Search engine optimization companies are all over the place these days. In fact, the population of these companies has some of them switching the color of their proverbial hat. In other words, they are, unfortunately for the site owner, changing from white hat to black hat SEO. For those of you who are shrugging your shoulders and not sure of what white hat or black hat search engine optimization is, just think of white hat as being the good and efficient way to increase a site’s search engine rankings while black hat is the unethical and frowned upon approach to high rankings.

With that said, I think it’s important that we take a look at how you (as a consumer and business owner) can determine if your search engine optimization firm is black hat or white hat. So, I have created this simple table for you in hopes that you are able to utilize this as a tool for your business. After you get through looking through, feel free to leave a comment, question, or any other feedback, and I’ll do the best I can to get back to you as soon as possible.

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Sources:
“The Essential Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Marketing”-E-Book
SlideShare.net
Image Source: HubSpot, “The 2011 State of Inbound Marketing”, E-Marketer.com

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Black Hat

White Hat
Page Title
  • Overuse of keywords.
  • Over 65 characters.
  • No appeal to the user.
  • Meant to trick search engine robots
  • Attractive, clean, and short.
  • Less than 65 characters.
  • Focus on getting the attention of the user.
  • Entice an action (i.e. a click).
  • Use keywords sparingly.
User Experience
  • User experience falls in priority rank.
  • Poor content and layout
  • End user, comments, and feedback are ignored.
  • Focus on ease of use for the user.
  • Accessibility and usability of navigation is user-centered.
  • Organization of keywords is put together thoughtfully.
  • The site actually helps people find targeted information.
Keywords
  • Keywords overpower all other content.
  • General content doesn’t read well for the end user.
  • Keyword phrases are non-specific to the page.
  • Keywords come secondary to the general content.
  • Keyword phrases are seamlessly integrated.
  • All keywords are related to the content page.
Link Building
  • Utilize spam e-mails.
  • Only use forum and/or blog comments.
  • No real network of links.
  • Purchase links.
  • A real network of links pointing to the site.
  • Links are organically created.
  • Links generated through your customers, vendors, and other colleagues.
  • Links focus on targeted traffic and specific landing pages.