Black Hat SEO applies to a variety of methods used to improve a site or page's search engine ranking by means that breach the terms of service of search engines. Although black hat SEO is not illegal, it violates webmaster guidelines of search engines, and also violates the set rules, in other words. One must always be prepared to be penalized if committing to black hat SEO. While Black Hat SEO focuses on an easy win, it also packs an array of risks such as manual penalties and demoting due to algorithm updates.