Difference Between White Hat,Black Hat And Gray Hat SEO
Difference Between White Hat,Black Hat And Gray Hat SEO
White Hat SEO
This is the "honest" approach to optimising a website and the general principle is to try and be liked by the search engines.
The overall strategy is to create a well coded website for search engines to read and understand and then (optionally) to mimic what should happen normally for pages that human users like.
So, for example, if a user found a website and decided it was interesting they may write an article about it, discuss it on a forum or mention it in their blog. White Hat seeks to accelerate this process by writing articles, entering forum discussions or blogging as separate people to the website itself.
The idea is to create enough "buzz" about the website to get the momentum rolling after which normal users will begin creating further links. However, if the site is not generally popular, search engine optimisation will have to be carried out on a continuous basis to maintain an impression that it is popular.
White Hat SEO Costs
Quality White Hat search engine optimisation, even for a small site with a few pages, can require a four figure budget as it is extremely time consuming and has to be done by humans.
Black Hat SEO
This is the "illegal" approach which breaks search engine rules but tries to hide this fact so the website is not banned.
An example could be a "doorway page" which is a website page optimised for a specific keyword that then redirects the user to a different page which has nothing to do with that keyword.
Black Hat SEO Costs
Because so much Black Hat work is automated it can be done by computer software and so it is initially much, much cheaper that White Hat. Where you see search engine optimisation services for an entire site being offered for $100 or less, this is Black Hat.
The downsides are twofold: Firstly, although it is cheaper to start with the results are short lived as your 'evil plans' are rumbled by the search engines. This means you have to carry out Black Hat continuously and it does not take long before the costs mount up to the same as, or more than, White Hat.
Secondly, it's important to note that Black Hat can also get you banned from the search engines but rarely because of links and more because there are suspicious items within your website such as hidden text.
Grey Hat SEO
There are two main views as to what Grey Hat actually is:
It is the "shadey" approach which does not break any search engine rules but bends them to say the least.
It is a mix - doing some White Hat and some Black Hat makes you a Grey Hat practitioner.
An example might be paid links. You are trying to fool the search engines into thinking your website is popular because links appear in a variety of places around the internet. However these are not links added by other webmasters who genuinely like your site, they are being paid to do so.
Grey Hat can often be considered as the Black Hat of tomorrow. Sometimes the only reason something is not Black Hat is because the search engine algorithms haven't figured out a way to spot it ... yet.
Grey Hat SEO Costs
Grey Hat is cheaper than White Hat but the results don't tend to last as long because search engines spot patterns (such as paid links) and reduce your ranking. As such Grey Hat can be seen as useful for a short term campaign like a competition where long term rankings are not important.