Almost all companies use SEO services for their business. Many are competing with each other to get the high ranking position in the search engines. It’s all for the success of their business. However, while competitions are being high, some know what they are doing, but some don’t. Those who don’t really know SEO might end up using the improper way of SEO methods without realizing it. If you are one of those people, this article is perfect for you!

In SEO world, there are two kinds of SEO users; those who use a shortcut in their SEO process and those who wait for the SEO process to give them results.

The shortcut mentioned above is called “black hat SEO”, and the latter is called “white hat SEO.” Business owners, who are not familiar with the existence of these two SEO methods, might unknowingly trust any SEO company that offers them black hat SEO services. Be careful, as you might be in the same situation as those people. Worry not! After reading this, you will be able to identify what kind of SEO process you should go for, and what kind of SEO process you should avoid getting involved with.

First of all, white hat SEO purely uses and practises proper strategies and methods that follow search engine rules and policies to gain high rankings in the search engine, while black hat SEO is the practice of SEO efforts using methods that are completely against the search engine guidelines and rules in order to get faster results. So, how do we identify which one is the black hat SEO and which one is the white hat SEO? Below are the things you should know to differ one from another.

White-Hat SEO

The most successful option for SEO is the white-hat techniques, because the strategy focuses on creating good quality contents and organic link building that can result in the optimal boost in the visibility of the website without violating the search engine terms and policies.

The first thing you need to understand while using white-hat SEO techniques is that these techniques may take longer than black-hat SEO techniques, but rest assured, you won’t regret it. Now, a good white-hat SEO technique usually consists of high quality contents that focus on target audience which are valuable to be shared and attractive for the audience to click the link. It’s better for you to make original contents that are, most importantly, relevant to your business.

Another key to a good optimization process is the use of effective keywords. Keywords, although often misused by some people, are valuable if used correctly. You can use the most relevant keywords that can be easily identified by people who might use it to find your website. Make sure you research the keywords first and choose the most effective keywords for your website.

A good white-hat SEO practice can also be seen from the backlinks. With relevant, high quality contents, there might be chances that other websites are going to link to your website. This means that your contents are genuine, natural and relevant; which is exactly like what Google hopes for.

In short, white-hat SEO techniques include:

• High quality and valuable contents
• Relevant and natural backlinks
• Effective keyword use
• Relevant link building
• Clean website structure
• The use of on-page and off-page SEO strategy, and many more.

Black-Hat SEO

Just like the name, black-hat SEO techniques make everything you have built from the start become black-stained with degraded credibility. Sure it gives you fast results, but that won’t last long, as Google will soon find out and your website will be penalized for that. Not only that, your company will suffer from the consequences in a form of severe punishment that will affect your business.

If you hire a company that provides SEO services, make sure you know if they use black-hat SEO techniques or not. First, you must notice that black-hat SEO techniques use unrelated keywords that don’t have anything to do with your business or your website content. Second, you might also notice that there are not so genuine pages overusing keywords to make search engines find them easily, but the moment it is clicked, they will immediately redirect visitors to another page separately. This method is called doorway pages.

Another black-hat SEO technique that you might notice is when you see a hidden text or link within the content, so that it will get a better ranking position, usually done through writing a text coloured in white on a white background or using a zero-sized font in a text.

In short, black-hat SEO techniques consist of:

• Doorway pages
• Cloaking
• The use of hidden texts and links
• Bot comments that are not understandable
• Unrelated and overloaded keywords
• Duplicate contents
• Black campaign and many more!

After reading this, now at least you got the picture about the difference between white-hat and black-hat SEO techniques; therefore, the next time you hire a company that offers SEO services, you will be more careful in observing the process.

Black-hat SEO may be the shortcut for your website’s ranking, as you might get the fast result, but it won’t be long before you get caught and your company may face different kinds of consequences depending on the given penalty, but surely, it will cause a great deal of damage to your company more than you can imagine.

White-hat SEO techniques, on the other hand, may take some time to give you the results, but once it does, it will last for a long time with a worthy result. Your website does not only get a stable ranking position, but it will also gain trust from search engines and it is possible for your website to rank higher naturally in the future. A well-managed content with white-hat SEO techniques will make a better website for the future, slowly but surely. The long wait will be worth it.