I’ve heard about black hat SEO and white hat SEO but have you ever encountered gray hat SEO? If you think about it, it does not really take a rocket scientist to figure out what gray hat SEO is all about. As in the real world, things are not always black and white, there will always be gray areas – those activities and ideologies which do not clearly conform to either extreme.
When it comes to SEO, the gray areas abound. However, in my point of view – as well as many others, I believe – gray hat SEO leans towards black hat more than white hat. This is because gray hat SEO simply employs techniques that are quite akin to spamming but not quite labeled by Google (and other authorities in the field) as black hat – as of yet.
Practicing gray hat SEO is much like trying to fly below the radar, trying not to get the attention of those who are in the lookout. However, the fact that you feel that you need to fly under the radar means that you are engaging in illegitimate activities or, at the very least, activities bordering on the illegitimate.
Why would anyone want to engage in gray hat SEO? If you are asking that question, then you may very well ask, “Why would anyone want to engage in black hat SEO?” The bottom line is the same – they want to achieve good search engine rankings the “easy” way. Somewhere along the road though, Google will catch up on these practitioners and penalize them – then, regret will be felt.
In the next post, let’s look at some gray hat SEO tactics.
4 Comments to "Gray Hat SEO"
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I have heard the term ‘gray hat seo’ becoming more popular as of late yet I am not entirely sure what is meant by it, i always figured something is allowed… or it’s not allowed. I am looking forward to reading your post on ‘gray hat’ techniques.
I am looking forward to the next post then .. I wanted to learn “grey hat seo” ..
White hate, gray hat, black hat, it doesn’t really matter. Anything goes when trying to get more traffic to your site. As long as you don’t just spam, then you are ok.
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Grey hat can be considered borderline SEO, but it can also include those top-secret methods you’d prefer not to share with everyone. Some SEO folks publish every trick in the book, whether white or black, while others prefer to make their marks quietly and behind the scenes.