White hat & Black hat

[Ricus]

White hat & Black hat are two types of business on the web, while white hat is the legal method and black hat the illegal one. More people prefer using black hat money making methods, as they result into more profits, but only for a short period of time. White hat methods on the other hand are able to be entire businesses, but can take longer to setup and will need more time to develop.
So what do you prefer and use?

 

[lowriderSTi]

White hat, of course. Ok, maybe some grey hat in some cases, but nothing unethically.

 

[isuit21]

White hat, of course. Ok, maybe some grey hat in some cases, but nothing unethically.

I am not quite sure, if grey hat really exists. Once you have done something, which is partly illegal, it is still illegal. I am focusing on white hat methods as well, unless with Search Engine Optimization. I may buy some black hat services for this task.

 

[EdwardKingston]

Thanks for the heads-up.
I prefer you to use White hat cause i ain't use black hat.

 

[Florentino89]

White hat SEO optimization is a method focused on the rules and recommendations of search engines. Is an optimization method that is based on creating optimal keyword densities on identical content for human users and search engine robots on quality links.
Black Hat SEO optimization is a method that does not comply with the rules and recommendations of search engines, trying to trick search robots, and indexing so as to get better. Black Hat SEO was considered a legal method, but due to the development of these techniques in the direction of the existence of a different visual content of the non-visually, using these methods attract penalties from the search engines.

 

[NeoGills]

i just use grey hat seo!
this means that i use sometime black hat and sometime white hat seo.

 

[BigBigFan]

I call grey hat the experimental color. You're not doing anything wrong or against webmaster approved practices but it's something new, untried, and you're not sure how it will end up being viewed by Google. I give 100% towards being white hat, I like to sleep soundly at night and not worry about getting de-indexed.

 

[atomic76]

Black Hat isn't really "illegal" in most cases, it's just highly frowned upon by the search engines because it undermines the quality of their search results.

I agree that there is Grey Hat techniques as well, such as when Reddit used to create a bunch of fake profiles and fake conversations to get the site to appear more active than it initially was when it started.

 

[Jessi]

White hat, of course. Ok, maybe some grey hat in some cases, but nothing unethically.

Same here. I usually don't even border on grey hat techniques, but I have done so accidentally in the past. I don't get anywhere near blackhat, though. I don't want to risk losing my websites.

 

[BigBigFan]

Do you think Google has changed what the internet has become with their guidelines? I know that there is an entire black hat community bent on SEO and backlinks and that is a result of Google and pagerank, but are their "webmaster approved" suggestions shaping the net just as much?

 

[tweety23]

I'd rather go with the white hat business, just because I don't like the sound of doing something illegally and possibly risk getting in trouble for it later down the line. Though it seems like if you work hard enough, you can reap the benefits in the long run and I'd feel like my hard work has finally paid off at that point.

 

[Tara]

I use white hat SEO techniques for the most part. White hat takes time, but it's worth it. I don't want to have to worry about my blog/websites. The whole point of my blog and website is lead generation for my sales job. I can't afford to have anything happen to those sites. They are my bread and butter.

I have used some gray hat techniques, but nothing extreme. When I first launched my blog, I added plenty of content. I didn't add any dates to my posts. At first glance, it looks like my blogs is a few years old, but it was brand spanking new. I was trying to build credibility and loading up my blog with content helped me to do that.

I do agree that black hat is not illegal. Black hat is doing something against the term of agreement of a site or service. No actual laws are being broken.

 

[afh]

Whit Hat is the only option. Or else you get caught up in a constant cat-and-mouse game with Google, and at some point they find a way to ruin your entire business and you have to start all over again. Stay inside the rules and you'll be able to build a sustainable business.

 

[bauss]

Black hat methods are for temporary sites that you'll sell after a few months, because they'll get penalized, but they can make good money. White hat methods are for sites that you want to make money long term, so white hat methods are better.

 

[win2win]

What is Black Hat? I use software that the majority of 'Black Hat' users use, but I use it in a way I say is sensible, and I certainly don't spam anywhere like forum comments, I do them manually, again using software to find and track them.

As soon as you act in a way that puts a backlink to your own site, rather than it being done naturally, you are in breach of Google's T&C so therefore Black Hat. But Google doesn't penalise people for doing that, not that they ever could as their systems are not as clever as they try to make you think. What worked 2,3,5 years ago still works just as well now ..... and that is ....... just spread the links over all kinds of sites, use keywords, random keywords, 'click here', url's, etc, and you'll pass any Google update.

 

[Nymph]

I tend to find that if you do the majority of your work with White Hat SEO, you will easily cover the tracks of any Black Hat behaviour that occurs -outside- of your site. If you try to use ancient methods like keyword cloaking, stuffing, and spamming, you will be penalized without debate. However, if you were to use a backlinking service that pings from different websites and IPs other than your own, who's to say someone didn't simply submit your site in an attempt to sabotage it? This is where gaming the system comes in and, because it's on a level of tolerance and not something that can be discovered through technical means, it will be very difficult for you to be caught.

What I mean is, if your site has good quality and your domain has aged for a while, your trust factor with Google will be very high. If you were to make use of a backlinking service and Google's engine detects that black hat behaviour, you will not be penalized when it happens in these small amounts due to this trust factor. The best way to do Black Hat is by not playing on the search engine's playing field, but rather, creating your own, so to speak. I never risk it too much with my sites, but it's more than possible to do correctly and people do get away with pretty insane things.

 

[Viktori]

I prefer white hat methods since it's much more sustainable. Black hat SEO may work, and they may also even be sustainable, but I don't know any of the applications where it would be so. For what I know, white hat methods are the best suited since black hat methods only tend to bring temporary or non-organic results which I just don't have much use for.

 

[BigJ]

With any product or service, you typically get what you pay for it. If you are going to use strictly white hat methods then you shouldn't be paying for any services at all and you will focus on spending time building up more and more content and natural back-links. Black hat strategies accelerate this process but are usually obvious as a lot of work is done in a short amount of time.
It really depends on how you personally feel about the subject but in my opinion, if you are collecting money to provide SEO as a service, then you should provide a quality service that will not penalize your clients.

 

[isp]

I go with white hat over black hat for the sustainability.

 

[sb123]

I have read stories of internet marketers using black hat techniques to proper online, but I have never used any of those methods. In fact, I have my own product to sell to offline clients, and I am happy with my business. Even if there was no product, I would never have used any black hat techniques to earn online money.