Search engine optimization helps your business grow, but not all SEO strategies are the same. In fact, there are two general classes of SEO campaigns today - white hat and black hat.
Black Hat SEO
Black hat SEO is a manipulative type of SEO that defies ethics. It is actually this type of SEO that puts SEO under a bad light. This approach involves keyword stuffing, or the use of too many keywords in a single webpage as a way to attract search engines. This technique though is overall ineffective because the user will not be able to understand the content, and Google will even penalize a website that applies this trick. Another common black hat SEO strategy is spamming with the use of a website's meta tags. Search engines are always looking for meta-tags stuffed with popular keywords that do not directly relate to the content of a particular website. Again, such a tactic can only lead to search engine penalties.
White Hat SEO
On the other hand, white hat SEO is comprised of SEO techniques without broken links which are highly ethical. SEO which is applied correctly can be very powerful in terms of increasing a website's online visibility and raising its search engine rankings in order to boost sales. White hat SEO mainly involves keyword research. A site owner should research and target keywords that people are usually searching on, in order to increase their chances of reaching the website. These keywords can be naturally included in meta-tags, website descriptions and the pages themselves, so as to increase a website's search engine visibility.
A site owner should also publish only high quality content that links back to his website as a way to improve page rank. Moreover, white hat SEO entails establishing a website's presence and authority to increase backlinks to the site and eventually raise search engine rankings. Rather than unethically exchanging or buying links, a white hat website will apply ethical methods like posting superior quality content, engaging in social media marketing, and the rest. Visit http://www.ehow.com/how_2189968_choose-seo-keywords.html for tips in choosing SEO keywords.
In the end, it can be surmised that the main difference between these two SEO approaches is that black hat SEO attempts to trick search engines, while white hat SEO with site spider sticks to a fair game. Note however that using black hat tricks runs the risk of being permanently banned, while white hat SEO can continually build on a website's positive Internet presence for the long term.