The terms black hat seo and white hat seo come up every time somebody talks about search engine optimization. Many web site owners have different thoughts about what is black hat and what is white hat, but they can agree on one thing. Serious web site owners must know the difference between black hat and white hat seo methods if they want to survive online. I wrote this article to discuss black hat and white hat seo methods and how they can effect your site’s ranking.

White hat search engine optimization is the use of tactics that the major search engines encourage web masters to do. People that engage in these types of search engine optimization strategies can safely tell Google exactly what they are doing to increase their site’s visibility.

The use of black hat seo involves manipulating the search engines so that your site will get ranked quicker than normal. When the search engines find that you are participating in these tactics, they will usually drop your web site from their search engines. You might even find that the search engines decide to ban all of the web sites that are registered in your name. Web site owners that get all of their traffic from the free search engines will be shut down in one night.

Why use black hat seo if it can get you banned from the search engines? People use black hat search engine optimization because it is quick and easy and can get them ranked without the effort or the long wait that some of the other white hat methods entail. Examples of past black hat seo practices were key word stuffing, link farms, automated directory submissions, and even keyword stuffing a page with unrelated keywords in white font.

The problem with black hat seo is that it is always a short term fix. Using black hat seo tactics may indeed get you some quick rankings, but it will always get you banned from the search engines. Like one large Minnesota seo company says, “you’ll never have to wonder if you will be found out, but you will have to wonder when you will be found out”.

White hat seo methods consist of manually submitting to relevant directories, writing original articles for article directories, and creating unique and genuine advertisements on relevant web sites. You’ll find that white hat seo methods will increase your page rankings for the long term and your site will be better off.

Thank you so much for reading this article on the two major types of search engine optimization. Please add this page to all of your social book marks to increase its visibility.

Tags: black hat seo, search engine optimization, SEO, white hat seo