It can often be tempting to try and attempt all the dirty and unethical black hat SEO tactics that your competitor so efficiently use to overtake all of your hard work. You work hard at reaching your goals by abiding to the rules of the search engines and you end up being a victim of your own making. Black Hat SEO methods are unethical tricks used by those to take the short cut way into the fast lane. And there are a lot of people in the trade that know how to do it effectively. So, what exactely are Black Hat SEO's?

Black Hat SEO tricks do exist, are being used and yes, they do work - only for the short term though. Black Hat SEO's use tricks that fools the search engines into believe that their sites are genuine and deserving of high page ranks.

Sooner or later, Black hat SEO methods gets discovered. They can be discovered by the search engines themselves or be reported by the competition. The punishment from search engines for these offenses? It can vary, but Google has become real strict over the last couple of years when it comes to black hat SEO tactics being used. Punishment can range from being 'sandboxed' or permanently banned from the search results.

As a responsible internet user, here is what you can do to counter these unethical black hat SEO tactics..

1. Watch out for Plagiarism: Keep looking out for sites that may have conveniently stolen content from your site and pasted it onto their own sites. It happens a lot, believe me, and it happens to just about everyone every once in a while. Check on copyscape. It's the best way to spot content thiefs.

2. Report any Black Hat methods you may come across: If you know of any sites or come across any that are using black hat SEO methods then it's your duty to report them to the search engines. Keep in mind that you may also one day be targeted by the sites that you let go unreported.

3. Never give in to temptations. Work your way up the ladder just like all the other honest people. If you try attempt things by taking the easy way, just keep in mind that Google is much smarter that what you are!