As you are creating your website or landing page, you may have heard about SEO and site optimization tactics. And your curiosity and research must have led you to this article. To help you make the decision, we are breaking down the differences between these two forms of SEO right here.
White hat SEO
The color white represents purity and an ‘ethical’ way of doing things. The same definition could be applied to white hate SEO. It can be defined as the ethical and correct manner in which a site should be optimized.
To give you an appreciation, we have unpacked this form of SEO into the following:
Adherence to search engine guidelines
Some time back, Google issued out guidelines on how it ranks pages or websites in each search engine results page, also known as SERP. These are the rules that should be followed for you to optimize your page.
A white hat SEO strategy adheres to these guidelines, optimizes the site step by step, and leads to the improvement in ranking.
A focus on the human target audience
The internet was made to be a treasure trove of information for humans. You could think of it as a library which people can access through their smart devices and thanks to the internet. Being made for humans, it would only make sense that the best-ranking pages are those that give visitors a wonderful experience.
A white hat SEO strategy would focus on quality content, improving the load time of the pages, and also on navigation speeds.
A long-term perspective
By adhering to guidelines provided by search engines, you are continuously meeting the demands of the service provider (search engines) and your audience. You can be assured of staying on the first page of the SERPs for the long haul.
Black hat SEO
This is the antithesis of white hat SEO and includes the use of unorthodox tactics to improve rankings on the SERPs. Our team has broken down the nuances below:
Manipulation and Violation of guidelines
As stated earlier, search engines have put forth guidelines and provisions to be followed by pages and websites. An example of this is the Webmaster Guidelines recommended by Google. Black hat SEO contravenes these guidelines so as to get a quick rise in rankings.
Black Hat SEO is not interested in improving the user experience. Have you ever found a site on the first page of a SERP and been shocked by its poor content and slow navigation speed? This site has possibly used black hat SEO strategies to rank high on the search engine.
Short and sweet
By identifying and manipulating the loopholes in a search engine’s algorithm, a site can rank high on a SERP. However, one thing you must appreciate and acknowledge is the constantly evolving algorithm. It will only be a matter of time before you find out the side effects and lose rankings.