Many people have tried SEO, but have you tried it the right way or the wrong way? If not done properly, you can get listed on the LAST page of Google. Make sure this doesn't happen to you. White Hat SEO Good SEO techniques require understanding what to do and what not to do. Google has general guidelines to follow; though they'll never tell you directly what the secret to beating your competition is, they do tell you when you're doing something wrong. Much of SEO is like science because in many cases it is about theory. What works for some may not work for others. White Hat SEO means adhering to Google's guidelines and making sure you have a good quality website that helps people who go to it to have a good experience. As long as you don't conduct any Black Hat SEO techniques, chances are you're doing fine and are using White Hat techniques. This means you will have a long lasting Let's take a look at the Black Hat methods to see what to avoid. Black Hat SEO Black Hat techniques involve trying to trick Search Engines to rank your website higher. Some examples that you should definitely stay away from are: Keyword Spamming The most common type of black hat method that people fall into is keyword spamming or keyword stuffing. Cloaking This is a practice in which you show a different website to search engines as opposed to the humans who navigate the web looking for your content. Doorway Pages Adding a website for the purpose of an additional keyword, but providing no value to a human who visits your website. Duplicate Sites and Content Having content on your website that you did not create yourself. Think of this as plagorism. If you have to ask yourself whether it is plagorism, it probably is and you're better off putting the content in your own words. If you do use someone's content, don't steal an entire article and claim it as your own. Instead, use a snippet and credit the original author with a link to their site. Interlinking This is the method of building multiple sites and linking them together. If you're taking this introductory course, you may not know about how to design your own website, but even if you don't, you could build a few wix websites and have them link to each other; this is where you get into trouble. Instead, try to build authentic relationships with other webmasters and people in the industry to get a real link to your website. This will prove to Google that you are legitimate because you are backed by other websites on the internet. Hiding Anything on your Website Ever thought about putting extra keywords into the white background of your website with a white text? People back in 2007 did. They were on page 1 for awhile, but now they're on page 123456765 of Google and not getting any traffic. This is because they were penalized for trying to game the system. Write for humans and you'll be fine.

1. Avoiding
Black Hat MethodsWhen it comes to SEO, there are many ways to do it. We
highly encourage you to not only stick to the methods
highlighted in this course, but also to avoid certain “sneaky
practices”
There are in fact wrong ways to go about SEO and they have
cause the downfall of many businesses that rely on their SEO
traffic to survive.

2. The Differences
• Lets start off by addressing the types of
practices you can do
• White Hat SEO is considered okay in
Google’s book. These are guidelines that
we adhere to.
• There are also Black Hat SEO and Gray
Hat SEO strategies…

3. Black Hat SEO Strategies
• These are red flags that your website is trying to cheat
the system Google has established, and beat your
competition without adhering to the rules.
• These methods will generally bring quick results and
higher rankings, but this will be short lived.
• Once Google catches on (which doesn't take long) is
dramatic ranking drops and possible de-indexing from
Google's entire search engine.
• If this happens, you may need to buy a new domain and
start over because you have completely lost Google's
trust at that point.
The Differences

4. Finally we have Gray Hat SEO
tactics. These fall somewhere in
between White and Black hat
tactics and may or may not result
in being penalized by Google
The Differences
Now Let’s take a look at
each in more depth…

5. White Hat SEO
• Good SEO techniques require understanding
what to do and what not to do.
• Google has general guidelines to follow;
though they'll never tell you directly what the
secret to beating your competition is, they do
tell you when you're doing something wrong.
• Much of SEO is like science because in many
cases it is about theory. What works for some
may not work for others.

6. White Hat SEO
• White Hat SEO means adhering to Google's
guidelines and making sure you have a good
quality website that helps people who go to it to
have a good experience.
• A good experience in Google's eyes can mean
many things, but basically it means and the visitor
can find what they're looking for very easily.
• Also, there can’t be any spam or too many ads.

7. White Hat SEO
• As long as you don’t conduct any Black Hat
SEO techniques, chances are you're doing
fine and are using White Hat techniques.
• This means you will have long lasting
positive results. Let's take a look at the
Black Hat methods to see what to avoid.

8. Black Hat SEO
Black Hat techniques involve trying to trick
Search Engines to rank your website
higher. Some examples that you should
definitely stay away from are:
- Keyword Spamming - Cloaking
- Duplicate Sites and Content
- Doorway Pages - Interlinking
- Hiding Anything on Your Website

9. Keyword Spamming
The most common type of black hat method that people
fall into is keyword spamming or keyword stuffing. This
occurs when you mention your keyword in ways that
don't make sense. Here is an example of keyword
stuffing:
“Red widgets are great because red widgets really help
people out. Red widgets make your job easier. Using red
widgets allows ease of red widgets to be used.”
This sentence makes no sense but a lot of people used to
write like this years ago because they were writing for
search engines rather than for humans.

10. Cloaking
This is a practice in which you show a
different website to search engines as
opposed to the humans who navigate
the web looking for your content.
• When you write, you should write content for
humans and not search engines. People who use a
cloaking method more than likely have a page that
makes sense for humans, but a different page that
spams keywords.
• In short, don't even attempt to do this as it provides
no value in today's search engine world.

11. Duplicate Sites and Content
This just means having content on your
website that you did not create yourself.
• Think of this as plagiarism. If you have to ask
whether it is plagiarism, it probably is and you’re
better off putting the content in your own words.
• If you do use someone’s content, don’t steal an
entire article and claim it as your own. Instead,
use a snippet and credit the original author with a
link to their site.

12. Doorway Pages
Adding a website for the purpose of an
additional keyword, but providing no value
to a human who visits your website.
People create web pages to get an
additional keyword when in fact you can
avoid getting flagged for this by creating a
blog about a particular topic and writing an
interesting article.

13. Interlinking
This is the method of building multiple
sites and linking them together
• If you’re taking this introductory course, you may
not know about how to design your own website,
but even in you don’t you could build a few Wix
websites and have them link to each other, which
is where you get into trouble.

14. Interlinking
• Instead, try to build authentic relationships
with other webmasters and people in the
industry to get a real link to your website.
• This will prove to Google that you are
legitimate because you are backed by other
websites on the internet.

15. Hiding Anything
on your Website
• Ever thought about putting extra keywords into
the white background of your website with a
white text?
• People back in 2007 did. They were on page 1 for
awhile, but now they're on page 123456765 of
Google and not getting any traffic.
• This is because they were penalized for trying to
game the system. Write for humans and you'll be
fine.