The Battle of Black Hat vs White Hats in SEO Marketing
- Meshanah Mendoza
- May 6, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Nov 7, 2020
In The Wizard of Oz, the Evil Witch wears a black hat which represents wickedness and rebellion, whilst the white hat worn by Glinda the Good Witch represents goodness and innocence. Now you’re probably thinking what does the attire of these characters have to do with marketing? Well these concepts strongly correlate with the Black Hat and White Hat Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques used by marketers today.
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO is a set of unethical or unlawful practises that an individual or a group of people utilise, in an attempt to improve search engine results for a single website or a collection of websites. The main goal of this technique is to maximise short-term gains such as spikes in the amount of views that the website gains which is achieved by taking advantage of the ‘blind spots’ in search engine algorithms.
Black Hat SEO Techniques
Keyword stuffing: The creation of web pages and content that has an excessive amount of keywords, with the aim of sending amplified keyword signals to search engines so that the websites rank in the search system is increased.
Link schemes: The use of automated programs that establish links to a website, for example offering someone a free product in exchange for a positive review . These website channels are linked together for monetary benefits rather than the usefulness to people.
Spamming Links in Comment Field: Inserting links to web pages such as in the comments section of blog posts, with the aim that these links will send ‘positive’ signals to search engines.
Cloaking: Showing different content to the user, as a misleading redirect sends the user to a page where they see content that is different from what the search engine’s web crawler receives.
What is White Hat SEO?
On the other hand, White Hat SEO refers to the set of ethical and fair practises that an individual or a group of people employ, when they want to improve their search engine results. The main goal of this technique focuses on improving its long term approach such as the quality of the website, as well as sending the correct signals to Google so that positive algorithms are created.
White Hat SEO Techniques
Link Building: The action of sharing your useful content with other websites. Google for example optimises relevant links that assist users in directing them to what they’re searching for, rather than engaging in key-word optimisation systems for example which Google discourages.
Content Optimisation: Sharing content that can reach and be understood by a large audience in a clear and concise manner. Such embedding relevant keywords, adding meta and title tags, and relevant links. The aim is to create new content and to revise older content to attract the target audience.
Technical SEO: This involves the internal links, tags and keywords on the website. Improving these aspects enables sites to be ranked higher in the search results after an SEO audit is conducted.
Who’s the winner?
‘Good always triumphs over evil’ they say and in this context it is clear that White Hat SEO is better! Which again ties in to how Glinda the Good Witch succeeded over the Wicked Witch of the West.
So my question to you is, if Black Hat SEO is so bad, why do you think marketers still use them? Leave a comment below.
References
To learn how to avoid black hat seo techniques for successful business growth click here.
Thank you for reading my post Bahar! And thanks for sharing your opinion, White Hat SEO is definitely the best option to use.
Hey Meshanah! I loved how you used The Wizard of Oz to get your point across!
I think marketers still use the Black Hat SEO simply because they quickly bring in positive results. Cutting corners takes less time and less effort, and it isn't guaranteed that Google will find out about it and penalise them accordingly. I personally would go for the White Hat option, simply because I believe in the importance of working ethically and sincerely - I think that's what people want to see businesses having. It's important to work with transparency, and you really do owe that accountability to your stakeholders.
Thank you for reading my post Lindy! I agree with you as well, it is unethical but it does allow the website to gain short term gains.
Thanks Alysha! I think it’s really important for marketers, who use the Black Hat technique, to realise that White Hat techniques are much greater gains in the long term. :)