White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO: What To Pick For your Website and Why?

White Hat SEO Techniques

Are you an SEO enthusiast looking forward to ranking for competitive words but are hesitant due to penalties by Google? If yes, then you must opt for White Hat SEO.

I know what you’re thinking right now, Are white hat techniques capable of competing with the black hat techniques without breaking the rules?

Well, the answer to this question is yes. White SEO works absolutely amazingly in most of the industries except in some specific industries. Using white hat SEO techniques will help your website ranking higher and holding a significant position in Google. Besides this, it will lead the big search engines to like your website and place it in a better position on SERPs.

Here, we bring you a blog on White hat SEO and how it is an amazing alternative to the black hat tactics. Before diving into it, let’s get to know what white hat and black hat SEO are.

What is a White-Hat SEO?

White-hat SEO refers to a procedure helpful in improving search rankings of a website on the SERPs (Search engine result page). Some people also consider it to be the process of using website optimization strategies, techniques, and tactics that are approved by Google. White-hat SEO is all about putting your users or audiences above everything else.

White-hat SEO encompasses working on a website by abiding all the rules laid by Google, providing top-notch quality content and services, optimizing for humans rather than for search engines, creating an outstanding website with lesser loading time, and mobile-friendliness, better-researched keywords, and descriptive meta tags.

White Hat vs. Black Hat SEO: What To Pick For your Website and Why? 1

On the other end, there is black-hat SEO which is completely contradictory to white-hat SEO.

What is the Black-Hat SEO?

The term black-hat SEO refers to a technique that involves the usage of misleading concealed tricks or buying links. In simpler words, using strategies, techniques, or tactics that don’t follow Google’s guidelines are absolutely unethical and fall in the black-hat SEO techniques.

Besides this, making strategies that are harmful to the search users but still give you the desired result (i.e., rankings) are also considered to be black hat SEO techniques.

Black hat SEO is always focused on discovering and making the most of algorithmic loopholes. Well, these loopholes won’t have any effect on you but could be harmful to your competitors. Some of these tactics are absurdly unethical. 

The black-hat SEO comprises fragmenting Google’s guidelines, giving importance to search engines over audiences, hacking competitor’s websites, and making advances to cheat users with cloaking and doorway pages.

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With the updates in Google algorithms now it is becoming difficult for black hat SEO techniques to work their magic on search engines. This is the reason why white hat SEO has become the most preferred choice among SEO strategists.

So, in the game of white hat SEO vs black hat SEO, the one technique that wins is one and only – White hat SEO.

Now that you’re familiar with white hat and black SEO strategies, it’s time to tell you why white-hat SEO tactics are a better choice than black-hat ones. Unless you’re in an industry where the latter one works well.

Is White Hat SEO always the apt choice?

Well, generally it will be depending on your niche and its goals. If you’re someone who is looking forward to building a long-term brand then you must opt for white-hat SEO techniques. People who are working on a bonafide project in an established industry have a sureshot chances of winning without having to take help of any kind of  black-hat tactics

There are hardly any people who try to indulge in black hat SEO due to various reasons. The ones who used to have started to shift their base from Black hat SEO to white hat SEO techniques.

There are several reasons behind this shift as mentioned below.

Black hat SEO is expensive

With technological advancements and constant updation, Google has become more competent than ever before in identifying spammy and low-cost techniques like keyword stuffing. If you’re into black hat SEO, you’ll have to move towards much more exorbitant strategies like building a PBN. 

Black-hat SEO is a pool of risks

I don’t think there is anybody who wishes to attract a Google penalty. But if you’re someone who is into black hat SEO, you have a sureshot chance of attracting one. 

Black-hat SEO need “technical knowledge”

The path of black hat SEO is not as easy as it seems to be. One needs to have a thorough technical knowledge of how the web works and the ways in which you can use this knowledge for your well-being. It is a kind of knowledge that can’t be shared on a public platform which is enough for anyone to understand that black-hat SEO isn’t a practical approach.

Why White Hat SEO is a better choice than Black-Hat Counterparts

One Amazing Website over Dozens of Horrible Sites

With black hat SEO, one has to create several websites in order to see which one works and the one that doesn’t. After that, they devote their time and effort to the ones that have enough potential.

It is quite easy to outsource this process like getting some under experienced content writers for blogs, launching multiple WordPress installs with one button, and uploading all of this content on a network of sites with another button.

