Clarifying Link Development for a Newb

First off I have spent hours reading ebooks, forumns and talking to people that I have met who work online. While this is a dandy way to get a start in understanding a subject, I find at times it can lead to misconceptions; so I would like to post my thoughts and have the community of Digital Point Correct me.

Link development is the process of creating a network of sites that have a link of my website somewhere on their site. This link can be found either in text or even just in a comment...Links are rated based upon their level of authority which is measured by algorithms that search engines create. The greater my level of links with authority the better my SEO is.

There are three common perceptions of link development. White hat, Black hat, and Gray hat.

White hat- This is the most natural and appears time consuming method. You find websites in your niche and make realistic comments and build relationships until eventually you share a link.

Black hat- The more dastardly of the options, black hat often refers to methods that if caught by search engines you will receive punishments on your SEO. Although the risk is higher the payout can be much greater because black hat methods can mean the implementation of hundreds or thousands of links quickly and easily, while your competition could be working much slower.

Gray hat- is a blend of the two.


This is my current understanding, but I would love any critiques.

 

Link-building is one of the most important element in SEO especially when you want to rank your site in a search engine. Links are of different types like internal links, tier 1,2,3... Also links are of different authorities and search engine like Google consider the popularity of sites or page from when you have created a link to your site and also determine the relevancy. If you want to learn more about links you may visit
moz[dot]com/beginners-guide-to-link-building
moz[dot]com/blog/category/link-building
Thanks