April 15th, 2010 by Nick

Much has been written about white hat and black hat search engine optimization. The lack of clarity on the topic has arguably been exacerbated by the position of Google. Its stance that, “If it’s not for your site users, it’s a bad idea”, is arguably short on specifics, to say the least. From an SEO company perspective, it would be of considerable assistance to know precisely where the boundaries are. It would be hard to play any game without knowing what the rules are.

This lack of clarity may improve things for users, because it compels SEO services to consider erring on the side of caution. However, when it comes to the actual implementation of SEO practices, the shortage of specificity can be problematic. As the limits of acceptability are so blurred, a SEO outfit can be at the risk of a penalty from the search engines even though it is not actively pursuing a black hat strategy. The same SEO specialist may end up wearing all three hats at different occasions during a given time period.

It is necessary to illustrate this point with examples. A site owner or a search engine optimisation company may be unsure about appropriate keyword density. They want to attract the attention of the search engines to their site and thus supply it with regular updates of content, seeded with keywords. As the content is all about the industry, keywords enter the content quite naturally. The keyword density increases as the articles attract comments, littered with industry-specific terms. Has the site owner or search engine optimisation company followed a grey hat strategy, or is it still in the secure territory of the white hat zone? How can the professionals concerned discover what level of risk they are taking? Experience is probably the best guide.

A site often presents information in a way which is different for the search engines and the users. However, this can be described as ‘cloaking.’ This practice can be condemned by Google if it is considered that the intentions behind the disparity are dubious. So far, so reasonable, it might be thought. The problem for a SEO outfit is that Google will not be open about what ‘dubious’ constitutes. Understanding your own intentions can sometimes be difficult enough, analysing the intentions of others is obviously more troublesome still. In the absence of more detailed criteria from the major search engines, cloaking could, for some people, remain cloaked in mystery.

Fortunately, SEO companies these days are developing considerable experience in operating in these slightly treacherous areas. While site owners doing DIY SEO may be subject to penalties for reasons which they do not comprehend, the best SEO firms realise how to tread carefully. They have access to information from many different sources and can distil the lessons from their own experience and the experiences of others. Although Google does not reveal all, Matt Cutts and others do attend SEO conferences, offering some guidance on various issues. Hence if wearing too many hats is not pleasant, it is important not to adopt too adversarial an outlook to the search engines.

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