Exploring Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO Tactics and Techniques
As we explore the world of Search Engine Optimization, there are a number of aspects that need to be kept in mind for better outreach. There are associated with a number of proven techniques that make the SEO tactics actually work for you. Among these distinctions within various techniques of SEO, getting to know about White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO is quite important.
On a broader term, just like movies of the 1920s, the Black Hat and Ethical SEO refer to the good and bad techniques within the SEO practices.
What is Ethical SEO?
White Hat or Ethical SEO refers to the techniques that often align with the search engine terms of services and result in improving the Search Engine Result Page’s ranking. It’s all about employing strategies that help you in rather challenging the search engine rules and focus more on understanding and adjusting as per the human behavior.
A more authentic definition of Ethical SEO would be that it follows the Google Webmaster Guidelines, which are the rules regarding the optimization of a site or content on its search engine. Hence those content or sites that do not manipulate Google’s algorithm or play with the SEO rules are said to be following the Practices of Ethical SEO.
Moreover, this particular SEO technique focuses on employing practices that are aligned with human interests. Easy navigation, better loading times and well-versed content often constitute the steps taken to please humans and even create a positive user experience as well. Hence, the following SEO practices regarded as Ethical often lead to long-term impacts with targeted ranking on SERP.
Techniques for White Hat SEO
There are a number of SEO techniques falling under the Ethical category that play a major role in siting your content higher on SERP. Some of the basic Ethical SEO techniques are as follows:
1. Quality & User-intended Content
Content is always the King and often is one of the major ranking factors when it comes to search optimization. However, it’s not all about writing relevant and standardized content. There are a number of factors that allow you to rank your content higher, as follows:
· Length of the Article
· Keyword Distribution
· Topic of the Article
· Backlinks within Article
· Age of the Article
Furthermore, focus on whether or not the user is getting satisfied with your content. Try to work on a single niche and analyze user data as to what they want to know more about. Keep up with the trends!
2. Responsiveness and UX Layout
Your website must be responsive enough to fit within any device user is using to access it. The emphasis on mobile responsiveness by Google was initiated back in 2016 and hence, Google came with proper guidelines as to how the content should look on the mobile interface.
Moreover, if the site is not well-responsive, the user will not be able to view the content properly and will suffer in the end. To check your site’s responsiveness, there are a number of tools available. Also, your site must have a UX outlook that allows users to easily navigate through the site easily.
3. Google Business Account
In order to enhance the chances of your business or website, you need to create a Google Business account. It will allow the Google algorithm to state your address and other credentials with every related search query. Most of smartphone searchers tend to find a business that is ‘near to them’.
Similarly, focusing on localization allows you to attract more customers within your own locality and hence, achieving better SERP ranking.
Some of the other SEO practices falling under White Hat worth mentioning are stated as below:
· Keyword Research
· Content Marketing
· Website Schema Markup
· Quality Backlinking
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat Search Engine Optimization is a series of tactics employed to enhance SERP rankings, however, these tactics are unethical and often violate the Google Search Engine rules & regulations. In other words, it is the complete opposite of Black Hat SEO. Black Hat SEO techniques often focus more on the Google Search rankings instead of human behavior.
Black Hat SEO techniques is employed by those who focus on rather short-term quick results as it violates search engine guidelines such as keyword stuffing. Moreover, it uses manipulative tactics and plays with the Google algorithm as well to improve the rankings and attract more traffic.
Instead of focusing on the long term perspective, the Black Hat SEO technique rather works through quick wins by exploiting Google algorithms. However, the results produced will be shorter terms as Google tends to update its algorithm with the passage of time. Hence, Black Hat SEO tends to allow you to lose the ranking earlier due to its short-term results.
Black Hat SEO Techniques
There are a number of Black Hat SEO techniques that can be employed to achieve short-term results. Some of the most-used tactics are as follows:
1. Paid Backlinking
One of the most commonly used tactics by the Black Hat SEO practitioners is to use a paid link. This allows them to achieve better page ranking and even buying the paid links often lead to better SEO rankings. Once the transaction is initiated, no one bothers about the quality of content really. Furthermore, the practitioner often chooses anchor text that aligns with customer interests. These both manipulative tactics often play with the Google algorithm and often leads to better SERP ranking and are, therefore, considered one of the top class Black Hat SEO tactic.
2. Content Duplication
Now as the name suggests, it is otherwise a fancy name for ‘copy and paste’ term. This often involves copy and pasting the content from different sources and they often tend to look alike. Search engines though prefer unique content and this practice is often termed as one of the Black Hat SEO techniques. If you get similar results on Google search or any other search engine, it will often be indicated by Google algorithm manipulation. Furthermore, duplicate content is crucial not only across multiple domains but also in one domain.
3. Spam Comments
Spam comments are often associated with Black Hat SEO techniques and often associated with free backlinks. The links gained through these methods are often unfollowed ones and even lead to no transfer of SEO. However, still it is one of the most used Black Hat SEO techniques and is often implemented with the help of multiple tools available on the world wide web.
Some of the other Black Hat SEO tactics are mentioned as below:
· Article Spinning
· Doorway Pages
· Cloaking
· Keyword Stuffing
· Invisible Text
What are the Consequences of Black Hat SEO?
Though as astounding it may sound, there are a number f harsh consequences and penalties associated with the Black Hat SEO techniques. Often the process may lookout like a clever practice, however, they are quite harmful in the long run. Unethical practices wherever applied, be it in SEO practices, often can lead to lowering the ranking and overall reputation of the site. Since Google tends to alter its algorithm settings with the passage of time, the ranking achieved through Black Hat SEO may often no more be applicable.
The penalties associated with Black Hat SEO include lower-ranking, losing the source of revenue and the traffic and an overall bad reputation within the online realms. Moreover, the expenditure on recovering the lost traffic or reputation might quite exceed the initial investment and may take a lot of time in the process of recovering. Moreover, no one can ever guarantee if the losses will be fully recoverable or not.
Lower the ranking, lower will be the user engagement, and more will be the financial repercussions. For e-commerce stores, the loss can be inevitable and will lead to a loss in sales. For SMEs, losing the online engagement and reputation will directly affect their overall reputation and can lead to their bankrupting as well. Even, those practices have been employed by Fortune 500 as well and they have consequently suffered the most in the result as well.
