Types of SEO
Now we have understood that SEO is the process of optimizing a website (making a website easy to understand by search engines and users) to increase the organic traffic. The search engines like Google have issued some guidelines that one has to follow while optimizing a site. If the SEO is done in accordance with the guidelines, it is called White Hat SEO, and if it is done without following the guidelines, it is called Black Hat SEO. So, basically, there are two types of SEO:
White Hat SEO
It refers to the SEO techniques which are in accordance with the SEO guidelines set by the search engines. It means it uses approved search engine optimization techniques to improve the ranking of a site on search engine results pages (SERP).
Unlike Black Hat SEO, it mainly focuses on the human audience as opposed to a search engine. People who are looking for long-term investment on their websites rely on white hat SEO techniques. Examples of White Hat SEO include quality content, internal linking, link building, site optimization, social media marketing, Google Ads, etc.
Black Hat SEO
It refers to the SEO techniques which are not in accordance with the SEO guidelines set by the search engines. These techniques exploit the weaknesses in search engines to get higher rankings for websites on the search engine results pages (SERP).
It mainly focuses on search engines and not on the human audience. People who are looking for a quick financial return on their website rather than a long term investment use black hat SEO techniques.
Sometimes, it may give quick results, but only for short duration, and over time it will have the opposite effect, e.g., it may downgrade your ranking and get you blacklisted by search engines. Examples of Black Hat SEO include keyword stuffing, duplicate content, cloaking, hiding content, thin content, doorway pages, link sachems, etc.
White Hat vs Black Hat SEO
| White Hat SEO | Black Hat SEO |
|---|---|
| The techniques which comply with search engine guidelines are used to improve search engine rankings. | The techniques which are not approved by search engines are used to improve SEO of a site. |
| Don’t need to worry about getting penalized or de-indexing of your site. | It may get your site banned, de-indexed or penalized by search engines. |
| Focused on providing quality and relevant content to the users. | Don’t care about the quality of the content. |
| Suitable for people who are looking for a long-term investment. | People looking for quick financial return prefer Black Hat SEO |
| It focuses on optimum use of keywords in title, metatags and body of content. | Keyword density is increased to achieve higher search engine ranking. |
