Whats the difference between Black hat/ White hat SEO?
- Thread starter ShameMan
- Start date
- Oct 28, 2020
- 11,663
- 14,635
depends on who you're asking.
If you ask google, they will say that building / buying links for your site is black hat SEO, while focusing on content alone is white hat SEO. And this is the real difference between black hat SEO and white hat SEO in my opinion, as well. For once, I agree with google.
The problem is that we can't blindly follow google's guidelines because we will never rank our sites. At least not always because there are cases when you can rank with content alone, but at some point your content will be outranked by link builders, and this will piss you off and force you into building links yourself. And so, despite of google's recommendations we all have to get into black hat territory because otherwise we lose the rankings.
If you ask SEOs... well, the opinions will be mixed and many of them wrong. Some SEOs will refer to spammy links as black hat SEO when in reality all backlinks that you PURPOSELY and CONSCIOUSLY acquire put you in the black hat territory... And other people will tell you that buying / building links is not black hat, but only using software to build links is black hat. Those people are wrong in my opinion (because I agree with google's definition on this topic)
But anyway, you don't need to worry about the difference between these 2 as at some point you will be forced into doing black hat, if not by google then by your competitors. It's the way SEO has been going on since ever
If you ask google, they will say that building / buying links for your site is black hat SEO, while focusing on content alone is white hat SEO. And this is the real difference between black hat SEO and white hat SEO in my opinion, as well. For once, I agree with google.
The problem is that we can't blindly follow google's guidelines because we will never rank our sites. At least not always because there are cases when you can rank with content alone, but at some point your content will be outranked by link builders, and this will piss you off and force you into building links yourself. And so, despite of google's recommendations we all have to get into black hat territory because otherwise we lose the rankings.
If you ask SEOs... well, the opinions will be mixed and many of them wrong. Some SEOs will refer to spammy links as black hat SEO when in reality all backlinks that you PURPOSELY and CONSCIOUSLY acquire put you in the black hat territory... And other people will tell you that buying / building links is not black hat, but only using software to build links is black hat. Those people are wrong in my opinion (because I agree with google's definition on this topic)
But anyway, you don't need to worry about the difference between these 2 as at some point you will be forced into doing black hat, if not by google then by your competitors. It's the way SEO has been going on since ever
Stick with grey hat.
- Oct 5, 2020
- 1,447
- 1,729
Growing your website through the path Google recommends is known as whitehat SEO.
Doing anything prohibited in Google's guidelines turns the process into blackhat.
99% of the industry chooses blackhat methods. There is no place for fair players in SEO.
Doing anything prohibited in Google's guidelines turns the process into blackhat.
99% of the industry chooses blackhat methods. There is no place for fair players in SEO.
- Apr 25, 2014
- 6,918
- 12,423
Essentially any type of link building or link exchange is considered black hat SEO to Google.
If you're asking marketers, black hat SEO is mostly link building attempts with any software or tool.
I'd like to say that anything without software is grey hat regardless of what Google thinks. Just trying to make a living from purely informational blog posts shouldn't be considered against ToS.
If you're asking marketers, black hat SEO is mostly link building attempts with any software or tool.
I'd like to say that anything without software is grey hat regardless of what Google thinks. Just trying to make a living from purely informational blog posts shouldn't be considered against ToS.
agent-x
Regular Member
- Apr 4, 2012
- 337
- 139
No it's not. Where do people get this from? You're not allowed to build links any more? Google has never said that. That would break the entire world wide web.
- Apr 25, 2014
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Lol. Just lol.
Here are the webmaster guidelines. https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/guidelines/webmaster-guidelines
Take a look at this specific section of the "link schemes" page:
Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to your site or outgoing links from your site.
The following are examples of link schemes which can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results:
- Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes:
- Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links
- Exchanging goods or services for links
- Sending someone a "free" product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link
- Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking.
- Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links.
- Using automated programs or services to create links to your site.
- Requiring a link as part of a Terms of Service, contract, or similar arrangement without allowing a third-party content owner the choice of qualifying the outbound link, should they wish."
agent-x
Regular Member
- Apr 4, 2012
- 337
- 139
And you read that and interpreted it as "any type of link exchange is black hat"?
