White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO, What You Can Learn From Both

In the world of search engine optimization or SEO as the digital marketing world has come to shorten it to, there is what’s called ‘white hat tactics’ and ‘black hat tactics’. White hat SEO represents good, reliable SEO work while black hat SEO stands for risky SEO hacks that could penalize your site or if Google finds out you’re using these strategies could result in really bad consequences.

For years, black hat SEO was a serious problem. Spammy sites would use black hat SEO to rank high on Google, until the popular search engine started to get smart about it. Algorithms slowly adapted and nowadays many say there’s pretty much no such thing as black hat SEO. This is because if an SEO marketing hacker tries anything of the sort, Google will probably catch it. Unfortunately, there are still some who think they can hack Google’s SEO algorithms and that tends to put your site at risk.

The relationship between black hat and white hat SEO explained further

Black hat SEO wasn’t always considered ‘cheating’. In fact, black hat SEO strategies like blog comment spam were widely used. It was only once Google’s algorithms started to change and the company began to address SEO techniques they would no longer tolerate that black hat strategies became banned.

Today’s black hat SEO specialists try to find loopholes to exploit in the existing search engine optimization algorithms to get a higher ranking. Comparatively, white hat SEO specialist take a less aggressive approach focusing on how to satisfy the algorithm. A white hat SEO approach zeroes in on optimization on-site, keyword research, backlinks, high-value content, and more.

List of black hat SEO strategies

 Using duplicate content to elevate site authority and keyword use.
 Using invisible text and stuffing keywords to falsely elevate the value of a website page.
 Re-directing the user to another site or page unexpectedly or without reasoning.
 Obtaining links from sites with non-relevant content to boost backlinks.

List of white hat SEO strategies

 Creating unique, relevant content.
 Labelling images with keyword-driven captions, descriptions, and alt-text.
 Obtaining and including relevant links and references.
 Writing in complete sentences with good spelling and grammar.
 Using unique and relevant page titles.

Can you find SEO strategies that work?

Black hat SEO strategists built their reputation off of being ultra-aggressive towards achieving ranking. While there isn’t anything wrong with the approach, the means of achieving the result is where the controversy lay.

Don’t be afraid to spend money on SEO strategies that make money and which work. White hat SEO effective strategies in this vein include promoting content via organic links, investing in partnerships with micro-influencers, investing in digital ads that earn you links, and more.

Find high quality, relevant backlinks

Google SEO algorithms prioritize site authority. How to build site authority is through relevant backlinks. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher you will rank.

In the past, black hat SEO specialists would buy these backlinks instead of building them in reputable ways. Comparatively, the right way to find backlinks is to guest blog, do PR, build partnerships, ask others for backlinks, pitch newsworthy stories with a link back to your page, and/or listing your site on third party directories. All these satisfy the goal of getting you relevant links that demonstrate your site’s importance, quality, and relevancy.

Choose keyword research over keyword stuffing

Although it’s not done to the same degree as it once was, keyword stuffing would pack in the same keyword in content in the hopes it would rank a page higher. Instead of quantity, focus on quality. Complete your keyword research, and find short-tail and long-tail keywords you can sprinkle naturally throughout site content. This will yield far better results.

Finding the right SEO keywords involves not only making the right selection but placing them in readable, user-friendly content. Black hat SEO had it right when it came to the importance of keywords. Stuffing them in paragraph after paragraph though is a very weak strategy that will penalize your site. If you dare try it, we can guarantee it won’t lead to positive places. Choose quality keyword research instead.

Internal linking connects your website page by page

Google wants to see websites that link internally. This shows content organization in a way its algorithms understand. If you have pages you can connect, with relevant subject matter, link them. Build an interconnected web that encourages click-throughs.

Internal links are to be included on every page of a website, at an average rate of 2-4 per page. You don’t need to stuff them in or pack them in more than that. Just like you want with the placement of keywords, you want links to come off as a natural fit. If your web page looks like Wikipedia, you’re going to run into problems. You don’t need that many links! It looks like spam. Choose a smarter strategy.

Test your SEO campaign with measurable data

Digital marketing SEO is like a controlled experiment that needs to be measured and tested. Always test your campaign. You can’t simply go forward expecting something to work as expected. Sometimes they don’t, like it or not.

Some testing you may want to run include running two or three content marketing strategies simultaneously, changing linking strategies, using multiple keywords, or using split testing. Implementing analytics software, there’s a lot you can monitor in an SEO campaign. The more data you have on how users are responding to your strategy, the more justification you’ll have continuing with it or making a change.

Choose white hat SEO specialists in Unlimited Exposure. We’ll get you the same aggressive results that black hat SEO strategists once did. SEO is an organic momentum-driver for brands to find optimum first-page ranking. When you’re SEO compliant and being smart about the strategies you’re using, this is the first step towards success in this digital marketing category. Partner with Unlimited Exposure today.