White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO – Understanding the Difference

Building a successful website takes time, as well as hard work - not understanding the difference between white hat and black hat SEO techniques can send all of that effort right out the window. A recent comment on a post I published about AdSenseBoy's Blog Comment Poster script made me wonder how many people have been banned by Google for black hat SEO without even realizing they were doing anything wrong!

If you would like to know more about the above mentioned program, you can follow the link and read the post - I won't waste time going into detail here, but it is essentially a script that automates blog comments in hopes of generating backlinks and traffic. The commenter supported the program and stated "I'm using this tool to promote my whitehat websites and results are great, but I also heard Blog Comment Poster can be used as enormously powerful black SEO tool spamming thousands of blogs per day."

No! It's still black hat SEO and it can still get your website banned by Google. A search engine's success depends on the relevancy and quality of the results they provide. They don't want to jeopardize their own reputations by ranking webmasters who attempt to take advantage of or manipulate their system - so there are rules in place to prevent this.

Google's webmaster guidelines provide a list of techniques they consider to be "deceptive or manipulative behavior" and warn that these are not the only things that could bring scorn in their eyes. Google's advice - "A good rule of thumb is whether you'd feel comfortable explaining what you've done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, "Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?""

Simply put - white hat SEO relies on original, quality content and follows the rules while black hat techniques are any methods that go against Google's guidelines. That's the black and white, cut and dried explanation - but we all know there are gray areas in between. Some webmasters have successfully pushed those shady areas between black and white and benefited from the results, but just as many have learned the hard way that tempting the engines doesn't pay.

While search rankings are major contributors to the traffic volumes of most successful websites, the engines are not the only way to attract visitors. The most important phrase in Google's guidelines is - "Would I do this if search engines didn't exist?" If you're answer is no then, more than likely, your toes are a bit too close to that line.

There are plenty of ways to expand your reader base and generate more traffic without using black hat techniques. There are hundreds of social media sites and networks that can drive multitudes of visitors to your site when you're actively involved; there are also plenty of safe ways to gain quality backlinks that will increase search rankings without penalizing your site.

In the end, the long-term success of your website isn't determined by the number of page one search results you gain. It isn't even measured by your page rank or Alexa rating. It's determined by what you contribute to the rest of the online world - interesting, informative, and entertaining content is the heart of any successful site. If you're serious about your online success, think twice before jeopardizing your website with black hat SEO techniques - concentrate on the visitors you do have, catering to their needs, and white hat SEO will come naturally.