white hat

"White hat" search engine optimization seeks to work with the search engines' strengths, rather than their weaknesses. By creating valid HTML code, well-written and keyword-rich content, and a carefully organized Web site, white hat SEO specialists seek to create the kind of site that search engines are looking for.

The strongest benefit of white hat SEO is that it will never damage your rankings in the manner of black hat SEO tactics. As a result, white hat SEO is more difficult to pursue because it relies on many "soft" factors (such as high quality content, effective site organization, building strong link relationships, regular blogging, etc.), whereas black hat SEO can usually be easily commoditized (number of keywords added, number of artificial links built, number of false landing pages created, etc.)

While some online businesses view these quality factors as complexities, most agree that white hat search engine optimization performs better with less maintenance and reduced risk. It has longer value and makes more business sense. It helps keep the Web clear of clutter too; users do not appreciate hitting those false landing pages and seeing those link farms and scrolling through puffed-up, unrelated rankings on search results. Success comes when you keep it real.