Black Hat and White Hat SEO
We usually say that the world is at our fingertips today. The technology has opened the door and provided the opportunity for limitless access. Therefore, people do search a lot more on the internet now than ever before. The researchers have found out that nearly 93% of all web traffic comes through search engines. Furthermore, it is said that Google processes 2 trillion searches a year, which can be most likely to increase in amount.
So it is essential to get to know what makes you or your organization to be one of the top search results. This is where the concept of SEO comes in. Search Engine Optimization or SEO simply means the process of improving the site to increase its visibility. So these SEOs work by using bots in the search engines to crawl the pages of the web.
Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO are well-known approaches for Search Engine Optimization. As it is vital to appear in higher search engine results for the sustainability and growth of the business, people tend to go with both right and wrong ways of doing search engine optimization.
What is White Hat SEO?
Normally, the White Hat SEO is explained as any practice that improves the search ranking of the website. But unlike the Black Hat SEO, this maintains the integrity of the website. It means these methods stay within the boundaries defined by Google itself. White Hat SEO is ethical and legally not objectionable. Mainly what we do in White Hat SEO is building an organic link between the website and other websites. Also, it has been found out that White Hat SEO is cheaper in the long run than Black Hat SEO. As the White Hat SEO is the most ethical among the two, mostly the entrepreneurs opt for it to justify their positioning in Search Engine Results Pages.
What is Black Hat SEO?
If we review the Black Hat SEO, it is a practice against the search engine guidelines. This focuses solely on bringing the website rank to the top rather than considering whether they have provided a solution to the user. But most importantly, these are UNETHICAL!! Normally, these unethical tactics don’t come up with what the searcher wants and often ends up with a penalty from the search engines because they use some shady techniques. There is a long list of Black Hat SEO techniques including cloaking, private link networks and keyword stuffing.
Why White Hat SEO?
As the name suggests, this is the best approach to go to. It has several benefits for the operator from the security, cost and consistency aspects. Usually, the rankings achieved from White Hat SEO are stable and more secure. The cost-saving parts come in place because it is not necessary to repair the violations that have been penalized by Google. After all, there is nothing to penalize!! If I list down some methods used in White Hat SEO, it includes backlinks, keyword research, content creation and automation, tiered link building and many more.
Then why do people choose Black Hat SEO?
The main problem with White Hat SEO is its limited scope. And also, there’s a higher competition as once the company used to go with the Black Hat SEO, and it is forced to use the same methods, otherwise, it’ll fall behind. And there is a considerably higher initial cost for White Hat SEOs which acts as a barrier even though in the long run the White Hat SEO is more cost-efficient.
But, you should know…….
On the other hand, there is a high risk of proceeding with Black Hat SEO. As these techniques go explicitly against the search engine terms, they can easily get penalized which may end up disappearing the site from search results entirely. Also, these techniques only create short term results as it exploits the loopholes in the search engine guidelines. Most importantly, as this creates an annoying and misleading experience for the audience, they will definitely leave the page and even report the branch as a “spam”.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, I emphasize that we should not focus on the short run, it may provide us with some attractive benefits but it is not worth as it seems to be. Therefore, I encourage you to go with the White Hat SEO, because we don’t want anyone to be unsuccessful in the long run.
References:
https://99firms.com/blog/search-engine-statistics/#gref
https://www.semrush.com/blog/white-hat-vs-black-hat-seo-and-gray-hat-too/
https://searchengineland.com/guide/what-is-seo
https://en.ryte.com/wiki/White_Hat_SEO
https://cognitiveseo.com/blog/229/black-hat-vs-white-hat-seo-infographic/
https://www.vixendigital.com/blog/black-hat-white-hat-grey-hat-seo/
