Search engine optimisation has changed massively over the years, but the early days of SEO were almost like the Wild West of the internet. Long before sophisticated algorithms and AI-powered ranking systems, websites could climb to the top of Google using tactics that would seem ridiculous — or even completely unethical — by today’s standards.

Some of these tricks were clever loopholes. Others were outright spam. Amazingly, many of them worked extremely well for years before search engines cracked down on them.

Here are some of the most shockingly bad SEO techniques that once helped websites rank at the top of Google.

1. Hidden White Text on White Backgrounds

One of the oldest SEO tricks involved stuffing pages with massive lists of keywords and then making the text invisible by colouring it white on a white background.

Visitors couldn’t see the spam, but search engines could read it perfectly.

A website selling shoes might secretly contain hundreds of hidden phrases like:

• cheap trainers
• best running shoes
• discount shoes online
• buy sneakers cheap

At the time, this often boosted rankings dramatically.

2. Keyword Stuffing Beyond Belief

Modern SEO encourages natural language, but years ago, websites ranked simply by repeating keywords over and over again.

Some pages sounded completely absurd:

“Cheap holidays are the best cheap holidays for people seeking cheap holidays online.”

The more times a keyword appeared, the more relevant search engines believed the page was.

Eventually, Google became smart enough to detect unnatural repetition and began penalising sites for it.

3. Doorway Pages

Doorway pages were low-quality pages created solely to rank for specific keywords and redirect visitors elsewhere.

For example, a business might create dozens of nearly identical pages targeting:

• plumber London
• London plumber
• plumbers in London

Users often landed on useless pages that instantly redirected them to a completely different website.

4. Buying Thousands of Backlinks

Today, backlinks still matter enormously, but quality matters far more than quantity.

In the past, companies bought huge bundles of backlinks from spammy directories and low-quality websites. You could literally purchase “10,000 backlinks for £20.”

And bizarrely, it often worked.

Google’s later algorithm updates targeted these artificial link schemes aggressively.

5. Link Farms

Some website owners created massive networks of websites whose sole purpose was linking to one another.

These “link farms” existed only to manipulate rankings.

Entire industries emerged around building fake blog networks filled with meaningless articles designed purely to generate backlinks.

6. Exact Match Domains Were SEO Gold

Years ago, owning a domain like:

• bestcheapcarinsuranceonline.com

could almost guarantee strong rankings for that search term.

Google once placed huge importance on exact keyword matches in domain names.

Today, branding, trust, and authority matter much more.

7. Comment Spam Everywhere

Old internet forums and blog comment sections were flooded with spam like:

“Great post! Visit my website for cheap watches!”

These comments often included backlinks that helped rankings.

For a while, SEO spammers automated this process and blasted millions of comments across the web.

8. Article Spinning

Article spinning involved taking one article and automatically replacing words with synonyms to create “new” versions.

For example:

• “cheap holidays” became “low-cost vacations”
• “best hotels” became “top accommodation”

The results were often unreadable nonsense, but search engines struggled to detect duplicate content at the time.

9. Fake Local Listings

Businesses once created fake addresses in cities they didn’t actually operate in just to rank in local search results.

Some companies listed mailbox addresses, virtual offices, or entirely fabricated locations.

Google has since become far stricter about verifying legitimate local businesses.

10. Invisible Tiny Links

Some websites hid links using microscopic font sizes or placed them far off-screen using code.

These hidden links passed ranking power without users ever noticing them.

11. Copying Entire Websites

In the early days of SEO, some websites simply copied successful competitors word-for-word and outranked the original content.

Duplicate content detection was far weaker than it is today.

12. Meta Keyword Abuse

Meta keywords once carried real ranking weight. Website owners stuffed hundreds of terms into the meta keyword tag, including unrelated trending topics.

A random business site might include celebrity names or viral phrases simply to attract traffic.

Google eventually stopped using the tag entirely because abuse became so widespread.

13. Fake Traffic Bots

Some site owners used automated bots to imitate visitors, hoping search engines would interpret the traffic as popularity.

Modern search engines are much better at detecting artificial engagement patterns.

14. Massive Footer Spam

Some websites stuffed their footers with giant blocks of keyword-rich links.

You’d scroll to the bottom of a page and find endless lists like:

• cheap flights
• cheap hotels
• cheap holidays
• cheap travel deals

all linking internally.

15. Cloaking Content

Cloaking involved showing one version of a webpage to search engines and a completely different version to users.

A page might appear relevant to Google while actually displaying spam, ads, or unrelated products to human visitors.

This became one of the most heavily penalised black-hat SEO tactics.

16. Auto-Generated Gibberish Pages

Some websites generated thousands of meaningless pages automatically using software.

These pages barely made sense grammatically but contained huge amounts of keywords.

At the time, sheer volume alone sometimes generated traffic.

17. Fake Review Manipulation

Long before review moderation improved, businesses flooded review platforms with fake positive reviews to influence rankings and consumer trust.

This tactic still exists today, but platforms have become much more aggressive about detecting suspicious activity.

18. Reciprocal Link Obsession

There was once a period where websites constantly exchanged links purely for SEO value:

“Link to me and I’ll link to you.”

Entire pages called “Links” existed just for trading backlinks.

19. Over-Optimised Anchor Text

SEO professionals once aggressively used exact-match anchor text everywhere:

“best personal injury lawyer London”

repeated across hundreds of backlinks.

Today, unnatural anchor text profiles trigger penalties.

20. Some Black-Hat SEO Experts Made Fortunes

Perhaps the most surprising fact is that many of these tactics were incredibly profitable before search engines evolved. Entire businesses were built on exploiting loopholes in ranking algorithms.

But over time, search engines became dramatically smarter, prioritising quality, authority, trust, and user experience over manipulation.

Times Have Changed

The history of SEO is full of strange loopholes, spammy experiments, and shocking tactics that genuinely worked for years. What once helped websites dominate search results would now likely destroy their rankings overnight.

Modern SEO on Google is far more sophisticated. Instead of gaming algorithms with tricks and shortcuts, long-term success now depends on creating valuable content, building trust, improving user experience, and earning genuine authority.

Still, looking back at the chaotic early days of SEO is a fascinating reminder of just how much the internet has evolved.