Link building for SEO

White-hat vs Black-hat strategies

SEO link building can leave your site in a sorry state of affairs if done incorrectly. As you venture out into the SEO world, you will come across terms like “white hat” and “black hat”. This article aims to show you the key differences between the two.

The good; White hat strategies

White-hat strategies is a very low-risk marketing tool that will keep you in the good books with Google and Bing. Using white-hat techniques will ensure you keep to the webmaster guidelines. It also means you will not run into any problems with the search engines as you will not have suffered any penalties.

 Examples of White-hat tactics:

• Generating your own high-quality content
• Creating a highly engaging website and community that react with one another
• Promote your website in an organic way to genuine people

White-hat strategies work well for real users as you are able to build up long-term assets and relationships. You also don’t have to worry about suffering any penalties as your SEO will be in the Webmaster guidelines. The problem with White-hat SEO is that you have to think of the long-term, as it can take a while to have an effect on your traffic.

The bad; Black-hat strategies

 The term “black-hat” was originally used to describe computer hackers and is now being used to describe those who find loopholes in search engines. Black-hat in SEO, is now a technique whereby those involved, use loopholes in search engines to rank people higher than what they deserve.

Examples of Black-hat tactics:

• Showing altered content to search engines. Known as cloaking
• Placing hidden links into a website you do not own by exploiting a security flaw
• Hidden text on a page that users can’t see. Only seen by search engines

The biggest problem with black-hat SEO is that if you are caught using the loopholes you can suffer penalties and your traffic could stop overnight. We strongly recommend you do not use this technique for boosting your SEO.

White hat strategies are king:

You have been building your online brand and presence. The likely hood is that you will want to compete for many years to come. You will need to be careful how you do this. You will need to weigh up the risks and rewards of any marketing strategy you wish to implement.

This is why white hat marketing strategies are so important, yes, they take time, but you do not run the risk of being cut off one day and losing all traffic. Also, if you employ a white hat strategy to your site you will be adding value and depth to your business as well as the internet and search engines will love this. This can be done through a great customer experience and generating fantastic content that is engaging and productive.

The problem with a black hat strategy is that what works today may not work tomorrow, and the people that use these loopholes will employ another shady technique from their arsenal to help boost your rankings. And so, the cycle starts again.

The long-term benefits of white hat strategy seriously outweigh the benefits (if any) of a black hat strategy. Also, you will not be looking over your should after every Google update.

Rak Design (UK) Ltd are a creative graphic design & web design agency, based in Northamptonshire, delivering website design and development, digital marketing and corporate branding services that drive tangible and measurable results for your business.  If you have would like help discussing how you can benefit from our marketing services call the team on 01933 678 522 or complete our online contact form and we’d be happy to help.