Posted by Dr. Pete Since the Wild West days of the late 1990s, SEOs have been grouped into two camps – the “black hats” and the “white hats”. Over time, these distinctions have become little more than caricatures, cartoon villains and heroes that only exist in our individual imaginations, usually embellished to suit our marketing agendas. Even when grounded in specific tactics, “black” vs. “white” is a lot like “conservative” vs. “liberal” – the definition changes with the year and every person you ask, and that definition almost always comes loaded with assumptions and judgments. Unfortunately, too many business owners still choose their SEOs based on the hat they wear, even when that hat only comes out on sales calls. So, I’d like to ask some better questions. There are real strategic and tactical differences behind what we often think of as “white” and “black” hat SEO, and those differences are what you need to understand to make the right choices for your own business. This Isn’t About Ethics While we generally think of ourselves as “white hat” here at SEOmoz, I’m going to put ethics aside temporarily for this post. I will assume that, when we say “black hat”, we’re not talking about outright illegal behavior (like hacking into someone’s site). We’re talking about willfully violating Google’s rules to improve your ranking. While I do believe there are ethical implications to cheating the system and harming search quality, this post is intended to be an honest look at the real choices you face when choosing an SEO path. (1) High-Value or Low-Value? The first question is – are you going to pursue “high-value” or “low-value” tactics? I don’t want to replace one hopelessly vague duality with another one, so let me define my terms. By “value”, I mean the value that these tactics provide to site and search visitors. We sometimes call low-value tactics “spam”. It’s not usually illegal and it’s not always even unethical (depending on your point of view), but it’s always done specifically for SEO purposes. Here’s an example – linking all of your client’s sites back to your own site with keyword-loaded footer links. I wouldn’t call this unethical, but it doesn’t add value and, frankly, it’s just too easy. Google knows this, and they naturally devalue those links now (in extreme cases, they might even penalize the target site). Ironically, “low-value” tactics are often considered to be a value to people who are trying to gain ground as cheaply as possible. Practically, people often underestimate the time these tactics take and overestimate the return on investment. Low-value tactics tend to fade quickly. As Google gets more aggressive, low-value tactics are also getting riskier (see Question #2). There’s a more fundamental problem, though, in my opinion – low-value tactics don’t build anything toward the future. Once they fail, and they usually do, you have to start over and chase some new low-value tactic. Here’s an example – let’s say you get links back from all of your clients in low-value footer text, and your one-way link network looks something like this: Link “juice” is flowing, and all signs are green. Then, one day, Google pulls the plug on this particular low-value tactic. What are you left with? You’re not left with much, because these links never had real value beyond SEO. Imagine, though, that those links carried not only authority (in green), but traffic (in blue): Now, let’s say Google changes the rules, and you lose the ranking power of those links. The links still have value, because they’re still carrying visitors to your site: The picture may not look exactly the same, and the traffic quantity and quality have changed, but you’re not dead in the water. I know I’m oversimplifying this, but I just want to make the point perfectly clear. If you play the game purely for SEO, and you lose, you lose everything. If you build something of value that actually attracts visitors and then the rules change, you’ve still built something. (2) High-Risk or Low-Risk? The second question you need to ask yourself is: How much risk are you willing to accept? Don’t just smile and nod and tell me about how you’re a “risk-taker” – I’ve heard plenty of people tell their SEO companies to “Go for it!” only to be reduced to sobbing in the corner when their strategy crashed and burned months later. This is a time for brutal honesty. Can you live with the risk of a severe penalty, including being totally removed from the Google index? High-risk SEO is like high-risk investing – yes, there can be high reward, if you know what you’re doing, but for every 1 winner at this game there are 99 companies that close their eyes, cover their ears, and whistle their way into disaster. If what you’re hearing from your SEO company sounds too good to be true, ask more questions. As Paddy Moogan’s recent post pointed out, your risk is not someone else’s to take. To make matters worse, I think that many so-called “black-hat” tactics, and even some gray-hat tactics, are much riskier than they used to be. There was a time when, if you played the game too hard, you got a slap on the wrist and had to start over. You’d be set back a few weeks, but you’d also have made a lot of money in the months leading up to that. I’m not saying it’s right, but let’s at least be honest about the past. Fast-forward to 2013, and look at an update like Penguin – almost a year after the original Penguin, we’ve still heard very few public recovery stories. The ones I’ve heard in private have almost always involved a massive culling of links (the good with the bad, in many cases) and took months. That’s months with major revenue loss, and this is from big agencies who have resources and connections that many business don’t have access to. Even semi-innocent tactics have been hit hard. Fairly recently, you could spin out a bunch of city/state pages with a few long-tail keywords