Here, the focus is upon making as many websites as possible as a result the sites end up looking unattractive and deceitful.

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This was the black-hat SEO way, now let’s move on to the white hat SEO.

White hat SEO strategy believes in creating only one website and devoting considerable time & effort in improving the UI/UX.

Some points you need to keep in mind are as follows:

Brand-Focused

You must pay attention to the style, colour, and Typography as they play an essential role in turning a website into a brand. With this, audiences will be able to remember your site and are also likely to choose your website when it appears in the SERPs.

Mobile-Friendly

Today the number of people accessing a website through mobile phones is much higher than desktop ones. Due to this, it is essential to have themes that are responsive out of the box; can be responsive, and also work on mobile phones. Even after this, you must spend some time on the looks and feel of your website.

Usage of White Space

Something that irritates someone while looking at a website is – cluttered design. Ensure using white space for splitting up various sections of your websites. White space is quite effective as it increases readability and promotes interaction.

Creating Distinctive Content or Stealing Other’s Content

One of the biggest unacceptable and unethical things in SEO is stealing someone’s content and posting it on your website. Well, if you do so Goggle is absolutely not going to like your website because it doesn’t support duplicate content as it’s of no use to audiences/users. With the intent of ending this practice, Google came with its new algorithm – Panda.

Majorly there are two Black-hat content-stealing methods like Republishing existing posts and Spun content.

Do you want your website to be Google’s favourite? If yes, then you must follow the white hat SEO way.

Here, you’ll have to create original content without any similarity to other content. There is absolutely no place for any kind of spun content or rewritten content. Besides this, you’ll have to keep in mind that you’re content must please and serve both your users and Google.

There are several ways of creating attractive content as follows:

Catchy Headline

One of the easiest ways of captivating readers to your content is by writing an amazing headline. It will get readers to look at your content and read further too. But don’t make them appear like a clickbait instead write descriptive page titles.

Content Structure

While creating content, ensure that it’s easy to read and understand. For more clarity, provide subheadings and short paragraphs.

Spellbinding Meta Description

Well, Meta descriptions don’t have a direct impact on your website’s ranking but it is also the first thing a user sees. So, make sure it’s captivating enough for users to click on it.

PBN vs Microsites

Private Blog Network refers to a network of sites owned by you. All you have to do is link all of these sites to a money website that you wish to rank. Well, you must know that this is a black hat technique and is not entertained by Google. Besides this, it is also quite expensive and takes a lot of time.

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PBN can surely get you good results but with a lot of risks too. If you’re someone with an established firm, please avoid it.

Everything has an alternative, so PBN has Microsites. ( A White hat SEO technique)

Talking about Microsites, it refers to a single web page that has an individual operation on its own domain or subdomain. They are generally used for certain campaigns or attracting specific users. 

Even Microsites are quite costly but are still used widely as they are highly beneficial in the long-term. Sometimes they even turn into substantial full-time projects.

Spam vs Outreach

To your surprise what you might think to be an outreach is actually spamming. 

Spamming is a huge part of black-hat SEO and the process consists of extracting various sites, using the same template without any customization, seeing people irritated, and still continuing the game of spamming.

Well, it’s high time that you know neither Google nor users like spamming.

Always opt for the White hat SEO technique – Outreach. It is advised to draft specific and customized outreach emails.

Personalized

Don’t just change the name and enter. Instead, try customizing each outreach mail for each of the recipients.

Specifically Targeted

Don’t send mail to everyone you know or find on online platforms. Always find your niche audiences who will opt for your services.

Building Bonds

Try creating a relationship or bond with your audiences rather than just sending mail out of the blue. There are several benefits of ongoing relationships like networking, partnerships, etc.

Wrapping Up

In a capsule, White-hat SEO is all about putting the audiences first, creating unique content, and avoiding spamming. It’s not just about making for yourself, it’s also about seeing things by keeping the future in mind.

We agree that Black-hat SEO gives amazing results in a lesser amount of time but when it comes to long-term success, White-hat SEO is the one. A legitimate company must never indulge in black hat SEO techniques as it is a highly risky affair.

If you’re made up your mind to opt for White-hat SEO techniques, remember it is a long-term game and not something like instant coffee.

We hope this blog on White-hat SEO will help you in improving your website and bring more visitors to your business.

If you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to share it in the comments.

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