to write a document on the JFK assassination and it was really interesting and insightful, I'm sure people would share and link to that absolutely. But for a plumber, a roofer, home services? Absolutely no it does not happen," Craig said.

His first five years in SEO, he believed in all that white hat stuff. He wasn't making much money, wasn't generating many leads. Then he realized no one's ever going to link to this stuff naturally.

"When it comes to link building, no matter what happens, you're buying it. It doesn't matter what you say," Craig explained.

There are tons of vendors across the world who simply sell links. Whether you call it an admin fee or outreach where someone says it's $100, you're still paying for the link. You could spend $1,000 reaching out to people, get one reply for $100, or just go to a link vendor with your $1,100 budget and buy the links directly.

You can buy a link on anything - The Washington Post, Entrepreneur, whatever. If anyone believes that's happening naturally, they're insane. Craig can show you where to buy them publicly.

"Google can't see the transaction. They don't know whether you bought it or not anyway. They've not seen the communication. So a link's a link," Craig said.

Everyone who's ever ranked a website has bought a link. Maybe they call it outreach and the guy asked for an admin fee. Maybe they took an editor out for dinner. You're paying one way or another, directly or indirectly.

When Citations Are Enough

Craig acknowledged that in some niches, citations might be enough to rank without buying links. You've probably got some local websites where you only did citations and basic PR blast and it's enough to rank.

"That's fine, absolutely fine. But be aware that website is in a real area that has no competition. Try do the same thing in New York and tell me that you don't need links - you ain't going to be ranking anywhere near page one," Craig said.

There are people who claim they ranked for super competitive terms without links, but when you reverse engineer it, they're lying. Craig gets why some people do it - if you want clients to think you're Mr. White Hat because you sell services, you speak in a clean manner. But don't outrageously lie.

Content and links are always super important. Technical is important, E-E-A-T signals are now in play, but the root source of SEO for many years has always been content and links.

How to Buy Links the Right Way

When Craig buys or sells links, there are quality checks. You can buy links for $10, $100, or $1,000. The ones that are $10 can still be DR90 but have 500,000 other links on them linking to porn and builder websites.

Craig wants links from websites that aren't spammed to death, actually get traffic, and are topically relevant. Don't just believe the DR - you can inflate DR of a website for $30 on Fiverr.

For pest control, topical relevance isn't other pest control websites. It's home services. Google doesn't categorize that specifically. A garden website, other home services websites - that's topically relevant. Another pest control guy is never going to link to you because they're competition.

"You want them to be topically relevant to the point where it's other home services," Craig explained.

The Rapid Fire Insights

One black hat tactic you'd never touch again? Craig couldn't answer this. Everything's on the table. Even if he messed something up, he learned from it and would try again doing it better. He likes trying weird stuff just for the hell of it.

Most underrated SEO strategy? Traffic. Whether it's a GMB, organic page, YouTube video, if you send traffic to it, you'll see a jump in rankings. People get stuck at position 8 on the map or position 5 in organic thinking they need more content or links. Send traffic to it - that's CTR manipulation.

One black hat move you secretly respect? Cloaking - showing Google one website, showing a visitor another. And taking advantage of aged domains. It's so simple and so effective.

SEO tool you can't live without? Ahrefs. DR can be manipulated, but when assessing whether a link's good, you need to look at DR, the links pointed to that website, the traffic. It's the most frequently used tool.

White hat tactic that's a complete waste of time? Hoping that Google will reward your amazing evergreen content with natural links. That's complete nonsense.

Will SEO ever be dead? No. You get people asking about Search Generative Experience and how to manipulate AI overview. Craig's played around with it and it works. We're always going to be manipulating something - whether it's ChatGPT, AI overview, YouTube. It might not be search engine optimization, maybe answer engine optimization, but there'll be people trying to get clients or themselves onto those top spaces.

My Main Takeaway

The biggest lesson from talking to Craig is that the white hat versus black hat debate isn't as simple as good versus evil. It's about understanding competitive landscapes and being willing to do what it takes to compete while managing risk appropriately.

Craig's definition of black hat as "bending the rules slightly" or "being creative" rather than spam and hacking completely reframed my understanding. Using aged domains, leveraging certain tactics Google says not to use, being strategic about GMB locations - that's black hat, not mass spamming blog comments.

The natural link myth hit hardest. I've been in this industry long enough to know Craig is right - home service businesses almost never get natural links. You're buying links one way or another, whether through outreach that ends with an "admin fee" or taking someone to dinner or just going to a vendor. Google can't see the transaction. A link's a link.

For local businesses in home services, the good news is you're not competing with people spending millions a month on marketing. You can get away with good solid white hat work most of the time because competition isn't that sophisticated. But when competition is playing dirty, you either compete or roll over.

The warning about client work resonated. If you're deploying black hat tactics for a client business with 10 to 15 employees, you're risking their livelihoods. That's not your right. By all means play whatever game you want with your own affiliate sites, but be very careful with client businesses because when Google comes down hard, it's hard to shake them off.

AI content works for three to four months then dies. Google gives you benefit of the doubt then catches it. Human editing is essential. Test everything because what worked two years ago might not work now, but what stopped working two years ago might work again after a core update.

The future isn't just Google. Diversify to Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, newsletters, pay-per-click. Organic search keeps getting pushed down page one. You need multiple traffic sources.

And the most underrated strategy? Traffic. Send traffic to your GMB, your organic pages, your YouTube videos. You'll see ranking jumps. People think they need more content or links when really they need CTR manipulation done right with mobile proxies and GPS spoofing.

Craig's been doing this for 23 years and has seen it all. His unfiltered perspective strips away the BS most SEOs peddle. Natural links are a myth for local businesses. Everyone buys links. Black hat isn't spam. And if you can make money doing clean white hat work, that's always better - but sometimes you have to compete with what competition is doing, and you better know how to do it without getting caught.

Want to learn more from Craig? Visit craigcampbellseo.com or search Craig Campbell SEO on YouTube where he posts more content these days than his website. Find him on social media under Craig Campbell SEO. Check out his link building agency at linksforyou.com. He also runs a private mastermind with two sessions per week helping other SEOs, which you can find on his website. If you're stuck with anything and he can't help, he can probably point you to someone who can.

Listen to the full episode to hear more of Craig's unfiltered insights on black hat tactics, link buying strategies, and what actually works in SEO versus what people claim works.