When it comes to marketing, how often do you question what you believe?
Black hat – White hat
I was prompted to write about this, when I read a very interesting blog comment earlier today. It really made me think.
Here’s the gist of it. The commenter stated that in his opinion, all SEO could be defined as black hat (or unethical.) His point was that Google claims it wants only the most valuable sites to rank the highest, yet Google actively encourages so-called white hat (or ethical) SEO tactics. In other words, business owners who learn SEO or pay for professional SEO, are welcome to gain an advantage over sites with better content, with Google’s blessing.
The interesting thing for me there, was NOT whether black hat SEO is worse than white hat SEO.
The interesting thing for me, was that until I had read that comment, I’d never really thought about things that way before. I saw SEO as a very black and white thing (excuse the pun). White hat was good, black hat was bad – period. Now, I see there are shades of grey, too.
In short: It’s so easy, maybe too easy, to become stuck in our thinking. It does us all good, from time to time, to question our beliefs and check we’re not making decisions based on incorrect assumptions.
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Jim,
Now you got me thinking…
Yes, White hat is good. But how much is it going to cost? How long will it take?
I know Black Hat is bad and could wipe out my efforts, profits, and reputation at any time, without warning. That’s not a business risk I’m willing to take.
But Gray Hat? Maybe I am willing to take some risks for short-term gain? How do I know the potential gains are worth the risk?
I reminds me of conversations with my accountant of what tax deductions to take.
Maybe it’s a good thing for businesses to hire accountants and SEO consultants for this gray area stuff so they can sleep at night?
Black vs. white hat has become a muddy issue as Google continues to update its search algorithm to fight low quality sites that rank well. Things once considered white hat can now count against a site if they are also employed by low quality sites. In some cases, those things have nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of information on a website or the user experience.
If you use an optimized theme like Headway, and someday Google decides that a lot of sites on Headway are spammy, an algorithm update might demote your site along with all the others. (Yes, that will make me sad too.
)
There are no easy solutions to this problem, except to build a business that does not depend too heavily on Google’s organic search for client acquisition and revenue.
But was is white hat and black hat? I was told by an editor on the Google Webmaster Tools Forum that all directories are black hat and I should not use those kind of backlinks, but Matt Cutts, Google spokesperson, in his video said that Google likes Yahoo Directory and other paid directories. This is in a way buying a link. They work great by the way in helping a domain rank higher.
Thanks for the feedback, Cathie, Tammi and Walt.
Just one thing though: The point of the post was the importance of keeping an open regarding marketing – Not the merits or otherwise of various SEO tactics. I used SEO purely as an example.
If you do anything that Google frowns upon and you are caught, you will be penalised.
Personally, I do very little deliberate SEO here. I write lots of on-topic content, which people link to if they find it useful – which is why I score well for some valuable search terms.
Interestingly, using this approach as meant that all the recent Google changes (Panda and Penguin) have seen search traffic here increase.
Thanks for the comments.
Hi Jim,
Nice post. My view on it, working in SEO for a number of well known brands is that as updates continue to come, the difference between white hat and black hat SEO is becoming more and more like the difference between good and bad marketing. Do out-and-out black hat like spamming forum profiles, blog comments, social bookmarking sites etc and it’s sort of like walking up to a few thousand people in the street and literally smacking them in the face with a leaflet. Sure, it’ll get you some results pretty quickly (probably), but long term, no one’s going to want to know. You’ll be “that guy”.
However, good SEO – like good marketing – is increasingly about building a brand. Have something people want, tell them about it in a smart way and make sure your shop (or whatever) works in the way people expect it to and people will be interested. Word of mouth will spread and all will be right with the world.
In the case of this analogy, basically it’s make sure your site works properly, don’t do anything stupid and reach out to people in the right way and Google will hopefully let you be.
Hi Ben. I appreciate your comment, especially your closing line; “make sure your site works properly, don’t do anything stupid and reach out to people in the right way and Google will hopefully let you be.”
However, the post wasn’t about SEO – I used SEO (wrongly as it turns out) simply as an example of adopting an open mind to marketing.
My bad – seems I didn’t write it well enough.
I will learn from this.
Good morning!
Don’t think it’s your writing Mr Connolly. More likely a measure of the hype and angst there is about SEO everywhere you look on the web at the moment.
But I wouldn’t want to make assumptions….