White Hat SEO
So, what is “white hat” SEO?
Do you 100% follow Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, playing only within their rules to get your site to the top spot in Google?
Then you practice white hat SEO. You wear a “white hat.”
“White hats do everything Google tells them to and play within Google’s rules (the Webmaster Guidelines). They are simple unimaginative people who can never rank as well as a Black Hat” – or at least that is what a black hatter might tell you.
However, this is not true.
White hats just love to play inside the rules of the algorithms.
They want to be far from the long arm of Google’s penalty team and their manual actions.
White hats love the challenge of playing within Google’s Webmaster Guidelines and getting big wins.
And, as any white hat can tell you, when you get those wins, those wins stick around – even if you stop doing the work.
Now, getting those wins usually takes longer for a white hat than it will a black hat, but once there the white hat SEO reaps the rewards of their work the gains aren’t usually going anywhere any time soon.
That is not necessarily true for black hat SEO methods.
Why?
Because white hat SEO is not going to be penalized by Google. Once rewarded by an update, it is not likely that will go away unless changes are made that affect those ranking factors.
Now, this does not mean it is better. Again, white hat is simply an SEO philosophy.
But, if done well, white hat SEO is at little risk of getting “hit” by a Google update or a manual action. This makes it much safer philosophy in general.
Is anyone really always pure white hat? Are there SEO professionals who follow Google’s rules 100% of the time?
In reality, virtually no one is really a white hat.
All effective “white hats” typically wear a hat that is some shade of grey. Some a little lighter or darker than others.
Black Hat SEO
So, what is a “Black Hat”?
Do you look for ways around Google’s guidelines to quickly position your sites?
Do you buy links?
Do you look for ways to get the algorithms to boost your site, outside of Google’s guidelines?
Then you’re using “black hat” SEO tactics. You wear a black hat.
Well, at least that is how you will hear some white hat SEO folks describe the black hats.
But is this fair?
No, it isn’t.
Do you know what black hats will tell you about that “SPAM”? It is just a “Site Positioned Above Mine” and you are jealous.
They might be right.
Black hats are SEO practitioners, too. Black hat is just a tactic they use that falls outside of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines in order to rank sites.
This is not without controversy, though.
Why is it controversial?
Because black hat techniques go against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. They can get a site hit with a Google “penalty”, which means that site might fall off an algorithmic cliff – literally overnight.
So unlike white hat SEO, there is an ethics component to black hat SEO.
Most people of all colored hats agree that you must tell your client about all the risks of using these strategies.
Meaning, black hat is a perfectly legitimate strategy – as long as the client knows what could happen when implemented.
Another reason for the controversial nature of black hat SEO?
Some mistake black hats for hackers. While, by definition, a black hat is breaking Google’s rules, they are not breaking any laws – unlike many hackers.
Black hats just use a different set of SEO tactics to get their sites ranked. Just ones that Google doesn’t like. Not ones that have men in black showing up at your door for a chat.
There are people who use SEO and hacking to promote their sites or attack competitors, but that is not in the scope of this discussion and not a strictly black hat SEO technique.
Although people who use black hat SEO techniques are often criticized and looked down on, due to the risks involved, there are times when a black hat approach might even be preferred to a white hat strategy.
Let’s say a client needs to rank a site for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, but they don’t come you until a few weeks before.
As a white hat, you would have to tell that client that you are sorry, but you cannot get a site to rank that quickly.
However, the black hat will tell you – sure! No problem. I will have you there before Thanksgiving!
So the black hat will build a microsite and get it ranking to help the company grab some of that holiday cash.
Just like white hats, black hats have their place in the SEO ecosystem as well.
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