Hat 'White Or Black'

White hat and black hat, are terms often used to describe the aggressiveness of internet marketers or website developers, especially regarding practices used to get search engines to give a high ranking to websites (SEO). But what do the terms mean? It depends on who you ask. There are at least three ways to understand white hat vs. black hat practices.

v  White hat is considered entirely ethical, while black hat is considered unethical. Gray hat, then, would be something in-between: ethical to some, but perhaps not to others.

v  A white hat marketer is not at all aggressive in promoting a product, service, or website and chooses to let traffic develop naturally. (In reality, there are probably no white hat marketers if you look at it this way.) A black hat marketer, then, is extremely aggressive in promoting a product or website. At this end of the spectrum is the danger of unethical practices. (There are a large number of these out there.)

v  White hat practices are just shrewd methods of working within the current system, doing anything that is acceptable to search engines. Black hat marketing, then, would mean using tactics that flout the search engine rules while trying to avoid getting caught.