Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO

What Color is your SEO Hat?

The last hat I wore was made from straw and naturally colored (Go Green). That was while I was out in my garden. Every now and then I'll dawn my Tin Hat, I guess that can be labeled a Gray Hat since we're talking about hat colors.

Here we are, the year is 2009 2010 and we have a group of individuals who continue to perpetuate the Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO labels. I was out this morning perusing Fora, Blogs, etc. and came across a few rather childish topics where the term SEO Black Hat was the word of the day. Heck, I read one paragraph and I think there were at least five (05) references to the term SEO Black Hat. Those poor guys/gals at Black Hat (The World's Premier Technical Security Conference) have some rather stiff competition knocking at their door. Luckily for them, they own the domain BlackHat.com.

No Black Hat Black Hat SEO History

I'm trying to track down the history of when the term "Black Hat" was first used in reference to the search engine marketing industry. I'd like to know "who to blame" for this labeling moving forward. I'd also like to know who all the followers are, you know, those who continue to perpetuate the use of the terms Black Hats and White Hats. Those are the ones I want to use as Hat Racks.

Definition of Black Hat
The term Black Hat was usually associated with the bad guys in older Western films, the villain types. It is also used in computer slang and refers to one who hacks and/or creates malicious code.

In researching the meaning of the term Black Hat, I was happy to see that the Wiki hasn't fallen prey to the labeling, thank you. That could change if the terms remain in use long enough.

I've watched the viral effect the use of this labeling has accomplished. When you have newspaper reporters referring to people in our industry as White Hat or Black Hat, we have identity challenges moving forward. I don't think that is fair to our industry at all. That's why I'm writing about it today!

Black Hat SEO

From what I've seen over the years, the many fora posts, blog posts, etc. that I've read, I'd say that 95% of the use of the term Black Hat SEO may not apply. Heck, I was reading a blog post recently where someone was claiming Black Hat SEO when in fact it was a proper implementation based on the HTML guidelines. Anytime these individuals don't understand the concepts behind the implementation, it is automatically labeled Black Hat SEO, that seems to be an alarming trend.

I think its time that we step up to the plate and put a stop to this before it gets totally out of our control. If it hasn't already. I'd like to see it end, I really would. I lose respect for those who continue to use those terms like they are "embedded" in the Internet Marketing Glossary. They are, but, in reference to the original computer slang meaning of Black Hats and Hackers.

I'm going to do a little bit of research with the help of my peers. I will find out who is responsible for starting this whole Black Hat SEO vs. White Hat SEO mess. Since I'll probably be writing about it more in the future, I want to know who to blame!

No White Hat Ethical White Hat SEO

I want to find out when the color of a hat became a selling point for Internet marketing, I really do. I see more About Us pages beginning with "Ethical White Hat SEO..." yada, yada, yada. What's up with that? Are you trying to convince yourselves that you wear a White Hat?

From a consumer standpoint, I may not know what the heck you're on about with the whole "Ethical White Hat SEO..." yada, yada, yada. Is there such a thing as an Unethical White Hat SEO?

You know, when I grew up, some of my childhood heroes wore Black Hats like Zorro. Some of them wore White Hats too, like The Lone Ranger. So I'm a little confused as to what is going on. You're distorting my reality...

What color is your hat? Don't answer, that is a rhetorical question.

Back to SEO/SEM Articles



Article Disclaimer: The SEO Consultants Directory does not endorse the opinions and/or facts expressed by members who provide marketing articles for our site. These search engine optimization and search engine marketing articles are here for you to review and make your own decisions.

If you are a member of the SEO Consultants Directory, you can submit a search engine marketing article for review by following the instructions in our Member Submitted SEO/SEM Articles section.

Back to Previous

 

SEO Consultants Directory