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White hat search engine optimization (white hat SEO) refers to SEO strategies that aim to build a quality website over the long term by focusing on the website’s audience. White hat SEO techniques include creating unique, high-quality website content and providing links to other relevant content on the site. White hat SEO tactics adhere to all search engine rules and policies, which act to dissuade webmasters from gaming search engines at the expense of the reader’s experience.
White hat SEO is also known as ethical SEO.
Techopedia Explains White Hat Search Engine Optimization
White hat SEO aims to provide search engines with relevant information about the content on the site and present it clearly and honestly. Google, the world’s most popular search engine, uses an ever-evolving algorithm that aims to evaluate a Web page much like a human reader would. This means that Google looks for signs of unique (not copied from another site) content that is relevant to the given search term. Google uses several other measures and factors to determine whether a given site is a reputable and trusted source.
Although black hat SEO techniques can fool search engines and increase search engine page rank for the sites that use them, search engines frown on the use of these techniques. Sites that are found to be using black hat SEO may have their page ranks downgraded; their sites may even be removed from search results on a given search engine.
