Everyone that operates a website is well aware of the importance that search engines play in getting that site seen. In order to rank near the top of search engines, site owners will use a variety of different search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve their ranking.
There are a tone of ways to make that happen, but many of them are frowned upon by the powers that be in the search engine world. White Hat SEO techniques are the approved method of getting ranked, whereas Black Hat techniques are those that are met with disapproval. Let’s take a look at what falls under the brim of each hat to see which side your SEO efforts fall on.
There are three levels of importance found in each of the techniques: high, medium and low. Let’s start by looking at the factors that are of the highest importance for each of the techniques. When employing a white hat SEO strategy, the types of things that are considered an absolute must are having keywords listed in the title, tag, domain name, URL and more. You will also want to be sure that you employ articles and directories as part of your SEO strategy, whilst also making sure that you pages are filled with fresh, original content. Compare that to the black hat strategies where automated content, usually of questionable quality, is used, keyword stuffing is common, and frames are used within the pages of the site. These are all things that are considered a definite no-no by search engines, but which are commonly used to trick the system.
When you look at techniques that are of medium importance in an SEO strategy, you will see that white hat techniques usually have to do with how keywords are employed. That includes how often they are used and where they are placed within the text on your pages. Social bookmarking and press releases also fall into the medium importance category. On the black hat side of things, duplicate content is often used in this level, with much of that content lifted from reputable sites. Dynamic pages and an excessive amount of cross-linking are also considered to be of medium importance in black hat strategies.
When you get down to the least important part of a white hat SEO strategy, keywords are still the main focus. This usually applies to the density of the keywords being used, with users aware that overstuffing can hurt their ranking in the search engines. The only thing that really falls into the least important part of a black hat strategy is how frequently the content is changed within the site. Most site owners that go with the black hat method are quite content to put up duplicate content and let it sit forever.
Both strategies are likely to deliver results, but in order to really feel good about your SEO strategies, you really should be doing the right thing and donning the white hat.
