White-hat, Black-hat, and Gray-hat SEO
There are three types of SEO: "white-hat SEO", "black-hat SEO", and "gray-hat SEO". The terminology is somewhat childish but it does connote important distinctions:
- White-hat SEO is done by following Google's guidelines to the letter. Visit Google's Webmaster Central and read on! For a quick snap shot, download this SEO Guide provided by Google.
- Black-hat SEO explores those areas that are specifically prohibited by Google. The black-hat strategy can be very effective but it is risky. Some insist that it is also unethical. The main problem with the black-hat SEO is that it counts on things that are completely out of your control to remain the same. I know of several companies who have succeeded with their clever black-hat SEO techniques in the past. The problem is that Google and other search engines are getting smarter and smarter, so your chances of being caught and penalized are getting higher and higher. Overall, the risk/benefit ratio is moving deep into the negative zone. I won't recommend using black-hat SEO if your business depends on your online success. If, however, you need to promote something quick and have a separate website(s) that you are prepared to sacrifice, then by all means, do what it takes. Just keep innovating and do not use the same black-hat SEO techniques all the time. Use new and different techniques and change your strategy often. The way I see it, black-hat SEO techniques are unethical from Google's point of view because it makes things difficult for their engineers.
- Gray-hat SEO uses those SEO methods in which there is no clear way to differentiate between black and white-hat SEO techniques or where there is no ability to "prove" or detect that the black-hat techniques were, in fact, used. For example, duplicate content is a black hat SEO technique and yet Google openly states that it does not penalize websites for having duplicate content, so long as there is not too much of it. Why? Because there can be a number of legitimate reasons where you might end up with duplicate content: your blog posts and your press releases can have similar content; your product description and your newsletter can contain identical parts. If Google starts penalizing for this, the vast majority of websites will have to be penalized. Creative use of duplicate content is just one gray-hat SEO technique, but there are other gray-hat SEO techniques that have been successfully employed by many SEOs. In fact, most large-scale SEO projects involve art least one (in reality several!) gray-hat SEO techniques. Why? Because otherwise it will take you forever to get where you want to be!
Overall, search engine optimization of a website needs not to be risky to be conducted quickly and cost-effectively. A healthy mix of 90% white-hat SEO techniques and 10% gray-hat SEO techniques can take you as far as you want to go. Keep in mind, however, that the larger the number of keywords you need to target the more SEO work you would need to do (for most businesses, 3-5 keywords are optimium for one SEO project).
