Do I need to know Blackhat SEO?

Do I need to know Blackhat SEO?
by rishil on January 21, 2010
The Colour of SEO
Image source Hex Colours (hat tip SebastianX )
Sometimes it’s important to ask questions that may have answers that you already know. One such question popped in my mind yesterday, which obviously found its way onto twitter:
Ok Question tweeps: As an SEO do you NEED to know “black hat” tactics? Thoughts?
To my surprise I had a phenomenal number of responses. I either caught twitter at a good time, or the question is one that attracted peoples attention.
Of course not all answers were what I expected… Steve Plunkett asked:
define black hat tactics… lol
Fantomaster owns the Gray Hat
…which to be honest is a perfectly good question. How DO you define Black Hat SEO? How do you recognise the difference between those who are Black Hat and those that are merely hackers for hire? I think Greg Boser nailed it (and I think others thought so too, his response was retweeted a lot):
It’s pretty easy for me to define. I consider BHSEO the act of breaking rules, not laws.
That’s the difference. Search Engines have a whole bunch of rules they don’t like us violating, and which typically lead to sites being kicked out of the SERPs if caught. Breaking those rules makes you a BHSEO ( I won’t debate the whole buying links and Gray Hat SEO thing here because it’s much debated and covered territory). Hackers work outside the law. Case and point? The whole Ugg Boots scene that played out in the UK recently. I consider the whole Link Injections scene to be beyond Black Hat and illegal.
Of course some people like my friend Dave Snyder just refuse to belong to a classification…
Dave Snyder "I only wear hats Cause I am Bald"
(Dave is Co-Founder of Search and Social and regular blogger at Search Engine Journal )
But getting back to the point, do I as a White Hat SEO need to know Black Hat tactics? Do I need to understand the intricacies of the Dark Side? Why? Shouldn’t I just run at the mention of black hat? My twitter peeps don’t seem to think so:
@wiep (who by the way is a link building genius) how else would you know what white is? Which he then followed by the biggest problems are caused by cowboys who think they’re wh, but don’t have an f*ing clue what they’re doing…
@andyheaps (Head of Search at Latitude) need to know what they are and be able to recognise them, not necessarily implement them…
…unless you’re selling viagra!
@ drewhoward as an SEO I think you do need to make yourself aware of black hat tactics so you know what to avoid and how to stay ethical
@ mosquitohawk I think it helps if you’re going to really say you understand the search engines, but isn’t required to improve rankings generally
@ MichelleRobbins Was quite succinct: absolutely.
@ swerveball yeah. you need to be aware / have some understanding. you can’t master something by only studying half.
@ APSG 9/10 times they’re the ones who find the exploits first – you could look at how to waterdown the tactic turn it grey / white
@ SEO_Doctor often debated that. If you can do quality white hat, then no. Big G is getting too good at filtering. But it’s great playing…
@ robwatts definitely – you need to understand dirty tricks to combat them
@ davidjmain only to know what to Avoid!
@ DavorGoldie I think you should have an understanding of blackhat tricks, tactics etc. You need to know what you’re up against…
@ Fearless_Shultz I say yes, if nothing else to know whether you might be inadvertently using them! But also they can inspire white hat variants…
@ GregBoser not only know, but be proficient at it. Anything less is a disservice to a client.
@ Dixon_Jones (Dixon is the director of Receptional who do run the Majestic SEO Campaign) Sooner or later, you’ll do something “black” by mistake if you don’t know what you’re doing.
@ yrewol (although unknown in the general SEO industry, I vouch this guy is a genius, and I consider him a good friend) you absolutely do need to know them. Whether you use them or report them, you need to understand them and their impact.
@ Matt_Siltala I think if you do not test, and have never tested on the dark side, you really can’t call yourself an SEO
@ seoidiot just give them a white hat name ………. “commercial link programme anyone?”
@ Skitzzo i think you need to be able to spot the most frequently used BH tactics so you can understand why sites outrank you etc.
@ fantomaster (if you don’t know this man, you need to read up. He KNOWS Black Hat SEO) Expectably, my take is: Most certainly! If only to stay in the loop on the state-of-the-art side of things. (BTW Ralph is launching Customized Content Creation soon)
But for me one of the best analogies was by Kenny Hyder (who by the way just launched Awesome Tools ):
Do cops NEED to know how to think like criminals? Gotta know both sides to compete on either.
As you can see form the responses above, there is a certain pattern to peoples thoughts regarding BH SEO. What does that tell me? That I NEED to know Black Hat SEO:
because I should be able to spot any of it by my competition
because I have to make sure I am not inadvertently using it
because there may be tricks that could be used in WH SEO
because that is the way I stay on top of the game
And this old job posting on Search Engine Watch encourages me to add one more:
5. because my cients may request that I do
Some Resources:
(disclaimer: visit these sites at your own risk
And be careful with any techniques, however harmless, that they talk about.)
Although not always Black Hat, Eli’s Blue Hat SEO blog should be on your reading list.
Syndk8 is a self styled and out  and open Black Hat Company .
Earl Grey is famous in the Black hat field.
The Black Hat forum is usually ripe with ideas.
Sebastian isnt a black hat (that i know of) but is one of the most advanced bloggers I know.
SEO Wolf has a few decent links to some Black Hat Tools ( hat tip )
Slightly Shady is a long time fav, and I just remembered he wrote Why Whitehats need to know Blackhat SEO way back in 2008.
With that, I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why YOU need to know Black Hat SEO – and feel free to add your thoughts in the comments! (Oh and a Fantomaster Special below
)
Blackhat vs White Hat - Conversation
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Rishi Lakhani is an independent Online Marketing Consultant specialising in SEO, PPC, Affiliate Marketing and Social Media. Explicitly.Me is his Blog. Google Profile
{ 16 trackbacks }
Malinda February 15, 2010 at 9:33 am
That’s a really cool post. I loved reading it and those quotes are too good. Keep up the good work.
I also found some nice information regarding black hat on this website: seositecheckup.com/articles/43 and found it interesting too. More you learn better it is.
John Ray July 18, 2010 at 4:09 pm
The black hat/white hat argument is indicative of the youth of the SEO industry. There are no white hat SEOs. If you do anything other than write “great content that people naturally want to link to” to achieve ranking, then you are black hat. Anyone who thinks that writing great content alone is enough to get ranking is naïve. If no one ever sees your great content because it isn’t ranking, how will they know it exists, if they do not know it exits, how will they link to it. It’s called a Catch 22 children.
The definition of a white hat SEO is someone who is too much of a self righteous hypocrite to admit they are bending the rules in one way or another. It doesn’t matter if you take one dollar or one thousand dollars for your affections, a prostitute is a prostitute.
You can find all the White Hat SEOs in one place, the unemployment line. Get over yourself already.
Over 30 Years ago when I was an under grad one of my ethics professors defined business ethics in the best manner I have ever heard “Ethics are what the rich use to keep the poor, poor”. He further explained that the powerful in a give industry are the ones that set the ethical standards, who do you think they will set those standards to favor.
As someone who has been successful in business longer than most of my fellow SEOs have been alive, I find the black hat/white hat arguments childishly amusing. It will be interesting to watch this industry and those in it grow up and go through the cycles that all industries go through as they mature. Capitalism is evil my nature, it works because humans are evil by nature.
“ Like virgins to the alter the veil will be drawn and the children will be forced to see their own reflection”. If you know the origin of this quote you most likely already agree with me.
Yes, I am an arrogant jerk, but I am not a naïve hypocrite.