White Hat Vs Black Hat SEO, Which is Better?
Every company owner who has a website would like it to show up on the front page of Google, that is unless they are running an unethical or borderline business they want hidden. The question then is, how to push more traffic to a website?
There are many ways to advance in the search engine rankings but not all of them are good. Some can produce quick, profitable results but end in a rapid decline in profitability and others might take longer but the slow build-up will bring much longer results.
Here are two different ways to improve your SEO and the advantages and disadvantages of doing so.
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimization) involves fine-tuning your website. You have a solid-looking website that can provide all the functionality you require but it isn’t drawing in visitors, converting them to sales, or ranking high on Google searches. That means you need to optimize it so a specialist would perform keyword analysis, optimize images, improve the user experience and the content.
If done properly this would help to improve the SERPs and you would see an increase in traffic and sales. The question is how do you find the right person to do this and what tricks will they use?
Why all these colored hats?
It is said that the reason people talk about hat colors is because of the westerns and the good and bad guys. Hollywood always made a clear distinction between the guys wearing black and the ones in white. However, things have become a little more unclear in modern times.
There are maybe six colors now associated with hackers including white and black. These are listed below:
- White hat – an ethical hacker
- Black hat – malicious hacker
- Gray hat – somewhere in between
- Green hat – an inexperienced hacker
- Blue hat – hacking for revenge
- Red hat – vigilante
While it is interesting that these hackers are involved for different reasons, the two main ones are still the white and black hats.
What is White Hat SEO?
After hearing about hackers and thinking of all the mystique it might sound boring to say that White Hat SEO is just standard techniques to make your website or network run better. A white hat works in cybersecurity and helps to promote ethical work practices. This means taking a long-term view of your website and will work hard to make sure your business fits the metrics that Google looks for.
A white hat’s work can take a lot of time and effort but they have your best interests at heart. They follow respected guidelines and over a period of time it will pay off because their work is aimed at humans and not bots or quick fixes.
What is a Black Hat SEO?
Things get a bit murkier when you ask what is a Black Hat? Black hats don’t follow the rules. It might sound fun to disregard guidelines and go rogue but when your business is at stake the long-term implications can be catastrophic.
Black hats aren’t looking to make your audience engage with the website they are trying to manipulate Google into pushing a website up the rankings quickly. A black hat looks for loopholes and then exploits them. A client may be happy at first but ultimately their website will tank especially when Google updates their metrics and algorithms.
Can they both be used for good?
White hat SEO techniques can certainly professionally improve legitimate websites, but black hat is different. Possibly, someone could use black hat techniques to take down a website that was illegal or to damage a business that was disreputable but generally black hat SEO is used for a fast result with no care of the user or long-term damage done.
What should you use for your business?
If you still aren’t convinced or you are thinking about a quick fix then consider the ways that white hat and black hat operators work when it comes to SEO.
White hats will make relevant content, use alt tags, optimize images and use relevant links.
A black hat will duplicate content, use irrelevant links, keyword stuffing, cloaking, and generally break the rules with content farms.
Summary
If you want your website to appear on the first page of Google or any search engine then following the rules is vital. In 2021, new metrics are being introduced, and with RankBrain, Core Web Vitals, and the user’s experience being judged by Google it will be harder than ever to cheat the system.
If you are considering taking a shortcut to the top of the search results then think about the long-term damage that could be done to your business. Black hat vs white hat SEO sounds intriguing but in the end, there is only one winner for making your site show up on relevant search queries.