Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has become a crucial requirement for boosting the ranking of your website in search engine’s results page. The reason for this is that search engines use certain algorithms to rank various websites. Therefore, for a website to come into focus it has to follow specific principles. SEO uses these principles to help increase the ranking of a web page or a website in a search result.
SEO techniques can be classified into two types, white hat and black hat. What is the difference between the two? The distinction between white hat and black hat SEO is the specific techniques used by each of them to improve the ranking of a website or web page. Techniques that search engines advocate as a part of good design are white hat SEO and those techniques that search engines do not endorse are black hat SEO.
The following are some of the differences between the two.
1. A major difference between them is that black hat SEO uses deception to enter the ranking of a search engine. It exploits the weak spots in the algorithms of a search engine to achieve high ranking. While white hat SEO uses good methods to improve search engine ranking.
2. White hat SEO technique chooses to abide by the rules laid down by search engines to build a long lasting ranking for a website. They depend on durable methods to boost rankings. Black hat SEO does no such thing.
3. Black hat SEO is not approved by search engines, while white hat SEO is approved by search engines.
4. White hat SEO involves creating content that is for users and not for search engines. On the other hand, black hat SEO creates content that is of no benefit to a user. The main aim of black hat SEO is to enhance the position of a website or web page in a search engine result irrespective of what it takes to do it.
5. Black hat SEO uses techniques, such as link farming, keyword stuffing, doorway and cloaked pages, spamming, invisible text, and so on. The techniques used by white hat SEO encompasses content improvement, cross-linking with relevant trusted sources, analysis, research, re-writing meta tags, and web design.
6. White hat SEO has results that last a long time, in contrast, black hat SEO has results that are short term or temporarily. The reason for this is that a website can be banned or penalized, if search engines discover what they are practicing black hat SEO.
Conclusion
It is advisable to follow white hat SEO technique, if one plans their website to be operational for a long time. The reason for this is that white hat SEO follows ethical methods to get higher ranking. Black hat SEO, on the other hand, follows unethical methods that can get a website de-indexed or penalized. Moreover, black hat SEO has a positive effect for a website only for a short time and has disastrous impact in the long run.