It is quite right that in the world of SEO, there are plenty of quick-fix illegitimate approaches. Here’s how to know if you are doing the same and are at risk of incurring penalties by Google.

“There are many a road that leads to Rome,” goes the English translation of an age-old Roman idiom. And quite right, too, anything that is important usually has many approaches to achieve the same goal. SEO is no different.

Often some of the illegitimate strategies work just fine if not better, leaving the adjective “best” to be subjective. It is perhaps useful for SEO itself that Black Hat SEO has a significant number of pitfalls compared to the desired approach.

While temporary gains are easier to achieve through Black Hat SEO techniques, remember you are doing it at the risk of incurring Google’s wrath as penalties. This means you stand to lose out on all 51% of all website traffic as they originate from Google’s organic search results.

But before getting down to a final word, it would really help to know what White Hat and Black Hat SEO techniques really are.

White Hat SEO

In its very essence, White Hat SEO refers to site optimization strategies and activities that constitute the ethical and “right” way of going about the task as undertaken by an SEO marketing company in Adelaide like International Media House.

All White Hat SEO techniques share the following characteristics:

They abide by the guidelines laid down by search engines

It is accepted by and large that all SEO related activities which are in line with the Webmaster Guidelines as laid down by Google are deemed to be White Hat. These rules are the proper way for SEO as envisioned by Google. The main catchword of the entire SEO procedure as determined by Google is not to try and manipulate the rankings. What that means you are not trying to mislead the ranking algorithm of Google into ranking you higher.

It’s meant for humans

In the case of White Hat SEO strategies, you change sites in a way that actually prove to be of help to the visitors of the website. Remember, Google wants to provide users with the most relevant and better search results. So, anything that makes your website better for visitors constitutes to be a White Hat SEO technique. Most of the better SEO strategy out there in some part involved in bettering the user experience of the websites. These include creating great content and enduring that page load times are kept to a bare minimum.

It’s a long-term move

As might be expected from the higher path, treading on it not quite as easy. This means it will take time for your efforts to show results. On the bright side is the fact that the results are far longer lasting when compared to Black Hat SEO.

In short, White Hat SEO is the Adelaide online marketing way to go if you want results that last for a long time. It’s safer too and doesn’t risk you attracting Google’s penalties and thereby cut down your traffic by half.

Black Hat SEO

In its simplest sense, Black Hat SEO is the opposite counterpart of legitimate SEO practices. It fulfils one or more of the following criteria:

It practices tactics that violate the guidelines laid down by Google

Black Hat SEO involves doing things that are contrary to the instructions and are often in direct contrast to what those guidelines ask you to do.

It tries to manipulate

Instead of enhancing the user experience, Black Hat SEO instead focuses on ways to manipulate the ranking algorithm of Google. In other terms, what that means is that you are trying to trick Google into thinking a site has more value than what it actually does.

It concentrates on short-term gains

In the case of Black Hat SEO techniques, you try to use loopholes in Google’s algorithm to get better rankings at a fraction of the effort. They do often work, but you shouldn’t expect the results to last long. This is a direct result of Google’s efforts to keep its results the best they possibly can be from the point of view of users. This also means that you risk losing your high rankings every time Google updates and modifies its algorithm.

Examples of the Two SEO Techniques

Both the Black as well as White Hat SEO techniques have the same goals, but there is little overlap between the two. Some examples of the two methods are as follows:

White Hat Examples

These are essential cornerstones that White Hat SEO goes by as per Google’s guidelines:

• Web pages are meant for human visitors rather than search engine algorithms and web crawlers.
• You never try to trick or deceive the user in any manner
• Don’t opt for manipulative steps in trying to better your rankings; you know the hidden tricks! To determine the legitimacy of SEO activity, think whether you could explain what you have done to Google’s employees without any hesitation.
• Instead try to make your website and its content, engaging, useful and unique.

As per Google, the sites that follow its guidelines will have better rankings in the long term.

Black Hat Examples

Google’s recommendations on the things you should not be doing to improve your site’s ranking are more or less particular and specific. They are as follows:

• Generate content from automated sources
• Be a part of link schemes
• Create pages that have a lot of duplicate content
• Indulge in cloaking
• Hide links or text
• Scrape content
• Create doorway pages
• Using irrelevant keywords in the site content
• Having malware in the site
• Be a part of affiliate schemes that are of little actual value
• Misuse rich snippets code
• Send queries to google automatically

Please keep in mind that the above list is in no way comprehensive and does not include all types of Black Hat SEO techniques, nor does it claim to do so.

The Bottom Line

It best if you stick to White Hat SEO techniques. While such techniques by an SEO specialist in Adelaide may indeed take due time to show results not to mention effort and money, they are safe and are your best bet if you focus on long time well being of your website and the end it tries to promote.

If you are looking for the right Adelaide online marketing company to partner with and watch your business grow, please get in touch with the International Media House!