What do ‘black hats’ have to do with search marketing?

Well, rather a lot actually! Those working in the search marketing industry have been affectionately labelled as being in one of two camps; those wearing ‘white hats’ (hypothetically of course) and those wearing ‘black hats’. Sometimes people can wear various shades of grey as well but we'll keep things simple for now.

So what’s the difference between a 'black hat' and a 'white hat?'

A ‘white hat’ search marketing company, like Leapfrogg, will adopt a content based approach to SEO designed to improve the value of the site to its target audience, not just the search engine. Everybody in the Leapfrogg office wear their white hats with pride; they follow published search engine guidelines, spend huge amounts of time researching the market, visit conferences and most importantly have years of experience.  We care about our clients and want to see their sites succeed beyond the gaining of rankings alone. Remember, a number one ranking on a search engine does not guarantee an increase in business unless the traffic generated as a result of that ranking actually converts into an enquiry or sale. For that reason a white hat optimiser will be interested in the quality of the site itself, providing advice in areas, such as website usability.

A ‘black hat’ search marketing company will often ignore search engine guidelines and often the site visitor, focusing instead on technology as the main driver. The work of a black hatter is largely technical and is designed to fool the search engine into showing content that it would not otherwise. Effectively, they are trying to game the system.

Now there is nothing illegal about the techniques adopted by the black hatters of this world and indeed some have great success in gaining improved search engine rankings. But this in itself is often the problem; the nature of black hat techniques means the approach is often focused purely on the gaining of rankings and pays little attention to visitors. Traffic may be generated as a result of this approach but the chances of visitors hanging around are pretty slim because often no value has been added to the site itself.

Some of the techniques to be avoided include cloaking, redirects, mirrored sites, hidden text and links, keyword stuffing and numerous others, too many to mention.

If you would like to learn more about the common tactics used by the black hatters of this world, you can call a member of the Leapfrogg team on 01273 669450. Alternatively, fill in our enquiry form or send us an email. In the meantime, read on for some of the common claims made by black hatters and also others who should know better.

Run a mile if you hear the following…

‘For £19.95 a month we will submit your site to 1000’s of search engines and you’ll receive thousands of visitors a day!’

There might well be thousands of search engines but who actually uses them? Google, Yahoo, and MSN make up the lions share of the market and will find your site quite easily themselves through the process of spidering (presuming you have a few links from other websites). Actively submitting your site does not get you in the index any faster. In fact, the automated submission tools used by companies making such promises are quite likely to have you penalised. And even if you are indexed as a result of being submitted to these engines, being in the index does not mean you are going to feature in the top search engine rankings unless you actually optimise your site and make your online presence known through various means such as link building online PR, article submissions and blogs.

‘We will guarantee you 20 number one rankings on Google’ (or variations on this)

Nobody can guarantee any ranking, for any keyword, on any search engine. Many companies use this to tie you into a paid advertising program such as Google Adwords, where, yes, if you are prepared to pay for it, you can be number one but this will not be in the ‘natural’ listings.

Other companies might select non-competitive, extremely niche terms that are quite simple to gain top rankings for. But these terms are not being used by search engine users in high numbers so will therefore fail to actually drive any traffic to your site.

We have gained your site an increased number of rankings…haven’t we done well?

Surprised to hear this one? Companies who base their success solely on rankings are doing you a disservice. Having a number one ranking on a search engine means nothing unless the traffic generated as a result of this ranking converts into custom. Rankings are not a measure of success on their own – they are essentially a means to an end. Measure of success should include traffic, user behaviour, conversions and ROI.

If you want to learn more Google expand upon many of these points.