SEO has been a sizzling topic of discussion for the community of digital marketers. It is going to remain a hot topic to explore the unearthed aspects as Google is making continuous changes in its ranking algorithms to keep the SEO agencies and professionals busy in exploring the competitive ethical ways to rank the business website better. The new topic to debate, discuss, and detail is – white hat SEO vs black hat SEO vs gray hat SEO.
The Top Concerns Of Website Owners And SEO Professionals:
Which is good for your SEO project? Should you approach for hybrid model mixing all the three SEO types? Why do the most SEO experts claim White Hat SEO practices to impress the clients? Is Black Hat SEO is that bad? Can you adopt Gray Hat SEO to get maximum ROI for SEO?
What is White Hat SEO? It is a practice of implementing ethical and approved search engine optimization tactics to improve the rank of a website in search engine results pages (SERP). The approval of SEO tactics is not limited just to Google but the applied tactics should be in line with other major search engines also.
What is Black Hat SEO?
These are unethical search engine optimization tactics often implemented to improve the rank of a website earlier or to increase traffic in a short period. However, these SEO tactics are against ranking algorithms of search engine guidelines; therefore, websites promoted with Black Hat SEO get penultimate action early or later.
What is Gray Hat SEO?
As the name denotes, Gray Hat SEO includes Black Hat and White Hat SEO tactics but it is riskier than White Hat SEO. Some Gray Hat SEO tactics that are not ethical as per search engines today may not drive in penalty and may be effective to increase traffic.
Comparative Study – White Hat SEO Vs Black Hat SEO Vs Gray Hat SEO:
Longevity: White Hat SEO delivers long-term effective ranking and traffic benefits. Black Hat SEO is often short-term effective and may drive a penalty that stays effective for long-term. Gray hat SEO techniques are at the risk of being penalized; the website may get or may not get the penalty; therefore, the achieved benefits are for short-term and can be used for initial stage SEO boost.
Risk of Penalty: The penalty risk level is zero, high and medium for White Hat, Black Hat available Gray Hat SEO practices respectively. If SEO is caught against the ranking algorithms of search engines, the website may suffer at different intensity even it may be blocked.
Content Quality: Content created for White Hat SEO has high value for target users. Content created for Black Hat SEO is keywords stuffed and doesn’t give value to target audience. Content created for Gray Hat SEO contains keywords to get traffic but it doesn’t deliver good value to users because the most of SEO experts use old spun content.
SEO Practices For White Hat, Black Hat And Gray Hat Strategy:
| White Hat SEO | Black Hat SEO | Gray Hat SEO |
| On page SEO | Keyword stuffing | Trading links |
| Quality content | Linking over-optimization | Building micro-sites |
| Local SEO | Hidden text and links | Spinning content |
| Backlinks development | Content automation | Buying expired domains |
| Branding | Cloaking | Private blog network |
| Site performance | Guest post spam | Link exchange |
| Mobile friendliness | Buying links | Multiple social media profiles |
Concluding Note:
Any SEO agency looking for long-term customer relationship and repute building would not go for Black Hat SEO. Some digital marketing companies use Gray Hat SEO tactics to impress the clients by improving traffic volume in short period but the gains are only for a short-term; therefore, the top SEO companies don’t rely Gray Hat SEO also. Most of time, Gray Hat SEO tactics are used to reduce the overall cost of digital marketing; the often used Gray Hat SEO tricks are-
• Adding length of old content
• Listing website to web directories
• Getting positive reviews
• Blog development
• Web 2.0 submission