White hat vs black hat SEO can seem confusing, but it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to feel as though you’re being buried under search engine rules and algorithms, only to have them further complicated by SEO consultants.

You just need to break white hate and black hate SEO down into intent and view it from the eyes of the search engines.

There are two distinct types of organic SEO consultants and tactics. One is called white hat SEO and the other is called black hat SEO. It is very important for people new to SEO to understand the difference between the two.

• White Hat SEO – A white hat SEO consultant will strictly follow the quality guidelines set forth by major search engines like Google and Bing. The consultant will only perform tactics that adhere to these quality guidelines.
• Black Hat SEO – A black hat SEO consultant will disregard the guidelines of search engines and instead go after tactics that produce quick results. There are still plenty of SEO consultants who practice black hat tactics and they are very dangerous.

Now there are two types of people who practice black hat SEO techniques. These are:

• Intentional – Website owners or SEO consultants who completely understand that their tactics are not adhering to best practices and they simply don’t care.
• Unintentional – Website owners or SEO consultants who have no idea what they’re doing is against best practices and could potentially get themselves removed from search engines.

New SEO consultants can many times fall into this second group and this is because they learn a little and think they know more than they really do. Website owners can also fall into this second group because they’ve read a few blog posts from outdated sources or unknowledgeable writers. Both instances are a disaster waiting to happen.

Don’t be that guy!

Educate yourself so you understand the difference between white hat vs black hat SEO and more importantly, so you can stay well within white hat SEO practices!