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== White hat versus black hat ==
[http://www.unmatchedsolutions.co.uk/seo/free-search-engine-optimization.html SEO techniques] are classified by some into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques that search engines do not approve of and attempt to minimize the effect of, referred to as [[spamdexing]]. Some industry commentators classify these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either [http://www.unmatchedsolutions.co.uk/seo/free-search-engine-optimization.html white hat SEO], or black hat SEO.<ref>{{cite web|author=Andrew Goodman|publisher=SearchEngineWatch|url=http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3483941|title=Search Engine Showdown: Black hats vs. White hats at SES|accessdate=2007-05-09}}</ref> White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites will eventually be banned once the search engines discover what they are doing.<ref>{{cite web|author=[[Jill Whalen]]|url=http://www.searchengineguide.com/whalen/2004/1116_jw1.html|title=Black Hat/White Hat Search Engine Optimization|publisher=searchengineguide.com|accessdate=2007-05-09|date=[[November 16]], [[2004]]}}</ref>
A SEO tactic, technique or method is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines' guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines<ref name="g-wmguide">{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html|title=Google's Guidelines on Site Design|accessdate=2007-04-18|publisher=google.com}}</ref><ref name="ms-wmguide">{{cite web|url=http://search.msn.com/docs/siteowner.aspx?t=SEARCH_WEBMASTER_REF_GuidelinesforOptimizingSite.htm|title=Site Owner Help: MSN Search Web Crawler and Site Indexing |publisher = msn.com | accessdate=2007-04-18}}</ref><ref name="y-wmguide">{{cite web|url=http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html|title=Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines|accessdate=2007-04-18|publisher=help.yahoo.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html|title=What's an SEO? Does Google recommend working with companies that offer to make my site Google-friendly? |publisher = google.com | accessdate=2007-04-18}}</ref> are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note. White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see.
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