Given the different variety of posts to my blog, one may be forgiven on reading the heading of this post for believing they were about to enter into a pre-ascot week, horse racing, fashion column. Not so, I am of course talking on the subject of Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is more commonly known in its abbreviated form.
SEO in itself is considered a black art in many circles whether it is achieved via black hat or white hat techniques. But what differentiates the two, what are the borders and limitations and what are the consequences of not conforming to the almost unsaid and self regulated SEO policies of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing?
I have had a varied career and was approached 4 years ago to take a look at a leading UK SEO organization. Whilst my title during this fairly brief encounter was operations manager, it should not be confused as that of an I.T. operations manager as my brief was focussed on the business side of the SEO, i.e. how hourly rates could be costed, capacity measured and value for money delivered to their clients. The company was and I am sure remains to this day an ethical white hat business albeit with a tint a dark grey!
So white hat, black hat, what are you?
The term white hat originates from the early American western movies where the sheriff and/or good guy could always be seen wearing that white gleaming hat which reflected their squeaky clean reputations. Obviously, in those same movies you would inevitably come across the bad guy, dusted up and dirty, who would go to any lengths to make money and, yes you guessed it, wearing the black hat. It’s that simple.
In terms of SEO the white hat businesses, they stand for all that is considered good in terms of websites, including the ways in which they have earned good listings from the major search engines. They promote the use of clean text, quality content and have probably gained a reputation that could span years. In effect we can call them the purists.
There probably isn’t a business in the world which has a household brand who would not wish to make the claim, or at least aspire to making the claim that they are white hat. However, as with anything in life there are short cuts to the top and hand in hand with those short cuts come the penalties to be paid if caught being the wrong hat colour. These penalties, when taken into context are potentially the highest I have ever come across in business and can effectively convert a business considered highly profitable, and reputable one day, to being a social SEO outcast the next. Of course no reputable household name would want to be associated with black hat and SEO businesses can literally find themselves without a single client overnight as a consequence of being caught breaching search engine rules.
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In my brief time in SEO, I remember a single day when one of Europe’s largest car manufacturers disappeared completely off Google, it seemed almost incomprehensible to me at the time that a search engine could wield so much power, yet within 48 hours amidst much speculation and much to the delight of my bosses at that time, not only had one of their leading competitors gone out of business, but the car manufacturer had been compelled to make assurances to the search engine that such black hat practices would not be repeated or suffer the threat of a lifetime ban.
Black hat could be considered the art of bending the rules of major search engines to gain positions within search without getting caught. Black hat SEO companies will attempt to take fairly new websites and raise them to the top of the pile with minimal effort and for maximum gain and I would forewarn that any business entering the black hat world should beware as search engines are not forgiving businesses and if you value your business it’s best to remember that in those good old fashioned western movies, those who wore the black hat almost inevitably came to a grizzly end.
Tags:
search,
internet