How to Tell Black from White: The First Thing to Learn

February 28, 2006

Category: White Hat vs. Black Hat Stuff |

This article may be reproduced in its entirety provided the proper credit to the author is given, and a valid link to http://www.spiderfriendly.co.uk | added.

If you are very new to SEO and are just considering learning the basics of it, you are probably asking yourself what you should start with. You have probably heard about some mysterious things like keyword density or Google PageRank; someone might have told you that these things are vital for your future success in SEO.

Is it true?

The answer is a big, resounding "No"! Neither keyword density nor PageRank will ever bring you success; what's more, chasing them can cause huge problems and ruin your SEO prospects and hopes, unless you first learn one very important thing: how to tell the black from the white, in terms of SEO and the so-called "SEO Hats" |.

Why is it so important?

If you don't know exactly what is right and what is wrong, what is "best practice" and what is spam and deception, you will be in constant danger of reading some misguided information, believing it and then using it on your domain. If you don't fully understand (and accept wholeheartedly) the importance of an ethical and "whitehat" approach to SEO, then each and every spammy idea you come across will probably look impressive, effective and tempting to you. When this happens you are in trouble and you'll have no idea why.

Unfortunately, bad information and unsafe SEO advice populate the Net, are repeated over and over again in various articles, forums and blogs and are left undisputed by administrators and moderators who for some unknown reason prefer not to point out that these methods are wrong (even when they probably wouldn't use those techniques, strategies or tools themselves). Sadly, it includes some people who are traditionally perceived as industry leaders and, consequently, hold a lot of credibility.

It's sad but true. I have to apologise to you for the condition we SEO/SEM practitioners have allowed our industry to descend to. This article is just another humble attempt at cleaning some of the mess up and hopefully taking steps to undo the harm.

You need to learn the basics, but ...

You need to choose your source of information with great care. There are many SEO forums around from international to small community level, and new ones appear online almost daily - so, why did I list so few of them on my "SEOs Bookmarks" | page? There are gazillions of SEO blogs - so, why do I list only a handful? Is it because I don't know about the others?

The opposite is true. What you can see on that page is a collection of resources I can safely recommend to my readers, picked with the utmost care out of a much larger number of places I have frequented, studied and participated in. These are the resources to start with; when you are ready to make your own educated judgement about the black and the white in SEO, you will find many other sources of information for yourself, but they will no longer be dangerous to you. However, if you are just taking your first steps in SEO/SEM, run like the wind from places that allow threads like this one |. Believe me; you'll thank me for this advice afterwards.

One love I want to share

Here is the advice that goes directly from the bottom of my heart: if you are looking for an online community that will both be friendly and offer you tremendous help in learning all you need to know about SEO, join the IHelpYou SEO Forums |.

That's one place on the web where the "Black and White" issue is taken most seriously. You will be safe there; besides, you'll soon discover that Doug Heil, the owner and the admin of the IHY forums, is very welcoming to newbie SEOs. The same is true for his highly qualified team of moderators, to which I proudly belong. Refrain from making your first post self-promotional and everything should be fine.

One thing that makes IHY special is the strongest "spammers don't belong to our industry" stance. Every SEO firm that is caught spamming gets ruthlessly "outed" at IHY, often with examples of the spammy code included (and so you will know what to avoid and who to stay away from if you are looking for an SEO company to hire). And if the tone of some threads looks harsh to you at first, remember that the "Black and White" issue in SEO is very serious and requires a serious approach. Some say there's a war going on; though the "war" word might seem a little strong in this context, I have to agree with the statement.

Remember though that if you are not a seasoned spammer but a new SEO who got misinformed by the bad guys and got yourself into trouble, nobody at IHY will blame or hate you, but everyone will be willing to give you a hand. I know personally of many people who successfully got their websites unbanned in major search engines with the help of the advice they received at IHY.

The way they talk

But let's say you found another community talking SEO stuff and wish to determine whether these people are whitehats or blackhats; how do you do this for yourself without any help from more experienced people? Most often it is easy to tell from the way they talk.

Let's say people around you are saying things like ...

"make sure whatever you do is good for your visitors, not for the search engines only";
"don't try fooling the engines; it won't bring you long-term success";
"SEO won't be quick; it's a long process that requires hard work and patience";
"don't try reverse-engineering Google's algorithm, try making your site the best it can be for your visitors, and the rankings will follow";
"remember that ROI is more important than rankings"

... then congratulations! You are lucky and have arrived at the right place. You are surrounded by white hat SEOs and can follow their advice without worrying about the consequences.

If, on the other hand, you have come to a place populated by black hat SEOs, you will most likely read very different things ...

"Ethics? What are you talking about? Those white hat miseries will teach you stuff that doesn't work! They are so ethical because they don't know how to achieve rankings!"
"Black hat? No, we are not black hats! They call us this because we outrank them. And yes, you are right, I do cloak, but I do it the right way."
"Will you get banned? No, with my new script you can fool the bots as long as you wish, and they will never catch you."
"Heck, they banned me again, for the second time already! I have done nothing wrong! Can you imagine this? Google is evil!"
"You are not a real SEO until you've got at least one site banned."
"Don't worry about ethical-schmethical nonsense, as it has nothing to do with SEO. Go and earn your buck!"

... and more stuff like this. In this case, just click your "Back" button, as no advice you can receive from this place is ever safe to take and follow.

Actually, regardless of what the spammers might tell you, the engines are becoming more and more sophisticated in detecting various sorts of SE spam, and more and more determined about fighting it, so you really are much better off if you stick to white hat methods and listen to white hat experts. Please don't underestimate the danger, my dear reader. I really care about you.

And I wish you good luck. Happy SEO'ing!