- Apr 25, 2014
- 6,918
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This is specifically what I was referencing in my first comment:
- Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking.
- Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links.
- Using automated programs or services to create links to your site.
Is there some form of their own explanation that's going over your head? Maybe you'd care to explain your point of view?
bacesportswear
Newbie
- Jun 30, 2022
- 3
- 0
black hat SEO is one kind of activity that you are doing against search engine algorithms and white hat is one kind of activity that you are doing with following search engine algorithms.
agent-x
Regular Member
- Apr 4, 2012
- 337
- 139
The word they use there is "excessive" and it's this that seems to go over everyone's head as you put it.
There are perfectly valid reasons for two sites to link to each other that are not purely for SEO. Google knows this and cannot stop two webmasters from arranging links with each other, otherwise about 99% of the websites that exist would be getting penalised, no?
If you are cross linking for the purposes of exchanging traffic this is perfectly valid. Google cannot possibly have a problem with that as that is what links are for in the first place. If you build your links with that aim in mind it is not black hat.
What is black hat and against Google guidelines is linking purely for SEO. Linking that you would not ever do if there were no such thing as search engines. But that's not the only reason for building links, so it's wrong to say any type of link building is black hat.
- Apr 25, 2014
- 6,918
- 12,423
Depends on their definition of excessive. Which, I don't have a source for? If you do, kindly link it.
As a "webmaster", I'm linking for traffic in the long run. That's the end goal. Traffic, conversions, impressions, clicks, etc. To obtain that, one of the steps I am taking is excessively building links over time aka "linking purely for SEO". It's the same thing for my purposes and probably many others.
I don't know why you felt the need to come in and say "ACCCKKTUALLY", but you knew what I meant when I typed out the phrase "link building or link exchange".
At this point, I believe we've reached an impasse.
- Jun 25, 2015
- 4,004
- 861
If the SEO violates the Google guidelines but there are no restrictions to using the method to rank a page, it's called blackhat SEO.
If the SEO doesn't violate the Google algorithm and it should be done in the usual way that will be considered White Hat SEO by Google.
If the SEO doesn't violate the Google algorithm and it should be done in the usual way that will be considered White Hat SEO by Google.
- Apr 6, 2010
- 1,488
- 369
White hat SEO that if we're working as a legal like: follow the all guidance of any search engine.
Black hat SEO that if we're working as a illegal it means against the all instruction of any search engine.
Black hat SEO that if we're working as a illegal it means against the all instruction of any search engine.
- Sep 7, 2017
- 7,147
- 6,407
What has morals got to do with SEO?
Anything that goes against Google's recommended practices with the intent to rank higher than others is black hat, while those that don't is white hat. Everyone is doing black hat SEO but they never want to say it because they want to continue deceiving their fans, customer and visitors. When I say everyone, I mean majority of gurus.
By the way, I'm tired of seeing these kind of questions every once in a while. Give it a few weeks from now, you'd see another guy on the forum asking this same question.
rayi
Senior Member
- Jul 27, 2022
- 1,115
- 240
White Hat SEO:
White hat SEO provides a better experience to users by following google guidelines.
1. Fresh, Relevant Content
2. Linking or Getting Links from Relevant Industry Sources.
3. Optimized Image
4. Labels Relevant Page Titles & Tags
5. Natural Keyword Density
Black Hat SEO:
Black hat SEO doesn't follow google guidelines.
1. Duplicate Content
2. Keyword Stuffing
3. Link Farming
4. Cloaking Text or Links
5. Blog Comment Spam
White hat SEO provides a better experience to users by following google guidelines.
1. Fresh, Relevant Content
2. Linking or Getting Links from Relevant Industry Sources.
3. Optimized Image
4. Labels Relevant Page Titles & Tags
5. Natural Keyword Density
Black Hat SEO:
Black hat SEO doesn't follow google guidelines.
1. Duplicate Content
2. Keyword Stuffing
3. Link Farming
4. Cloaking Text or Links
5. Blog Comment Spam