Most businesses are aware that improving the ranking of their website in search engine results page (SERP) can greatly increase the number of visitors to the website. Hence they would like to hire the services of a search engine optimization (seo) agency which will optimize the business website to improve the SERP ranking. There are a large number of seo agencies, and they differ in the techniques they use as well as their charges for improving the ranking. One of the main factors which businesses should consider while hiring the agency, is that hiring a blackhat seo agency, can adversely affect the business website ranking in the long term. So businesses should be aware of the difference between whitehat and blackhat seo
The major search engines like google, bing are using algorithms for ranking the millions of websites. It is possible for experienced seo firms who understand the algorithm well, to do onsite and offsite seo quickly and cheaply using unethical tactics, to improve the website ranking. These unethical tactics are called blackhat seo. Some of these techniques used including automated or spun content which is not readable, hidden text and links, keyword stuffing , filing adverse reports about a competitor. Often these tactics are very effective in improving the ranking of the website in the short term. However, since the website is not suitable for human use, it is likely to get reported to the search engines. During the manual review the blackhat tactics will be observed, and the website will be penalized in the SERP. The penalized website is usually not found using search engines.
Search engines want quality websites listed in their SERP, so that the internet users will trust them and continue to use them. Hence they have specified the criteria they use for ranking the website in the serp and how the websites can improve their SERP ranking. Some of the methods used including improving the content in the website, redesigning the website so that it will load quickly in the browser and is easy to navigate. The meta tags used should be relevant and contain the keywords. Backlinks should be obtained ethically from relevant websites. Since these tactics to improve ranking are approved by the search engines, they are called whitehat seo techniques. Since most business websites are using similar tactics, it is usually more expensive to make a website rank using whitehat seo. However, the website will not be penalized if whitehat seo is used by white hat digital marketing agency.
