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We all know that honesty pays off, and it’s a motto that should guide every marketer to take care of both the quality and credibility of his business. Thus, the safest and most effective way of getting your website on top of the search engine results is making it according to the law and the rules imposed by search engine algorithms. And here’s where you need to know two of the positioning methods – White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO.
Quick is not always efficient
Positioning methods take various forms and use different tools. Many of the activities carried out on and off the sites are considered unethical or even illegal in the light of the law, e.g. constituting a manifestation of unfair competition. That’s why it’s necessary to clearly distinguish and categorize each of them. Unfortunately, the temptation to get quick results is often too tempting, but it’s impossible to achieve the goal and maintain it longer if you use all the questionable methods. Google bots are able to verify such actions and eliminate frauds, imposing appropriate penalties. That’s why it’s definitely better to use the support of professional SEO experts like Rank Higher Agency.
What’s White Hat SEO?
White Hat SEO is the method of positioning that’s carried out within generally accepted industry rules and guidelines in accordance with both Google algorithms and a number of legal and administrative recommendations. It makes a website attractive to both users and search engine bots – they don’t have any problems with reading it correctly and don’t encounter any performance errors. Using this method, you shouldn’t purchase links from unreliable sources, place them in footers on forums, use cataloging, etc. White Hat pays special attention to unique titles with high-quality content tailored to the user’s needs. It includes website code optimization, clear navigation elements, exchanging links only with trusted websites or acquiring them naturally through recommendation, using text addresses instead of symbols and characters, and so on.
What’s Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO has a bad reputation and low efficiency, neither guaranteeing long-term effects nor meeting the accepted quality standards. It’s quick, but at the same time forbidden and unacceptable, including, for example, hiding the content by giving it the appropriate color, blending with the background, additional links with nofollow attributes or placing them outside the areas visible to Internet users. Such a dishonest SEO method usually uses a so-called spamdexing: adding random, popular phrases, not closely related to the subject of the page, so that it indexes for a greater number of potential queries or keyword stuffing and cloaking (incompatibility of information provided in the search engine with the actual content of the page). They also create special bot programs that automatically refresh pages or click the ads. Google bots are trying to actively marginalize and neutralize the influence of similar activities, so you should always think about the consequences. Although there are tricks and attempts to bypass the search engine’s algorithms, remember that by incorporating Black Hat SEO you’re exposing your website to the threat of sanctions, such as filters or bans, which results in a sudden drop or even complete disappearance from the search results.
Summing up
Every company that is planning a SEO campaign should be aware of these two methods and use positioning services wisely. Remember that it’s better to wait for the results a bit longer than to pay for the consequences of breaking the rules.
