Black Hat versus White Hat SEO

There’s a stereotype about old westerns from the 1950′s and 1960′s that all good cowboys wore white hats, and all villains wore black hats.  It served as an easy way for audiences to tell good from bad.

When discussing search engine optimization, there are “white hat” techniques and “black hat” techniques – that is, techniques for optimizing your content and site traffic that are considered “good”, and those that are considered “bad”.

In this case, though, we’re not identifying good or bad in the eyes of the audience, but rather in the eyes of search engines.  Certain search engine optimization techniques, while they may provide temporary gains, are considered unethical and may violate webmaster guidelines for one or more search engines.  These violations can get your site penalized or banned, and end up causing more harm than good.

Some “black hat” techniques include buying/selling links and “keyword stuffing”.  I only implement “white hat” SEO techniques.  As a content developer, manager and promoter, I am committed to adhering to the webmaster guidelines set forth by the various search engines, including Google, Yahoo and Bing.  I will not employ any “black hat” techniques as a matter of course, and so there is no risk of reprisal from the search engines.  I want your website to achieve the highest ranking possible, and will work hard to make this happen in an ethical, responsible manner.  Contact me so I can help you achieve your goals.