Difference between black hat SEO and white hat SEO?

Ignore basically every post made in this thread. Every post in here which has tried to explain the difference is wrong. People think SEO is just building backlinks, and that is a problem. SEO is optimizing your website for the search engines, of course while either increasing or at the very least maintaining full functionality for your visitors.

If your intent with building backlinks is strictly to get the backlink to increase the ranking of your site because you understand that Googles algorithm takes the number of links into account when figuring out where to rank you, then yes, that is blackhat.

There is such thing as white hat backlink building.
There is such thing as white hat seo.
Optimize your website for the search engines AND your users, and Google WILL figure out where your site deserves to be ranked. There are many AMAZING websites that will never get to where they deserve to be, because Google is unable to properly index all of their pages due to bad site coding, slow load times etc.

SEO is not just backlinks.

@Kickflip, I totally agree with you

Additionally, I find that when I wear my black hat it goes with anything!

Blackhat is just a name given to SEO which is done automatically with tools. In automation one can get links in much high quantity. If you hire 10 people to build your 5000 links then they are gonna complete those links in 10 day. If you use a software then its a matter of minutes.
You have to find quality in both type of links either they are auto or manual.
BTW if the on Page seo is done correctly then you will get fat more better results.

theqavish said:

Blackhat is just a name given to SEO which is done automatically with tools.

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No, it really isn't. BlackHat seo is not about tools.

Kickflip said:

No, it really isn't. BlackHat seo is not about tools.

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I would like to know your point on this. Please explain a little which I forgot or which I don't know.

theqavish said:

I would like to know your point on this. Please explain a little which I forgot or which I don't know.

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If I make a Wordpress blog manually, and put some spun content and links to my site in order to increase my backlinks, that is blackhat seo. It doesn't matter if you do it manually or with a tool, it is still blackhat seo. If you use a tool to automatically check how your website is performing for on-site factors, and even make on-site changes for you (like wordpress plugins) this can still be white-hat seo.

these types of threads are pretty much the reason why i wrote this guide:

Impulse said:

these types of threads are pretty much the reason why i wrote this guide:

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Your thread does not answer the question in the way that everyone needs it to be answered. People understand that Google does not allow Black Hat Seo, but they do not really understand what is and what isn't allowed by Google. They could read the guide all day for weeks, and still wouldn't truly understand the difference. Google purposely writes their guidelines in hard to understand ways.

Black hats look cooler!

Kickflip said:

Ignore basically every post made in this thread. Every post in here which has tried to explain the difference is wrong. People think SEO is just building backlinks, and that is a problem. SEO is optimizing your website for the search engines, of course while either increasing or at the very least maintaining full functionality for your visitors.

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People have differing opinions about what black hat is. Your explanation of the difference is your point of view of black hat SEO, but my view of blackhat seo could be (for example) "Using tools to blast links" or "Buying links against google's will". The list goes on, as do the many interpretations of the word "blackhat seo". It comes down to individual purpose and use of blackhat seo. You cannot so rigidly define the difference and claim that everyone elses explanations are wrong.

Kickflip said:

If your intent with building backlinks is strictly to get the backlink to increase the ranking of your site because you understand that Googles algorithm takes the number of links into account when figuring out where to rank you, then yes, that is blackhat.

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You said, "People think SEO is just building backlinks, and that is a problem. " Yet the only explanation of blackhat seo you offer is "building backlinks strictly to build backlinks"

Kickflip said:

Your thread does not answer the question in the way that everyone needs it to be answered. People understand that Google does not allow Black Hat Seo, but they do not really understand what is and what isn't allowed by Google. They could read the guide all day for weeks, and still wouldn't truly understand the difference. Google purposely writes their guidelines in hard to understand ways.

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Yes, my thread answers the question in a basic way. I don't see how you can rule out everyone's opinions when your explanation is just your own understanding of Blackhat SEO.

Kickflip said:

Ignore basically every post made in this thread. Every post in here which has tried to explain the difference is wrong.

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I really don't see the point in concerning yourself with the "color" of your SEO efforts.
Just worry about what works and what doesn't. At the end of the day, they're just words.

Impulse said:

People have differing opinions about what black hat is. Your explanation of the difference is your point of view of black hat SEO, but my view of blackhat seo could be (for example) "Using tools to blast links" or "Buying links against google's will". The list goes on, as do the many interpretations of the word "blackhat seo". It comes down to individual purpose and use of blackhat seo. You cannot so rigidly define the difference and claim that everyone elses explanations are wrong.

