Editorial Staff
In the SEO world, there are two main practices to get a site to rank higher in the SERP which are known as white hat SEO and black hat SEO.
First, let’s get into the history on how these terms came from.
In the 1920s, black hats and white hats were used and popularized in some Western films.
Back then, it was easy for the audience to tell the difference between the hero and the villain, simply by the hat color that the person use in the films.
The white hat wore by the hero.
The black hat wore by the villain.
This analogy was then adopted by the SEO industry in relation to the SEO practice classification.
Black hat SEO offers a quick result to rank a page in the SERP.
Although it sounds tempting, once the search engines find out that your site is using black hat SEO to manipulate the SERP, be ready to get penalized and banned from the SERP.
There were a bunch of websites that got penalized by Google after few months of implementing the black hat technique, even though the website had been using the white hat SEO technique for more than 5 years.
The search engines like Google developed their algorithm continuously.
And one of the reasons is to combat the black hat SEO method on the SERP manipulation.
The algorithm are there to catch any websites that go against the rule.
The search engines determine what is fair play and what is cheating.
Have you ever seen a movie character that sometimes act as a hero and sometimes the villain?
In the SEO world, we called it as the “gray hat SEO”
Gray hat SEO is a practice that combines white hat and black hat techniques.
It is neither white hat or black hat, but something in the middle.
Grey hat risks are pretty much like black hat but with a lesser chance of getting caught by search engines due to it masquerading technique as white hat.
Don’t worry too much about all the fancy SEO words you see on the table above!
Later on in this course, you will learn about all these stuff.
The white hat wore by the hero.
The black hat wore by the villain.
This analogy was then adopted by the SEO industry in relation to the SEO practice classification.
White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO
To differentiate both practices, it is simple. White hat SEO refers to the SEO techniques that are in line with the search engine rules. Meanwhile, black hat SEO refers to the techniques that against the search engine rules. In other words, white hat SEO closely follows the search engine guideline while black hat SEO uses the techniques that cheat the search engine algorithm.
Black hat SEO offers a quick result to rank a page in the SERP.
Although it sounds tempting, once the search engines find out that your site is using black hat SEO to manipulate the SERP, be ready to get penalized and banned from the SERP.
There were a bunch of websites that got penalized by Google after few months of implementing the black hat technique, even though the website had been using the white hat SEO technique for more than 5 years.
So, is black hat SEO illegal then?
Using black hat SEO is technically not illegal. You will not get caught by the authorities for not following Google’s guideline. There is no governing body or law who set a rule to follow the search engine’s guideline. However, using black hat SEO can harm your ranking in the SERP and brand in multiple ways. In fact, search engines hate and prohibit black hat SEO practice.Search Engine’s Response to Black Hat SEO
The search engines like Google developed their algorithm continuously.
And one of the reasons is to combat the black hat SEO method on the SERP manipulation.
The algorithm are there to catch any websites that go against the rule.
The search engines determine what is fair play and what is cheating.
Risk
In terms of risks, black hat SEO carries obvious risks of getting penalized by search engines once discovered. However, if you think that only black hat SEO practice carries the risks, you’re wrong! In fact, white hat techniques also carry the risks of not working. If your brand is in a very competitive industry, there is a chance that you might not able to compete against those website who employs black hat SEO. Playing by the rule might seems the best way to do, but in fact, black hat technique is far more effective in getting a result before finally getting caught by search engines.Gray Hat SEO
As the black hat and white hat have their pros and cons in terms of effectiveness and risks, a new practice is born. Grey hat SEO. They are those who practice black hat but masquerading as white…
Have you ever seen a movie character that sometimes act as a hero and sometimes the villain?
In the SEO world, we called it as the “gray hat SEO”
Gray hat SEO is a practice that combines white hat and black hat techniques.
It is neither white hat or black hat, but something in the middle.
Grey hat risks are pretty much like black hat but with a lesser chance of getting caught by search engines due to it masquerading technique as white hat.
White Hat vs Black Hat vs Gray Hat SEO
Now you’ve learnt about white hat, black hat, and gray hat techniques. Let’s do a side-by-side comparison for a better understanding:
Next Lesson
Mastering search engine optimization can be challenging especially if you just starting out. This is why you need these SEO toolkits as your starter pack!
Proceed to Chapter 13