Hey gang, just curious to know... I have been going through some of the great threads here DP and I'm learning a lot. I see the terminology of Black Hat and White Hat used a lot in reference to certain internet marketing techniques, but for the life of me, I'm not getting what they actually mean, so can some one please explain what White Hat and Black Hat Mean Many Thanks
LMAO! Great question. Well, these terms come from way back - As in the western Movies... The "Bad Guy" or "Villian" would wear a "Black Hat" and the "Good Guy" or "Hero" would wear a "White Hat". So, hence the terms when coming online and actually performing those 2 marketing techniques. And just in case you ever come across "Grey Hat", this is a person who actually does everything "White Hat", but can also perform "Black Hat" tactics in order to get ahead without getting caught and to better his/her security or marketing efforts.
White Hat just means - Legal, Good, won't get you banned from things Lol Black Hat is usually not legal or will get you banned Grey Hat as GuruCreation mentioned is just a mixture of the two.. loads of people use a mixture of the two
Really I understand I just learned myself. Well black hat is used as a slang term for using a method that is considered misleading or can impactly hurt others. Or as we say trickery. For example you might trick someone into downloading a video that may not be real but the point was to make the person download the video because you might get commissions for every download. If you have signed up to a affiliate that gives you commission per a download. You place a video saying that the download is maybe a free "money making" video and the viewer believes it and download. But guess what they downloaded a txt file that has nothing to do with the video. White Hat is using a much cleaner method that wont trick or hurt anyone in the process. vice versa the video downloaded is what the youtube clip says it is. Not a trick but the honest truth. I hope this helps you very much. The first comment sold the meaning properly.
The temptation to go "black hat" comes from the fact that you are gaming the system or otherwise breaking the rules. This can bring you very big traffic, and usually much more quickly than staying within the rules ("white hat"). The Internet is a big place, and very clever black hat practitioners can be hard to catch right away. But eventually, search engines and people in general will figure out what you are doing, rendering all the black hat work you've completely useless, and requiring you to start again, if you can still get accounts with the various vendors and service providers you'll need, like ISPs.
According to SEO glossary; Black Hat is sometimes called spamdexing (the opposite of White Hat). Black Hat SEO can be any optimization tactics that cause a site to rank more highly than its content would otherwise justify or any changes made specifically for search engines that don't improve the user's experience of the site.
Thanks Guys Now it make sence to some of the threads I was reading when the phases Black Hat and White Hat where used. I am expanding my website in to other online and offline medias, so I'm trying to learn what I can, and so far this forum has been really been helpful. Its neat to see that there are so many good, bad, and indifferent ways to promote a website, LOL
Thank You dannabrown for showing me a Black Hat example by Spamming everyones threads with your Irrelavant postings LOL