November 1, 2006 I was recently posed the question, «Can any SEO company truly be white hat?» Though some very valid points were argued that the answer is no, I stand by my answer of «yes.» First, the definitions.

Black Hat SEO — Search Engine Optimization techniques and methods which fall outside of the guidelines issued by the Major Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. This can include hidden text, bad redirects, participation in link farms, etc.

White Hat SEO — Search Engine Optimization techniques and methods used to modify a site so that a search engine will more easily crawl and index it.

I think these definitions are a bit simple, and with enough conversation the line separating the two can become very blurred. One of the points argued was that of link popularity techniques. One of Google’s guidelines is as follows:

• Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or «bad neighborhoods» on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

I was asked about my link-building / directory submission service, and how this rule applies. Well, it clearly states to not become involved in link schemes. These are very prevalent in the SEO industry. This is not the act of submitting to directories or approaching other relevant sites with a link exchange proposal. These «schemes» would be something to the tune of automated link exchanging software, or completely irrelevant links. Another of Google’s rules that was brought up was:

• Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.

If I am optimizing a site, is this not exactly what I am doing? No. No it’s not. When optimizing a site, I am doing so to help provide a crawler friendly-environment for the search engines and building quality content to prove that the site is relevant and worthy of ranking, not tricking the search engines into thinking the site is something that it is not.

So, in the end, I do in fact believe an SEO company can be completely white hat. I am one. I have worked for many, and I know of many. Unfortunately there are indeed a number of black hat SEO companies out there that do a wonderful job of ruining our name, but those are getting easier to spot by the day. And the online community is becoming more educated and harder to fool.

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