The Internet is a wild place, wild enough to even cheat on some of our most loyal search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. Sorry to all Bing fans, but its not often you hear anyone saying “just Bing it!”
Although we don’t often realise it, most of us use search engines multiple times a day, it is an instinct reaction within our day-to-day lives as a source of information. Nowadays, marketers have a choice when it comes to Search Engine Optimisation, to wear a black hat or to wear a white one.
Although black hat techniques aren’t technically illegal, its considered the rebel out of the two options. Black Hat SEO is characterised to essentially trick these engines with rule-breaking techniques to strategically gain more traffic.
Techniques include:
- Unrelated keywords: keywords that have no connection to your content
- Invisible text or links: hiding text or links behind images, font size 0 and even white text on white background as shown below
- Gateway pages: fake pages overloaded with keywords and redirected to another unrelated site
- Automation: content with no value to the users, such as bots (not the cute ones like below)
The more innocent of the two is the white hat SEO, which optimises the overall search experience for the intended users. To still gain traffic through an organic and ‘ethical’ way includes techniques such as:
- Original and good quality content: relevant to the target audience, as well as share and link worthy
- Valid backlinks: validity in other sites promoting or “voting” for your site as an act of confidence
- Organisation: clear and concise site structure such as headers, titles, contents pages
- Meta Description: first few sentences that will appear under the title of your site to grasp attention, an example below of searching the brand Bonds
So for markets to take the reigns and be the angel or the devil subsides with many factors. While the black hat tactic is fairly short-term and fast, various implications are now taking place, especially through Google to ensure that these sites are monitored and penalised for the increased movement they should NOT be receiving. The white hat does take guts, and some patience to see results, but marketers should be used to that, it’s in their nature. By using a strategy that implements all of Google’s rules shows advantages and can also be classified as the teachers pet, or in this case, Google’s pet.
Let me know in the comments below if the black hat method is cheating or essentially cunning? Is it just a smarter way to go about SEO or is the whole idea essentially ‘dying’? What would you opt for personally if you had a site and had to choose a method and why?
Z/V 
Great read Zoe! Look, I wouldn’t say black hat is cheating, I think it’s a massive gamble. The consequences if you are caught are detrimental to your business on google, but if you are willing to take those risks as a business, you must be willing to suffer the consequences. I think black hat marketing techniques get quick results but aren’t helpful for longterm sustainability.
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Very true, it’s definitely a massive gamble. I agree that it may not be considered cheating, however I do believe it is not always the most ethical route to take when trying to market and I agree that trying to introduce white hat techniques may be more beneficial in the long term!
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Great work Zoe! You really had me thinking, I actually wouldn’t know what I would do if I had my own business. I feel as though it would be so hard to get to the top organically especially with so many competitors in all areas of online business nowadays. I believe it is always best to wear a white hat however I can understand how some business do use black hat methods as things like algorithms are always changing especially on the internet.
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It would definitely be hard to get to the top of a search engine organically! I definitely agree and can understand why business need to use black hat methods, however I still believe that there are other ways that they can boost their profile through more organic methods.
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This is a really interesting read Zoe! I personally think that although the black hat is the cheeky way to get traffic, I think its more valuable to use the white hat method to gain traffic overtime as then the content is relevant for the traffic and users will spend more time on the website rather then just clicking the page and realising it isnt useful and immediately closing it! I don’t think the black hat method is cheating, I just don’t think it has the most advantages for your business in the long term!
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Thanks Jacqui! It is definitely hard for companies to decide which way they want to go, or which way they think is ethically right. However I agree with you, I believe to some extent black hat techniques are useful to gain an immediate result, however it is also really important for companies to spend time on implementing white hat techniques as these will help develop a business in the long term!
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With so much competition in the online market, it seems the black hat approach is required to stay ahead.
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I agree, however I believe this is more of a short term fix. Companies need to understand the long term benefits of white hat techniques and understand that if they can invest in more of these tactics they may find themselves in better positions in the long run!
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I don’t think it hurts to be a bit sneaky in using black hat techniques! I mean it is a competitive world and will only get harder to break through all the traffic! So i think as long as there is a balance of white hat techniques then do what you have to do i say! But again if you just stick with one strategy… then long term you’re success may not prevail.
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Holly I couldn’t agree more! I think if done correctly, black hat techniques can give companies that initial boost of awareness they need. However they must balance this with appropriate white hat techniques to help them keep up their longevity and success over time.
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Really tough question ! Whilst it may be harder initially to gain traffic through white hat techniques, it protects your company in the long run. The truth always comes out, as the saying goes, and I believe it would be much more detrimental to a successful company if it later came out that they had been ‘unethical’ or ‘cheated’ their way to success.
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