2. Some call it a question of ethics; others just call it
business. The discussion is raging online and in marketing
conferences around the world, but what exactly are black
hat SEO and white hat SEO, anyway?
3.
4. Black hat SEO, on the other hand, is the impatient
fraternal twin of white hat SEO. It utilizes techniques
specifically banned by search engines like hidden text and
hidden links. Some call this spam. Others call it business
savvy. Whatever you call it, if the search engine gurus
figure out your game then the gig is up and you're
blackballed. That means that you could type the name of
your company and your name and business address into
the search box and your site still won't come up.
5. It basically breaks down like this: White hat SEO focuses
on marketing and the text on a site, updating with
keyword rich, informative articles that benefit their clients
and build a solid following over time. Black hat SEO
focuses on technology and IT tricks to get a ton of traffic
right away.
6. The important thing to consider is what your goal is. Do
you want high traffic or do you want high sales? With
black hat SEO, you may get immediate results as far as
visitors to your site but do these visitors want to buy what
you have to offer? If not, who cares if they end up on your
site? White hat SEO is more interested in targeted traffic,
attracting the kind of visitors to your site who are actually
looking for you and are ready to buy your products or
services. Over time, your traffic and sales rise together as
you build up a following through word of mouth and
repeat customers.
7. So what's all the fuss about? Mostly, the rules. White hat
SEO follows them meticulously. Black hat SEO follows the
numbers instead. Those who take the time to research and
follow the rules are irritated by those who achieve high
search engine rankings without taking the same pains.
However, black hat SEO proponents point out that search
engine requests are hardly laws and therefore doing what
they like is far from illegal. It's in this discussion that the
white hat and black hat merge to become a grey hat.
8. In fact, white hat fanatics might charge that those who
write articles specifically to utilize keyword repetition are
manipulating the system and are dabbling in black hat
SEO. The less fanatical may point to links as a grey area.
Search engines don't want links on a site purely to drive
traffic. However, if links are related to the content on the
site, then that's okay. But what about those sites where
there are paid links that have nothing whatsoever to do
with the content of the site they grace? Paid links as
advertisements are white hat. Paid links purely for driving
traffic, black hat. True motivation of the webmaster? Grey
hat.
9. When it comes down to it, everyone who utilizes search
engines in hopes of gaining top rankings are going to use
optimization in order to climb to the top of those rankings.
If motivation is the only concern, then it is an issue of
politics that need not take up your time. Just know that if
you use technology, link farms, and other banned
resources that are designed purely to drive traffic and you
get caught, you will be blacklisted from the search engine.
If it's worth the risk to you, then do what you have to do.
The choice is yours.