White hat vs black hat SEO—wondering what the difference is? Wonder no more. We’ve written you the perfect guide to answer all of your questions about acceptable SEO practices.
We’ll teach you about the different types of SEO techniques that earn you a high search rank without incurring penalties. And, we’ll share some examples of unacceptable black hat SEO techniques so you can avoid them.
Lastly, we’ll explain how hiring white label local SEO services can help. Find out what services an SEO agency or SEO expert in Dubai can provide and if it’s a good idea to outsource your SEO.
Read on to learn all about it.
How Does SEO Work?
First and foremost, the reason SEO exists is that search companies strive to provide their users with the most relevant results possible. As such, these companies’ criteria for determining content relevance are constantly evolving.
That is the algorithms that tell a search engine how to rank search results are updated every few months. This is done to make page ranking more accurate, which makes the search engine more helpful to its users.
Thus, there are optimization techniques you can use to provide the awesome content that search engines want their users to see.
What is White Hat SEO?
Creating the type of content we just mentioned, helpful, relevant, high-quality—that’s the essence of white hat SEO. Remember: Google wants to lead users to the best content.
White hat or white label SEO just means offering great content on a great website. This is an acceptable way to rank high on search engines.
White Hat SEO Techniques
White hat SEO techniques focus on two things: quality/relevance of the content and the useability of the website. They ensure the website:
- Is conveniently and intuitively organized
- Is responsive
- Includes links that work and make sense
- Includes helpfully structured HTML
They also ensure that page content:
- Is well-written and without grammar errors
- Is competent
- Is relevant to a popular keyword
- Uses keywords and links helpfully and naturally
Basically, white hat SEO is centered on making sites and content that people want to see.
What is Black Hat SEO?
Another reason search engine algorithms are updated is to discourage cheaters. You see, rather than providing helpful content that will naturally rank high, some people try to manipulate the system.
They try to find out what the algorithms look for so they can trick search engines into thinking their content is great. This is called black hat SEO.
Does Black Hat SEO Work?
Black hat SEO absolutely doesn’t work. Take keyword stuffing for example.
Search engines used to rank a page high simply because it had a lot of relevant keywords. The result was a lot of webpages that stuffed mediocre content with relevant keywords to rank high.
It worked, but only for a short time. As soon as Google caught on, they updated their algorithm to penalize keyword stuffing. Then, those pages ranked so low, they were never heard from again.
This perfectly illustrates what happens when you use black hat SEO. Namely:
- If it works, it will only work until the next update
- If you’re caught, the penalties can be severe
Using black hat SEO might penalize more than the search rank of the offending page. It could get your whole domain blacklisted off of Google.
Black Hat SEO Techniques
Black Hat SEO techniques include:
- Unnatural, irrelevant use of keywords or links
- Automated content is written by chatbots
- Link schemes
- Dishonest redirects
- Phishing for user information
- Attempts to infect users with spyware, viruses, or other malware
Black hat SEO is basically an attempt to rank high other than by creating useful pages like you’re supposed to. Usually, it means trying to trick the search engines or page visitors.
Do You Need White Label Local SEO Services?
White hat SEO can be done on your own. But it gets done a lot better when you hire white label local SEO services.
A reputable SEO agency in Dubai will improve your search rank the right way. And they’ll avoid all black hat SEO techniques so you don’t get penalized.
If you do choose to do SEO by yourself, be careful to follow the guidelines above. If you’d rather leave it to the experts, contact us here so we can get started.
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