White hat versus Black hat

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SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques that search engines do not approve of. The search engines attempt to minimize the effect of the latter, among them spamdexing. Industry commentators have classified these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either white hat SEO, or black hat SEO. White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing.

An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see.

White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility,although the two are not identical.

Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.

Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether. Such penalties can be applied either automatically by the search engines' algorithms, or by a manual site review.

One infamous example was the February 2006 Google removal of both BMW Germany and Ricoh Germany for use of deceptive practices. Both companies, however, quickly apologized, fixed the offending pages, and were restored to Google's list.

Black hat versus White hat SEO

What is Black Hat SEO?

Jill and Bruce kicked off the debate by responding to this question. Bruce stated that both the search engines and clients decide what is white versus black. White SEOs tend to play in the middle, Greys at the edge and Black Hats out of bounds. He believes Black Hat techniques are truly defined by whether or not they hurt the client.

Jill defined black hat as a technique designed to trick the search engines into believing a site is most relevant. She further went on to state that legitimate businesses shouldn't need black hat techniques to rank.

What is White Hat SEO?

Matthew selected Greg, Todd and David to respond to this query. Todd began by polarizing the two sides, stating that anything damaging to a client is black hat while following Google's regulations to the letter is white. He then clarified his position, by saying that the true color of SEO actions depends on the vertical. If everyone in a given industry is using 'Black Hat' techniques, are they really Black Hat?

"White Hat is a code name for SEOs with no game," Greg said.

David contributed to this idea by comparing Black Hat techniques to a Porsche, whereas white hat techniques are very slow to see results. White Hats ensure all their tactics are within bounds, while Black Hats do whatever it takes to get links and high rankings.

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What is Search Engine Marketing?

Involves a combination of free website submissions and paid search engine listings, to ensure your website reaches customers using search engines to research purchase decisions.

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, and paid inclusion.[1] Other sources, including the New York Times, define SEM as the practice of buying paid search listings.

Why do you need Search Engine Marketing?

* 93% of users don't look further than the first 2 pages of search results. Most prefer to use another search engine rather than click past the first 10 results. How can your business succeed if you're not found there?
* 33% of users believe companies found in the top search results are a major brand in their specific product/service category. SEM raises your online profile and builds brand awareness.
* SEM has been proven to yield a higher Return On Investment in terms of generating more traffic to your website, qualified sales leads and customer acquisitions than any other marketing channel. Please inquire for relevant examples.

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What determines if a technique is Black Hat or White Hat?

It's pretty easy to determine is a technique being used is Black Hat or White Hat SEO. See the article Webmaster Guidelines from Major Search Engines for the links to the official Webmaster Guidelines pages for Google, MSN and Yahoo. These pages identify the methods that search engines prefer, and those that they discourage.