A definition of white hat, organic SEO

White hat SEO, or ethical search engine optimization is a set of tactics that complies with the rules of search engines. The purpose of ethical SEO is to improve the visibility and SERP of your website, but without compromising on the 'integrity' of your SEO methods. The world's biggest search engine, Google, has published many guidelines about ethical SEO and what web developers/website owners can aim for with regards to their SEO.

Since the beginning of SEO, website owners had to make a decision to use whitehat SEO tactics or bend the search engine rules a bit to gain unfair advantage. The unfair advantage gained by bending the rules is known as blackhat SEO. This inbound marketing strategy does not follow the search engine guidelines and uses different ways to manipulate things to their advantage. These tactics deliberately confuse search engine crawl bots and cut corners. The main reasons why SEOs employ blackhat tactics is to save time. Many SEOs will argue however, that all SEO tactics are blackhat in manipulating the search engines. Many will say that getting penalized is the real difference between black and whitehat SEO!

What tactic do you choose for SEO?

Perhaps the question should be: what objective are you trying to achieve (short term or long term) and how much risk are you willing to take?

Whitehat SEO is low risk, provided that you follow the search engine updates and guidelines. It is also great for the long term ranking of the website. The only downside with whitehat SEO is that it takes longer and you may want to monetize your website quicker.

At the other end of the spectrum, blackhat SEO tactics are risky, suited for short term goals and shorter longevity of the website. It is quicker to monetize a website but the downside is being de-indexed suddenly.

Is there a happy medium between whitehat and blackhat SEO?

Most websites are employing a mixture of white and blackhat SEO tactics. Whether they do this deliberately or not, there will always be a risk of getting penalized when search engines update their algorithms. As mentioned above, it is the website owner's responsibility to manage the risk of their website being penalized.

Remember that many SEOs regard all SEO tactics as blackhat and customize the various SEO tactics available. For instance, they may use a spin content tool to create new content fast (low quality content) and inject this in their main body of original content. They may create doorway pages (stuffed with keywords) to redirect visitors to a different page. Some use PHP scripts to do cloaking for selected pay per click ad campaigns. These SEOs know that it is only a matter of time before their websites get a poor ranking-but they would rather cash in on the short term gains.

It is always the website owner's responsibility to follow any search engine updates and prevent their websites from getting de-indexed. If they use a mixture of whitehat and blackhat SEO tactics, then they should also be wary of the risk. It is the only way to achieve their website monetization goals whilst cooperating with the search engines.

 Focus on good SEO and you will be reap the long term rewards

 Why does long term success take so much effort? It is precisely the long term vision and rewards that make it worthwhile. Before you start SEO, it is vital to know what customer service search engines want to provide; this will give you a better idea of the long term SEO goals. Search engines want to retrieve the most relevant, up to date and authoritative content for their users. Make your website a quality, authoritative website and search engines will want to reward you:

Quality website: quality websites have many linkable assets and are share-worthy. The quality, relevance, in depth coverage and originality are all elements of a high quality website recognized by search engines.

Careful keyword/semantic research: thorough keyword phrase research and natural language search queries should be looked into for building your content around. In the competitive world wide web, long tail keywords and end of the sales funnel phrases are what counts. Get there before your competitors!

Pay for ethical SEO services: it goes without saying that the money you save on high quality SEO is greater than poor SEO. You will spend less time and money salvaging a penalized website.

Internal link structure: link relevant pages to each other and remember not to overdo it.

Write meta descriptions for humans: what will entice your audience to click through when they see your meta description? Be relevant and interesting, not misrepresenting. Meta descriptions are not click bait.

Backlinks from diverse, high quality domains: to increase the perceived authority of your website, earn links from websites that matter. The only websites that matter are high quality ones with a high trust flow, related industry and many linkable assets themselves.

Have you decided yet on what SEO tactics to use for your website? As search engines become increasingly more sophisticated, it pays to stay on top of the SEO game and refine your SEO methods. Whether you are using purely whitehat, blackhat or a mixture of both, your website goals really dictate what risks you are willing to take. Black hat SEO is synonymous with high risk short term gains. Unless you are looking to monetize and destroy your website very quickly instead of building a lasting brand, it is always safer to play by search engines rules.

Source: A definition of white hat, organic SEO