White Hat vs. Grey Hat vs. Black Hat SEO

The differences between the colours

They’re all different parts of the spectrum that can work wonders in both senses of the word, but what methods from each area of SEO will make your website look the best to search engines? Here’s a comprehensive guide.

White Hat SEO

SEO White Hat
White Hat SEO

The purest of all. The methods that make up White Hat link building consist of writing quality content that readers like, speaking to sites in your niche to share content amongst each other and internally linking (like we just did above, see?), which gives your users the greatest experience when they see your content.

The best part about White Hat content is that search engines will love you for it and there’s no risk involved in doing any White Hat SEO methods, along with the high quality aspects your website will be renowned for. The only downside is the length of time it’ll take to get your site ranking higher than it initially is, which is where we enter the next shade of colour hat.

Grey Hat SEO

Normally regarded as the middle ground of SEO, Grey Hat SEO methods entail partially black hat methods mixed with some white hat. These methods include buying expired PBNs and spinning already created text as well as exchanging links and sharing reciprocal links.

Users still get a good experience out of the content they see with much quicker results in terms of ranking, but there is a level of risk involved as to what content will be accepted by websites and whether it will give you the views you desire. It’s now moving towards the riskiest area of SEO – black hat.

Black Hat SEO

Keyword stuffing, hidden text, parasite hosting and spamming blogs to urge people to look at your content; black hat SEO methods include the most controversial of ways to optimise your website. These methods tend to be used when website owners are after the fastest way to rank, although often come with heavy consequences.

SEO Black Hat can be a nasty area to look at.
SEO Black Hat can be a nasty area to look at.

The benefit of black hat SEO is that you rank highly in a very short space of time due to the high level of content orientated around your niche sent out. However, with high ranks comes a very unsatisfactory user experience, as well as the huge risk looming over you from Google who could very much penalise you for your efforts.

 And there you have it, the different ways to SEO!

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