White Hat: The Most Overused Marketing Term In SEO

[ThopHayt]

I've been seeing a lot (I mean a LOT) of people pushing the moniker "white hat" lately since the Penguin update. But it is getting horribly abused and over-used even in situations that clearly are not white hat.

Here is what white hat really is: on-site optimization (not done by some keyword stuffing WP plugin either), a vibrant and daily active social campaign through interacting via your site's OWN social page (not spamming G+'s, FB shares, and tweets), a PPC campaign to boost traffic and click through rate, getting your site signed up for all the legitimate directories possible, local citations (if applicable), a non-spammy emailer campaign.

What is NOT white hat: artificial linkbuilding of any kind (doesn't matter if it's manual), buying social shares/likes/fans, planting fake reviews, spamming videos, spraying press releases, signing up for syndication, paying for contributor content.

Just because a tactic is a safer version of a blackhat tactic does not make it white. The bottom line is that if you are linkbuilding, creating fake social buzz, or paying for mentions you are still (yes, still) a blackhatter like the rest of us. Essentially you are still banging a prostitute, but you're wearing a condom. But don't go around like you're not banging the same dirty skank we all are

 

[waitier]

Essentially, nothing is ever white. There isn't any site that is white at all. The moment someone links to your site, that's link building already, whether you've asked for it or not. And to your dismay, google sees that as blackhat. Because google.

 

[davids355]

Whitehat------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Blackhat

Its a spectrum, everyone is on it, no one is really operating at either extreme, so it is difficult to draw a line.
Listing your site in legitimate directories - is that really white hat? Depends on your motive.

Technically speaking if you were truly white-hat you wouldnt even be capable of discussing this topic.

 

[Aty]

While I agree with ThopHayt and I tend to disgaree with waitier, unfortunately it happens quite often that Google employees aren't able to make a difference between links we build/ask for and natural links we didn't ask for, which is kinda not fair.

 

[Zwielicht]

Whitehat------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Blackhat

Its a spectrum, everyone is on it, no one is really operating at either extreme, so it is difficult to draw a line.
Listing your site in legitimate directories - is that really white hat? Depends on your motive.

Technically speaking if you were truly white-hat you wouldnt even be capable of discussing this topic.

I like the way you think! I wouldn't describe myself as entirely white hat since I do learn about and occasionally test out black hat methods on disposable websites (mostly just to write articles about them or understand what my competitors may be up to), although on my real websites and websites belonging to my clients, I try my best to follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines. If I had to guess where I was at on that spectrum, I'm about right there on the red dash.

Whitehat------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Blackhat

 

[thezeebase]

I too agree with Thophayt ... I works fine thanks pal

 

[bankitlikebeckham]

All these hat colours are non sense to me, get on with your marketing, bank and repeat.

 

[mushroomh]

Black, grey, white? What's the difference, for Google we all are spamers because we build links.

 

[ThopHayt]

What's the difference, for Google we all are spamers because we build links.

My point exactly. As long as you are making ANY attempt to artificially alter Google's rankings they (Google) look at you as a blackhatter.

The whole white/black thing is just A) a marketing term to sell to gun-shy website owners scared of SEO and B) a term that some blackhatters like to use to describe what they deem as "safe" SEO strategies.

 

[dadangle]

Great post mate. I'm still pretty green around the horns, and when I started this IM journey of mine, I thought I was white hat for the most part. I know the definition now, but as a beginner I just didn't see any harm in some of these things, so I thought they were white. Probably a common misconception.

 

[ThopHayt]

It isn't only a misconception it is a lie that is perpetuated by people trying to market blackhat SEO to those who are scared of blackhat. So they use the least dangerous blackhat techniques, give them a new name that sounds safe, mark up the price, and market it to the stupid. That may sound harsh, and I have nothing against those marketing and don't think it's immoral to give idiots what they ask for... but that is what the truth is.

 

[MKSKS]

you re right, it's all about convincing and selling which in turn misleads most people.