White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO: What’s the Difference?

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, there are many misconceptions about what actually counts as legitimate SEO techniques, and strategies have proven to work overtime if you follow the rules.

Understanding what’s what when it comes to SEO best practices is essential to maintain your website’s integrity, online rankings, and visibility.

What is White Hat SEO?

White hat SEO is a strategy that follows the search engine rules. Google and other search engines set out different recommendations and guidelines in terms of quality content. In summary, implementing a white hat SEO strategy means you are adhering to the guidelines and rules search engines set out to make sure you are successful with your SEO strategy.
In addition, having a White Hat SEO strategy means you’ve created a long-term plan that doesn’t try to trick any crawlers and will withstand any future algorithm updates. Search engine optimization services that fall under the White Hat SEO includes:

• Quality, meaningfulness, and relevant content
• Fast site loading times
• Mobile-friendliness
• Using descriptive, keyword-rich meta tags
• Easy to navigate website

What is Black Hat SEO?

Black Hat SEO is the opposite of White Hat SEO. This means that you’re breaking the rules to earn higher rankings in a less honest way. While there is a possibility that you may increase your website rank in search engines, you’re doing so in a way that violates the search engines’ guidelines and terms.
More often than not, reputable internet marketing companies say that Black Hat SEO doesn’t work out in the long run as you’re unable to adapt to algorithm updates and may result in search engine penalties. Strategies that fall under the Black Hat SEO includes:

• Content Automation
• Cloaking
• Hidden Text or Links
• Link farms
• Keyword Stuffing
• Page swapping
• Duplicating content
• Blog or comment span
• Reporting a competitor (or Negative SEO)

Key differences between the White Hat and Black Hat SEO

1. White Hat SEO refers to the use of SEO tactics and strategies that focus more on the human audience as opposed to search engines. On the other hand, Black Hat SEO is a strategy that uses aggressive SEO tactics that focus only on search engines, not on human audiences.
2. White Hat SEO improves your website performance on search engine result pages (SERP) and maintains the integrity of the website. While Black Hat SEO is used by those looking for a quick financial return on their website.
3. White Hat SEO contains proper research, and well-optimized meta tags according to webpage, industry, and relevance. On the other hand, Black Hat SEO contains stuff and spam keywords to the on-page content to fool the search engine spiders and improve ranking.
4. White Hat SEO gains links due to quality content, while Black Hat consists of irrelevant backlinks.
5. White Hat SEO is used for long-term goals and benefits, while Black Hat SEO is used for short-term goals and benefits.

White Hat SEO is the best solution to creating long-term online credibility for your business. White Hat strategies such as quality content, on-page SEO, and keyword research will drive the right traffic to your pages, generate genuine leads for your business, and improve your ranking positively.
Taking the time to invest in your SEO strategy is critical in creating the online authority you’re looking for.

Unsure how to get started?
Withing Creativo, we have a team of marketing and SEO experts specializing in making our client’s websites climb to the top of Google rankings.
So, if you are looking to drive customers to your website and build your brand’s online presence, call us today.