Itoblige,
Some members have touched on some important concepts. The most notable being that it is sometimes hard to determine what is white hat and what is black hat. There can be a gray area where it isn't really clear on where a tactic falls.
Also, the way you optimize should be determined by your goals. Many clearly deceitful methods are also ones that don't promote longevity of a website. If your goal is to churn and burn websites then black hat methods may be good for that. If your goal is to build something meaningful and long lasting, then you should probably stick to methods that would be considered more white hat.
Hope that helps,
Shawn