White Hat SEO methods are the approved, natural ways of building traffic to your website which are well document in The Google Webmaster Guidelines. These techniques often make for a pleasant user experience, and more importantly, they follow the rules and regulation of search engines.
For example, a Web site that is SEO optimized, yet focuses on relevancy and organic ranking is considered to be optimized using White Hat SEO practices. Some examples of White Hat SEO techniques include using keywords and keyword analysis, backlinking, link building to improve link popularity, and writing content for human readers White Hat SEO is more frequently used by those who intend to make a long-term investment on their Web site.
Black Hat SEO
Some examples of Black Hat SEO techniques include keyword stuffing, invisible text and doorway pages. Black Hat SEO is more frequently used by those who are looking for a quick financial return on their Web site, rather than a long-term investment on their Web site. Black Hat SEO can possibly result in your Web site being banned from a search engine, however since the focus is usually on quick high return business models, most experts who use Black Hat SEO tactics consider being banned from search engines a somewhat irrelevant risk. Black Hat SEO may also be referred to as Unethical SEO or just spamdexing, as spamdexing is a typical frequently used Black Hat SEO practice.
The major difference between black and white hat techniques:
| Black Hat | White Hat | |
| Content and Links | Search Engines | Humans |
| Visibility to Humans | Hidden | Visible |
| Quality of Work | Hidden | Visible |
| Search Engines | Enemies | Nothing / Friends |
| Domains/Brands | Disposable | Cherished, Primary Domain |
| Site & Relevance | Apparently Improved | Actually Improved |
| Results | Yes, "Short" Term | Yes, "Long" Term |
| Ethical Techniques | No | Yes |
| Legal | No? | Yes? |
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