White Hat vs Black Hat SEO: Definition, Techniques, Analysis and Differences

SEO is of two branches they are On-page and off-page SEO. There are also two types of SEO they are White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO.

We are not going to talk about branches (off-page and on-page SEO) here – that is a talk for another day, we will be discussing extensively White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO. Or you can read from the articles below on different SEO.

• 8 Best On-Page SEO Techniques For Bloggers
• Google Stop Words List for Best SEO Practice
• 7 Effective SEO Tips People Don’t Talk About

If you are reading this and you haven’t come across the word Search Engine Optimization (SEO) before talk less about knowing the meaning of SEO and how to improve your SEO.

Then am afraid to say that you will need to go back and read our guide on the definition of SEO and 50 related terms to it and how to improve your SEO if not getting this guide might be a mountain to climb for you.

White hat SEO and black hat SEO both have the same target – to improve website performance on SERP (Search engine ranking pages).

The differences between the two are the processes employed in carrying out the tasks.

Without wasting much of our time let’s get back to the business of the day, this post seems to be very long already so we won’t want to increase the length and stress it further by wasting time here.

We are hoping that after reading this all the questions bothering your mind on white hat SEO and black hat SEO will be solved easily.

White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO: Definition, Deep analysis, techniques, and differences between the two.

What is white hat SEO?

White hat SEO encompasses all the legal processes taken to improve your website’s visibility on SERP.

In simple terms, it means optimizing one’s web pages for search engine ranking without transgressing search engines’ code of conduct.

If you want to rank for competitive keywords without getting penalized by search engines then you must work on your white hat SEO with effect from now.

Apparently, 55% of Search engine practitioners practice white hat SEO as it is the safest and you don’t have to risk the chances of getting banned (30 practice grey hat, and the rest practice black hat).

SEO has proven to be the best source of getting huge organic traffic for your website so getting banned will easily damage your chances of getting organic traffic.

Google clearly stated what to do and what to avoid about SEO here

What is black hat SEO?

On the other hand, black hat SEO refers to all the illegal(really ?) processes taken to improve your website’s visibility on search engine ranking pages, these sets of practices don’t focus on the human audience but rather focus on search engines using aggressive tactics.

They deceive search engine crawlers and are very harmful to human readers.

Since Search engine crawlers that crawl web pages are not human, some webmasters want to use this opportunity to rank higher by deceiving these crawlers with some harmful techniques to get their pages optimized for higher search engine rankings.

Practicing black hat SEO may attract a life ban which will be very difficult for you to remove this embargo and even if you don’t get caught you can’t build an audience with this set of unethical tactics.

Am sure of this because I’ve seen websites get banned for this before

Am not castigating those employing black hat SEO tactics, they have their reasons for doing it, and since they get the benefit they wish for — good for them!

• Images and video optimization
• Writing lengthy and original posts
• Meta keywords, tags, and description
• Heading tags
• Permalink structure
• Speeding upload time
• Interlinking posts within your website
• Natural backlinks and disavowing wrong links
• Addition of sitemap

What are some examples of black hat SEO techniques?

• Keyword stuffing
• Buying automated paid Links
• Plagiarism
• Useless, deceptive cloaking redirections
• Doorway pages
• Invisible iframes

Differences between white hat and black hat SEO

What is the intent of black hat SEO?

Well, this is hard to answer for me since I haven’t practiced it but at least I have the experience since I have seen bloggers practice this before and I know their reasons for doing this.

The main target of those who practice black hat SEO is to rank higher on Search engine pages without going through the normal procedure.

Most times, these techniques do not work for them though their websites are not safe at least they will get what they are looking for.

The hidden truth about this unethical approach is that websites engaging in black hat SEO simply behave like a thief who knows fully well that he may be caught one day but since he can afford “one square meal” a day he thinks stealing is the best alternative.

Many Black hat SEO practitioners employ these techniques because they can wait for their time, they want to beat every competitor within a few months but they don’t know search engine algorithms are fast changing.

Nowadays, it won’t take up to 5 months before search engines discover websites engaging in black hat SEO and penalize them.

Though you may rank for competitive keywords just have it at the back of your mind that “all days are for the thief but one day will surely be the owner” and “bush meat will surely catch the hunter one day”.

Heard of grey hat SEO somewhere but I don’t know the meaning and how to go about it so can you define it for me?

Search engines don’t really frown at grey hat SEO but we don’t know what the future will hold, algorithms can change will lead to cropping out grey hat SEO optimizers.

The grey hat sits on the fence that demarcates White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO.

It is neither harmful nor useful but can be harmful and useful depending on the way you use it.

Some SEO consultants regard grey hat SEO techniques as purchasing old domains, purchasing social media followers, etc.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of white SEO white hat SEO and black hat SEO?

Advantages of white hat SEO

➡️Safe
➡️Long term benefits
➡️Build audience
➡️Hard to rank if you can’t work hard
➡️Free
➡️Result is timely
➡️Fast Adsense approval

Disadvantages of white hat SEO

❌The result is not fast
❌Hard to rank if you are not patient
❌You may not make money that fast
❌Traffic may not flow in at the beginning

Advantages of black hat SEO

➡️Traffic will flow
➡️Fast ranking
➡️You may make money early from your website

Disadvantages of black hat SEO

❌Results will not be timely
❌Not safe and insecure
❌You can’t build an audience that will stay and be a regular reader
❌Adsense ban will surely hit you if you have one but if you don’t have AdSense you will never get approved

How does Google attempt to deter websites from using black hat SEO techniques?

Google attempts to deter websites using black hat SEO techniques by de-ranking or completely banning them from their SERP.

They are easily detected by the simultaneous release of Google Panda and Penguin search algorithms on websites that are developed for the main purpose of penalizing erring websites.

Can I combine white hat SEO with black hat SEO?

You must be wondering if you can apply some black hat SEO techniques with white hat SEO without really breaking the rules.

Yes, you can! But you have to use your head and know how to play your games.

Cut! When I say knowing how to play your games, am not saying you should be deceiving your readers, please.

What is trying to pass across is that you should pick the harmless part of black hat SEO like link building, stuff keywords, and writing lengthy posts, even when you plagiarise links to the source and get the owner’s consent.

Are you thinking the way am thinking? Don’t you think this will look like some sort of grey hat SEO?

RELATED ARTICLES

• SEO Glossary: Definition of SEO and 40 Terms Related to it
• Meaning Of Bounce Rate And How It Affects SEO
• 10 Important Google Ranking Factors – Best SEO For Blogs and Websites.
• 11 Reasons Why a Website May be Banned by Search Engine