Difference between White Hat and Black Hat SEO
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Specifically speaking, black hat SEO refers to the use of aggressive SEO strategies, techniques and tactic that focuses only on search engines and how they rank websites. They aim to cheat the system so that they can rank faster and better.
Some examples of black hat SEO techniques include keyword stuffing, invisible text, doorway pages, adding unrelated keywords to the page content or page swapping, which refers to changing the webpage completely after it has been ranked. These strategies do not work for long and are often always caught, as the search engines are often optimizing their algorithms, which negate the work of Black Hat SEO.
Black Hat SEO is often used by people who want to make fast money, rather than actually develop a website or brand. Black Hat SEO focuses on getting the website ranked as fast as possible, as high as possible, and to make as much money as possible, before Google catches on and changes its algorithm. People who aggressively utilize Black Hat SEO may also find themselves getting removed from the search engine rankings completely, or getting blocked from AdSense and Adwords if they utilize those. Also, this ban could be for a lifetime as there is no guarantee that they will ever relist the offending website.
Grey Hat SEO refers to SEO strategies which utilize a combination of white hat and black hat SEO practices. While this may sound like a good bet, i.e. the best of both worlds, it is still not recommended, because black hat strategies are still black hat strategies, even if they are used in combination with white hat strategies. If caught using any black hat techniques, even one may result in a negative impact on the ranking and may even lead to getting banned, which will negate all of the effect of the white hat SEO techniques.
Comparison between White Hat and Black Hat SEO:
White Hat SEO | Black Hat SEO | |
Description | Legal and Ethical SEO strategies that help a webpage get ranked in search engines | Unethical SEO strategies that help a webpage get ranked in search engines |
Also known as | Ethical SEO | Unethical SEO or spamdexing |
Purpose | To improve the webpage’s ranking in search engines | To improve the webpage’s ranking in search engines |
Legality | Ethical and supported | Unethical and frowned upon |
Term | Long Term Goals and Benefits | Short Term Goal and Benefits |
Focus on | Growing and connecting with a human audience, as well as creating a brand | Search Engines and how they rank websites. |
Strategies | Using keywords and keyword analysis, backlinking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers. | Keyword stuffing, invisible text, doorway pages, adding unrelated keywords to the page content or page swapping |
Risks | No risks | Getting banned from search engines |
Reference: Webopedia (SEO, White Hat SEO, and Black Hat SEO), Positionly, SEJ Image Courtesy: shannonksteffen.com, utahseopros.com
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