and do pretty well. Was it a high-quality tactic? No, but it’s hardly the essence of evil. Worst case, Google would start ignoring those pages, and you’d be out a few days of work. Then, along came Panda, and now your entire site can suffer for quality issues. The price of mistakes is getting higher, and Google is getting more punitive. I’m not here to tell you what to do, but this is not just a “white-hat” sermon. I’ve studied Google’s movements a lot in the past year, and I sincerely believe that the risk of manipulative tactics has increased dramatically. I also believe that it’s only the beginning. So, if you’re going to play the game, make sure you can afford to lose. It’s almost important to understand that every tactic carries risk, especially if you fail to diversify. When I hear a company say “Our clients are never affected by updates, because we only use Google-approved methods!”, then I know that company has only been in business for six months. Sooner or later, white-hat or black-hat, the rules will change. You could be sparkling white and still get hit by things like paid inclusion, SERP layout changes, SERP feature changes, etc. The time for SEO hubris is over. (3) Short-Term or Long-Term? Finally, I think you have to consider whether you’re in this for the long haul or just trying to make a short-term play. For example, let’s say you’re building an affiliate site to sell accessories for the Samsung Galaxy S4 (which was just announced while I was writing this post). The smartphone market moves fast, and as an affiliate in this space, you’re facing a few realities: You probably don’t have a lot of money to invest up-front You need to get your traffic rolling quickly Your peak opportunity may only last 6-12 months Again, I’m not making a moral judgment, but this is a very different kind of business situation, practically speaking. You may not have time to build epic content or spend six months building up a social following, and the consequences of getting burned a year from now may be fairly small. So, if you know your business is short-term, you can take risks that other people can’t. The problem, I think, is that too many long-term businesses think this way: “I can’t afford to spend money”, “I don’t have time to get moving”, “I need results now! ” So, you dive into low-value tactics to get moving quickly and cheaply. Even if you never get smacked down by Google, the reality is that these tactics tend to be short-lived – they fade or burn out, and you’ve got to start again. So, you’re constantly in a cycle of chasing the next low-value trend. This may be attractive at first, to get out the gate, but over time I think it’s a losing proposition. If you never build anything that lasts, you’re always stuck making repairs. If you invest early, those investments tend to pay out, and you can build on them. I’ve seen this so many times with content over the past few years – I invest in a piece that doesn’t quite live up to my immediate expectations (traffic-wise, social-wise, etc.), and I’m about to throw in the towel, when weeks or months later, it takes off and just keeps running. Once it’s running, you get to go along for the ride. Without that investment, you’re always pushing. So, What’s Right for You? I can’t tell you how to run your business. I just want you to ask yourself (and your vendors) the hard questions. Are “low-value” tactics actually saving you money? How much risk are you really willing to take? Is your #1 priority to get up and running quickly and cheaply, or are you trying to build a real, long-term business? If the best your provider can do is show you their hat, and they can’t help you answer these question, then move on – it doesn’t matter what color that hat is. Sign up for The Moz Top 10 , a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!
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Black Hat or White Hat SEO? It’s Time to Ask Better Questions
If you want to be well-known and financially successful then get good at SEO; don’t take what you read at face value, try everything for yourself, read blogs but spend an equal amount of time doing, be selective at taking on projects that fit your skillset so the client gets good value (SEO is quite a broad job title and you’re bound to gravitate toward and likely specialise in a specific area) and above all be transparent and honest with the client. Really educate them on what you’re doing and what they can expect from you – I don’t care if you’re black or white (hat!) just so long as the client doesn’t think they’re paying for one thing but ends up getting another…long term you’re doing yourself and the industry no favours. There’s nothing wrong with making loads of money (I love money) and I actively encourage you to do things like blogging, helping others in forums, sharing your knowkedge and expertise at conferences and growing a team of employees- just make sure you have the substance to back up your style.” – James Agate , Founder of Skyrocket SEO . “Always be transparent and honest in all your dealings–both with your clients and the search engines. Don’t take on work that you don’t know how to do (unless the client knows this). Remember that in SEO what works for one site may not work for another as they are all unique and have different needs. Take responsibility for your actions (or of those who work for you). Under promise and over deliver. Set goals on things that really matter to your clients’ bottom line and measure success accordingly. Always educate your clients so that if they eventually want to take their SEO in-house, they will have a good understanding of the process.” – Jill Whalen , CEO of High Rankings . “My best advice for being successful in the SEO industry is twofold. First, make friends. You’ll be much more successful in SEO if you can admit that you don’t know everything and have smart friends to lean on