You said, "People think SEO is just building backlinks, and that is a problem. " Yet the only explanation of blackhat seo you offer is "building backlinks strictly to build backlinks"

Yes, my thread answers the question in a basic way. I don't see how you can rule out everyone's opinions when your explanation is just your own understanding of Blackhat SEO.

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Ok, so lets just let people make up their own definition of black hat seo and white hat seo. Then we can just call xrumer profile blasting white hat seo, and twitter posting white hat seo. Then everything will be much clearer for everyone.

Any rational person on this forum will define white hat and black hat seo based on the Google Webmaster Guidelines. White hat seo being seo that is allowed and encouraged and used by Google themselves, Black hat seo being seo that is not allowed, discouraged and will lead to penalties by Google. To define it as anything else on this forum is just being silly.

For what reason would a rational person think that using automated tools makes the difference between blackhat and whitehat? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

I am of course not going to be able to define SEO to every person and tell them every single way how to optimize their website for the search engines in black hat and white hat ways. So in this thread maybe I focus on building backlinks, does that really mean that backlinks = seo? No, of course not.

Please, pinpoint for me where your thread answers the original question:

Difference between black hat SEO and white hat SEO?
What is the detailed difference between black hat SEO and white hat SEO?

Not basic way. The op asked for the DETAILED differences. People don't really know what is allowed by Google and what is not. So if you just tell people "don't do things not allowed by Google" then that doesn't answer their question. As you can see, many people believe that you can do anything you want, as long as its done manually and not with tools.

themidiman said:

I really don't see the point in concerning yourself with the "color" of your SEO efforts.
Just worry about what works and what doesn't. At the end of the day, they're just words.

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The reason to care, is because if someone is hired by a client, and their contract states that they will provide white hat SEO, then they need to know the difference. The other problem, is that black hat seo sites usually have a shorter life span then white hat sites. If someone is looking for a long term income, white hat is probably the better way to go. There are many reasons why it is important to know the difference.

jcash12 said:

I dont think there is a difference between whitehat and blackhat because it is against google's TOS.

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How do you explain that thing deeply or will you please elaborate this exactly?

themidiman said:

I really don't see the point in concerning yourself with the "color" of your SEO efforts.
Just worry about what works and what doesn't. At the end of the day, they're just words.

Click to expand...

Folks, it iS MUCH simpler than you all are making it.

If you are doing anything to unnaturally increase your rankings, it is black hat.

If you are promoting your web site in a normal manner, like most businesses on the web, it is white hat.

Every aspect of IM can be black or white.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON GOOGLE'S INTERPRETATION OF YOUR INTENT.

sldebo said:

Folks, it iS MUCH simpler than you all are making it.

If you are doing anything to unnaturally increase your rankings, it is black hat.

If you are promoting your web site in a normal manner, like most businesses on the web, it is white hat.

Every aspect of IM can be black or white.

IT ALL DEPENDS ON GOOGLE'S INTERPRETATION OF YOUR INTENT.

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I agree with you, its just depend upon you that how you promote your website by doing the black hat or white...I think both are in our favor.

WH doesn't actually exist. It's just a nicer, more quality version of BH. everything is BHS

jcash12 said:

I dont think there is a difference between whitehat and blackhat because it is against google's TOS either way to build your own website backlinks. Google is expecting sites to naturally gain links, and thats what we, as black hatters , try to simulate.

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You don't know much about Google's TOS do you? You can build your own backlinks, but they need to contribute to the Internet not take away from it.

I don't see how blackhat is creative? Blackhat is short-term push a button, automation. Whitehat is creative and more fun.

daveguy said:

You don't know much about Google's TOS do you? You can build your own backlinks, but they need to contribute to the Internet not take away from it.

I don't see how blackhat is creative? Blackhat is short-term push a button, automation. Whitehat is creative and more fun.

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Black-hat SEO is short term but the results comes out after doing the blackhat are just awesome instead of White hat.....white hat is so lazy process...and I'm going to be frustrate by just do the white hat SEO for my website

So according to my information, which I'm gain form BHW, the combination of white and black hat SEO is much necessary for a website if you want to get it on the Top of the Search engines results.

White hat is mostly for legit sites such as corporate sites. Blackhat is just straight blasting as many links as possible.