'Black Hat'Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) methods of optimising your website to improve its placing in the search engine rankings are heavily frowned upon, and heavily penalised by search engines when they are detected.

These methods include any trick used to try and trick the search engines into ranking a site higher than it should naturally be placed. For example, by creating a separate page that the search engines see and people don't that is packed with search keywords and no real content.

Legitimate 'White Hat' methods of improving search engine rankings include writing meaningful and useful content and link building from relevant, authority websites.