when you are out of your element. We all have our own weaknesses, so admitting it and seeking to learn is foremost. Second, be curious about everything. If you see a site ranking and you don’t know why, dig into it. Figure it out. You’ll learn more by being curious about what you see in the SERPs than just reading content that comes out and watching SEO videos. You can learn a lot about those, to be sure, but digging in and doing the work and investigation will teach you the most the fastest.” – John Doherty , SEO Consultant at Distilled. ” Intellectual curiosity . Our field changes all the time, and not just in response to algorithm updates from Google. People are constantly finding new ways to search the Web and new tools to use. So as SEOs, we need to be curious about emerging trends, new ways of doing things, and the general goings-on in other fields outside of our own. The best SEOs keep up with practitioners of user experience design, information architecture, content strategy, web development, and several other disciplines. Yeah, it’s hard, but that also makes it fun and challenging — and that’s why you love SEO, right? A willingness to share knowledge and learn from others . I come from the nonprofit world, having spent almost half a decade doing web development, Internet marketing, and strategy at The Nature Conservancy . Amongst nonprofits, even amongst competing organizations, data-sharing is common because there’s an understanding that we can only achieve our goals by working together. Now take a look at some of the best SEOs in our field and I think you’ll see a similar approach. Whether its on their blogs, on #SEOchat, or at conferences, the SEOs I look up to the most are the ones who give back to — and ask for feedback from — our shared community. Be quick to laugh, slow to anger . We all go on rants from time to time, and why not? With Google’s algo updates, Firefox hiding keywords, ‘negative’ SEO, it feels like everything’s always in flux and it’s hard to find any stable ground in our industry. But whether we call ourselves ‘inbound marketers’ or ‘Internet marketers’, there’s simply more to life than arguing about SEO. The best SEOs are real human beings — they play, they spend time with their families, they go outdoors, and they laugh more than they rant. This makes them more approachable, easier to learn from, and more fun to hang out with. All those traits are marks of success. Build a reputation for using data . Why? Well, the numbers usually speak for themselves and their message is usually more powerful than yours. Be a good storyteller . Except that data doesn’t speak for itself. Neither does a business case, I’ve found. Even ROI figures are open to interpretation. So the most successful SEOs add elements of human connection, drama, and creativity to the way they tell their stories. Humans evolved to share and consume stories — it’s part of the way we learn new information — and good SEOs are aware of that trait and use it to grow their success.” – Jonathon Colman , Agile SEO and Inbound Marketing at REI . “I honestly don’t think I even qualify as a successful SEO professional, but from what I’ve seen in the few years I’ve been in the industry, exceeding expectations is the most essential part of being successful. Whether it’s for my clients or on my blog, when I do more than what is expected of me, the results are usually much greater than the extra effort I put in. So if you’re really looking to impress, go out and get those extra few links, touch up and add some images and video to your next company blog post, and when you have someone’s attention, take full advantage of the opportunity and make sure they leave impressed knowing you were more knowledgeable and personable than they could ever have expected.” – Jon Cooper , Link Builder at Point Blank SEO . “Start reaching out and getting involved in the SEO community sooner rather than later. Whatever your current skill level, you’ll find a large number of people that can geek out on link building tactics with you over coffee or a beer, and it’s a smart career move regardless of whether you’re currently agency, in-house, freelance, or moonlighting.” – Kane Jamison , SEO and Linkbuilder at Hood Web Management . “As my business has grown I think about this question a lot in hiring. My situation is unique in that I am running an agency from a small town in Idaho. I hire people that largely have not worked in any tech job nor do they have any idea what SEO even means. I have been fortunate to see people start with zero understanding and literally become extremely competent SEO professionals in a very short amount of time. There is one common theme with those that are able to accomplish this. It’s passion. Passion for success, for the people in the industry, for new information, for testing, for making clients happy. I personally don’t think that there is a specific SEO passion bug. Passionate people excel in usually whatever they touch. So, my best advice is that this industry changes too much, is too complicated, and too important for people that don’t have raw passion. If you do have it then you will want to read, test, and network in everything you do and I can promise it will lead to industry wisdom and success. Thought leaders in this industry have stopped looking at SEO as a job and literally eat, drink, and breath this stuff well after clocking out of the office. That is exactly what it takes.” – Mike Ramsey , Owner of Nifty Marketing . “Never stop learning. The SEO game is constantly changing and you have to be open to testing new things out to figure out to best achieve the rankings your customers are looking for. 2012 has made it vary apparent that the search landscape is changing… you can see so with all of Google’s algorithm updates.” – Neil Patel , Co-Founder of KISSMetrics . “Love what you do, do it with integrity, keep learning every day and use that learning to help your clients.” – Mike Blumenthal , author of Understanding Google Places and Local Search . “Get some skin in the game. It’s easy to offer clients advice and then go home at the end of the day, but when you build something you care about and watch those traffic numbers rise and fall, that’s when you learn what it’s like to live and die by the algorithm. It makes you a better SEO, and it makes you understand what webmasters go through when their businesses are on the line. It’s not just about education and empathy, though. If you succeed, you’ll have something to show the rest of the industry, and that’s when people start to notice you.” – Dr. Peter J. Meyers , President of User Effect . “Work a lot. Work hard. Be patient. Too many people quit before they see any results. Too many people never stop looking for ‘easy ways.’ But the truth is, there’s no an easy way. You need to take it seriously: read a lot, comment a lot, write a lot and test a lot. You need to build websites from scratch. You need to take over already established sites and see what you can do that. You need to work for free before you can make money!” – Ann Smarty , Owner of MyBlogGuest . “Find a particular niche within the ever growing world of SEO and master it. If you do provide general SEO services, I strongly recommend working as part of a team. There is far too much to learn and understand for any single SEO consultant to properly service clients and stay abreast of the rapid changes related to SEO. There is too many varied skills required of a SEO for a single person to do everything at a high level. Site analysis requires a basic understanding of designing websites which is one particular skill set. Google Analytics and other methods of performance tracking requires working with spreadsheets, graphs and mathematics which is another skill set. Writing content requires extensive use of English, research and creativity which is yet another entirely different skill set. Lastly there is promoting websites through link building and social media which requires marketing and networking skills.” – Ryan Kent , Director of Vitopian . “I think that you have to be willing to set your ego aside and both continue to learn AND continue to teach, whether it’s through educating your employees and clients, participating in and/or moderating forums, networking offline and online, writing industry articles, and generally just becoming an approachable resource for others.” – Julie Joyce , Director of Operations at Link Fish Media . “Form your own opinions. Don’t just naively believe everything you read or hear about SEO unless it comes straight from the search engines or is proven beyond a doubt. Keep an open and objective mind. Consider searcher intent. Are you providing content and calls to action (above the fold) to satisfy the different types of intent that a searcher might have (to engage and convert them) or are you just writing content based around a keyword? Consider the client: It’s easy to just say ‘here’s the problem.’ But also take the time to provide the solution with your client’s level of understanding in mind. Speak their language and make sure they can walk away knowing exactly what to do.” – Laura Lippay , President of How’s Your Pony “Be honest at all times and with everyone.” – Debra Mastaler , President of Alliance-Link.com ” Learn your craft. Consider getting training like the SEMPO Institute’s Insider’s Guide to Search Marketing . Read the blogs of SEO industry experts. Follow the SEO experts on Twitter and read the content in the links they post. Attend a conference or two. Join a user group (like the Seattle SEO Network). Study the available SEO tools and learn how to use them and understand what they do. Check out a great list of SEO resources I’ve collected on these very items. Push your comfort boundaries. Make yourself uncomfortable by asking questions of industry experts, tweeting about your lessons learned, writing blog posts to help others learn, and speaking at events when you have learned valuable information to share (depending upon the audience you’ll address, if they are not SEO-savvy, such as typical webmasters, developers, designers or business owners, you could do this pretty early in your career development process). The work you’ll want to do to be prepared for these efforts will help you learn more quickly. Ask, write, and speak! Volunteer to help a non-profit. There are non-profits galore on the web who are barely scraping by, if that, and nearly all of them have websites in desperate need of optimization. They will likely be grateful for any volunteer assistance you can offer, and you’ll get a chance to learn new skills earlier in your career that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do in a paid job you might not yet be qualified to get. You’ll be doing a great thing for a needy cause, and you’ll be learning on the job! Best of all, if you spend any money on PPC campaigns in behalf of a 501c3, these are likely charitable contributions for you! Just do SEO. Optimize a site you own (create one if necessary, so if you screw up, there’s no harm done). Earn your reputation through high-quality, white-hat SEO work. You can also ask if you can help with the company website at work (it could lead to a great career move). Look for opportunities to do more, and eventually become a resource for others who will follow in your footsteps.” – Rick DeJarnette, Website Optimization, Search Engine and Social Media Marketing, & Content Development at The SEO Ace I want to thank everyone who contributed for being so generous with their time. Hopefully you can take away some insights to help your career. And if you have advice to share for being successful in the SEO field please add it below in the comments. Sign up for The Moz Top 10 , a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!