If you have a business with an online presence, then you have likely received a solicitation promising everything from the #1 rank on Google to doubling your online sales! Most people with business savvy can recognize that something is too good to be true, but when do you know when something good comes along? There are several reputable online marketing companies that have a solid history of results. Figure out how to perceive the distinction between good (White Hat), and bad (Black Hat) marketing organizations and realize being in the middle (Gray Hat).
Types of SEO:
White Hat SEO
White hat SEO is generally ethical in practice. White hat SEO utilizes techniques that are beneficial for business owners and search engines. The goal of white hat SEO is to improve search engine visibility using methods that the search engine deems “good”, with no deceptive mechanisms in play. The issue that people come across when they discuss white hat SEO is that it is a long process. While doing appropriate SEO, it can some of the time take a very long time for you to perceive any sort of result, and for most entrepreneurs, it is difficult to understand the advantage of these strategies at an opportune time. If you can see past the fact that it will be an ongoing process, you will start to see the great benefit of well-done SEO; more people viewing your content, sharing your content, and contacting you for information.
Consider white hat SEO like this: You are strolling behind somebody and you see them drop their wallet. You pick up their wallet and run after them to give it back to them. They may give you a small reward for returning the wallet, but it was the right thing to do.
EXAMPLE OF SOME WHITE HAT TECHNIQUES:
● Researching and determining good keywords with a high level of variance, including the short tail and long-tail phrases.
● Include targeted keywords organically in relevant spots on the page (page titles, headers, anchor text, etc).
● Adding new content to the site on a regular basis.
● Utilizing clean HTML, no shrouding, no concealed components, no jumbled content, and so on.
● Properly generate a site map that is readable by users and search engines.
● Get backlinks normally by giving significant substance to clients. Conceivably through connection trades, social media, or significant registries.
Black Hat SEO
Black Hat SEO is on the other end of the spectrum. It utilizes techniques that search engines actively determine are unacceptable. These techniques are intended to trick search engines into increasing your position in the results and generally have no long term benefit to the site itself. Often times black hat techniques will end with your site being penalized or even worse, totally removed from the rankings. Black hat will do whatever it takes to get to the top in order to market their lucrative product.
If the white hat is you returning the man’s wallet, a black hat would be taking the wallet and running away with it. You know it is not right but you do it anyway.
EXAMPLES OF SOME BLACK HAT TECHNIQUES:
● Keyword stuffing and overuse in the anchor text, metadata, content, etc.
● Utilizing concealed content to show the keyword all the more as often as possible (like this: on the off chance that you feature this content you can see it, however regularly you can’t!)
● Cloaking content (displaying different content to search engines than they do to users).
● Link farming — submitting your link to hundreds of similar “link farms” online that only exist to harbor more links and provide very little if any value.
● Spam! Spamming forums, contact forms, and other social media sites with links.
Also Read — SEO TIPS 2020 THE WAY TO IMPROVE SEO IN 2020?
Gray Hat SEO
Gray hat SEO falls somewhere in between the two; it’s not good, but it’s not necessarily bad either. White hat SEO observes the line and will stop before you get there. Black hat SEO just ignores the line altogether. Gray hat SEO observes the line but will tempt it often by just stepping over it.
When utilizing gray hat techniques you would do things that the search engines may not specifically disapprove of, but obviously aren’t “good” practices. In the wallet example, the gray hat SEO would pick up the wallet and take some of the money before returning it to the owner.
SOME GRAY HAT TECHNIQUES:
● Higher keyword density in content. Not necessarily keyword stuffing, but still enough to make it look unnatural to the user.
● Utilizing a similar content to distribute on different locales through spinning.
● Building low position links with directory farm and other “significant” however low authority pages.
● Purchasing links from a third party.
Originally published at https://www.apsguide.com on June 8, 2020.