White hat SEO is a term used to describe search engine optimisation techniques. Techniques are considered as ‘white hat’ or ‘ethical SEO‘ if they adhere to guidelines provided by the Search Engines. Most SEO companies will claim that they use only ethical or white hat techniques.
In contrast to white hat techniques, there is what is known as ‘black hat’ SEO. This refers to techniques for optimising your site that aren’t within the search engine guidelines. These techniques are often used to deceive or trick the search engine robots by doing things such as hiding text, using door way pages, using hidden links etc. Black hat SEO techniques are popular with spam websites, and can generate traffic in the short term. However, long term if you are seen to be using black hat techniques you will be penalised or banned from the search engine index completely.
‘Grey hat’ SEO is also a term that exists. This is when it isn’t clear if a technique is white hat or black hat, but is probably best avoided if possible. If you are unsure if you have are using black hat techniques, you should get a professional SEO company or SEO consultant to review your site.
