Black Hat vs. White Hat vs. Gray Hat SEO

Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing all have a singular goal: Return the best results for a user’s search. Therefore, each company constantly seeks better ways to identify the best answer to any given query. Answers to queries comes in various forms such as pictures, videos, products, articles, etc. Because of this, websites need to do everything possible to provide these different types of answers. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes into play.

Properly optimized content can take a regular or plain website and make it into something that gets user and search engine attention. There are multiple ways to have properly optimized content, however it’s important to follow the right rules. SEO strategies can be classified into three very different and distinct categories: Black Hat, White Hat, and Gray Hat SEO. These opposing categories help boost your visibility and online presence in different ways.

In this article, we will go over what these categories are, what they do, examples of them, and how Boostability can help your business with this through SEO.

 

Black-Hat Tactics

Black hat SEO strategies are known to be manipulative and unethical. Black hat SEO exploits a search engine’s algorithm and abuses the system in order to increase a website’s rankings through duplicate content, keyword stuffing, paid links, and hidden content. While these tactics tend to give a huge boost to rankings, the rank increases tend to be brief due to the advancement in machine learning and algorithm updates.

These are few examples of black hat strategies that tend to be used: 

• Duplicate content
  • Plagiarism or copying another article’s information without citing the source could be considered duplicate content.
• Invisible text
• Cloaking or redirecting to a page you do not own
• Links from irrelevant sites

In addition, when discovered, websites that implement such tactics can be heavily penalized by search engines. While utilizing black hat SEO can give your website a spike in traffic, it’s never beneficial to your website in the long run. You can find more information about the layers of black-hat tactics and the potential penalties associated in this previous blog post.

 

White-Hat Tactics

White hat SEO thrives in creative, social content. These tactics usually comprise content marketing, genuine connections with other sites owners, and a proactive and engaging relationship with your audience and customer base through social media. White hat SEO also involves technical aspects of your website such as accurate metadata, link building, and tags.

These are few examples of white hat strategies that tend to be used:

• Original content creation
• Linking to relevant sites
• Referencing information
• Standard and compliant site code
• Unique and relevant page titles

Opposite to black hat SEO, white hat SEO follows the rules and guidelines set to help boost visibility and online presence. White hat SEO requires time and patience, but it is certainly the safest and most effective strategy.

 

Gray-Hat Tactics

As with many things, there is a gray area in SEO. Gray hat SEO is a concept in which over-optimization or accidental duplication can occur. Gray hat SEO isn’t necessarily frowned upon, but it also isn’t praised. Think of gray hat as the neutral area where you can gain a presence fairly quickly with a potential risk of being penalized.

These are few examples of gray hat strategies that tend to be used:

• Cloaking
• Purchasing:
  • Old domains
  • Links
  • Followers
• Social media automation

These tactics can also include soliciting for guest posts and rehashing old blogs or information. Results can vary and be careful not to plunge into the dark side of SEO.

 

How Can Boostability Help?

At Boostability, our SEO approach offers white hat link building services. We do this in a variety of ways depending on what will provide the best results for your business:

• Business Profile Creation and Optimization: We make sure your information is up to date for your customers to have a better understanding and user experience. Without updated information, directory and citation building won’t have as great of an impact.
• Social Bookmarking: Also known as website bookmarking, social bookmarking helps increase brand awareness and promote valuable information regarding your business to a large audience.
• Outreach Services: We make sure to research your designated industry and go in-depth on creating a complete outreach strategy. This includes finding opportunities to contact high-authority websites, publishers, influencers and bloggers, community thought leaders, and more relevant places for your business and target audience.

There are many more white hat SEO link building services available through Boostability.

 

Conclusion

Search engines are always looking for the best information to millions of questions. You can help them by optimizing your website and content. Implementation of SEO tactics can vary depending on your strategy. White hat SEO may take patience and long-term commitment, but the results are quality and you avoid any penalization that comes from black hat tactics.

For professional SEO assistance, learn more about Boostability’s SEO services and how our white hat services can help improve your business.