subject: Hiring SEO Companies: White Hat versus Black Hat [print this page] Hiring SEO Companies: White Hat versus Black Hat
Trends in marketing come and go, but one trend which seems to last no matter what kind of marketing you are talking about is there is such a thing as bad marketing. Bad marketing does not mean you will not get any attention. In fact, it is possible to cause a lot of controversy which will get your company a lot of attention. It does not mean that the attention will result in higher sales. This is exactly the problem that many companies run into when advertising on the internet through SEO companies which use black hat techniques.
Of course, for most people when talking about some of the SEO techniques out there, it is all Greek. Most people would not know the difference between black hat and white hat or even organic for that matter. However, it is important that the SEO companies you hire know the difference as well as making sure that they will use the kinds of techniques which you find preferable. By using the right techniques you will be able to get the results you are looking for now as well as later on.
Black Hat SEO
Any time traffic is artificially driven to a website, it is known as black hat SEO marketing. The SEO companies which use these techniques will use different tricks which will trigger the search engine bots to create an artificially high ranking in the search engine results. While the high ranking will be great for a little while, it is not something which can last. The reason for this is because the search engines check for this sort of thing. When they find a website which is using black hat SEO techniques, they will either drop your ranking or they will remove you from the list altogether.
White Hat SEO
The majority of people who use SEO marketing on the internet will use white hat SEO techniques. One of the main reasons why this is done is because of sustainability. By using the white hat methods it can be slightly difficult to get a higher ranking on the search engines, but at least once you have obtained a high ranking it is far more likely to keep it. The search engines give incentives for those who are able to provide their users with content that they find useful. After all, the search engines are in the business of providing their users what they need. Any company which can provide this kind of content is looked upon as trusted by the search engines and given preferential treatment.
Dangers of Black Hat SEO
One of the biggest dangers of using black hat SEO practices is that if your site is dropped from the list, it can be costly or impossible to be put back on the list. In most cases, the sites which have been found to be in violation of the search engine policies will have to rebuild their site and reapply for inclusion in the search engine list.
