An Introduction To White Hat SEO
The purpose of this paper is to present a more complete conceptual model of what the term ‘White Hat’ means in relationship to SEO online Marketing. To start, we will address the implied relationship this term possesses and the inherent dynamism of that relationship. The cartoon Spy vs. Spy from Mad Magazine, the irreverent publication of youthful rebellion, is a great example that illustrates the problems inherent in simple “black and white” definitions.
In the cartoon we are introduced to two characters, both are spies bent on the other’s destruction, and both are monochromatic, one white one black. They battle each other relentlessly, the black spy consistently outsmarting and killing the white spy because he is willing to go beyond the rules, to exploit the white spy’s naiveté. It is in the battle, which has no reason and no end, that we are led to realize there are no ‘good guys’ and no ‘bad guys’ just the struggle for dominance, and the one confined by less rules, is bound to win.
They require each other to exist and so as much as they are separate they are also one. In many ways this cartoon is at the heart of both the way we define White Hat and Black Hat SEO Marketing techniques. White Hats are bound by the rules because of ethics and Black Hats are renegades, bound by nothing except for profit. As we will see in our investigation of the both the prevailing definitional norms associated with White Hats and the rationales behind the actual practices, we couldn’t be further from “black and white”. Because in a world as competi- tive as Internet marketing there is no room for static definitions and all the advantage needed is found between the lines. But before following this more ambiguous line of reasoning, let’s venture down a more established path.
Unlike the White Spy in Spy vs. Spy, this article will put forth an argument that suggests modified and creative White Hat methods are superior to strictly Black Hat Methods. We are also going to demonstrate that the most important part of being successful as an Internet Marketer is to stop abiding by a rigid set of definitions about how to make your fortune and embrace a larger sense of creativity.
