If you are considering writing articles for SEO then white hat techniques need to be adhered to. White hat essentially means good practice. Black hat essentially means bad practice. It means you aren’t playing by the rules of good SEO practice.

White article writing requires that the writer rely on their own research. They don’t plagiarize. Their articles are written in their own words and from their own perspective. However it is possible to lend from sections or follow an outline of other articles, but it must follow some unique research. Apart from that grammar is important as are spelling and formatting. It must contain keywords in the body of the article as well as headings and sub headings and must have the right density of keywords. Keyword stuffing is strictly taboo.

Plagiarism

White Hat article writing should never give rise to accusations of plagiarism. It is acceptable to use search engines for research but not for copy. It is also suggested that reference be given where applicable.

Plagiarism is not only illegal but can get your client into lawsuits pertaining to copyright infringements. While this isn’t good news for them it is even worse news for you. While it may entail costing them lots of money you will lose reputation and you could be blacklisted. If you are you probably won’t be able to find work in this field again.

Following the rules

Keyword stuffing needs special mention. White hat article writers would not even contemplate it. The reason it is done is to quickly increase rankings. Not only is it black hat but it will get a writer permanently blacklisted. If an article sounds forces or makes no sense due to the repeated use of keywords or keywords phrases then it is considered keyword stuffing. If you still aren’t sure then measure the percentage of keywords to the overall content. If your keywords make up more than about 5% of content then you are guilty.

Apart from keyword stuffing a writer should never entertain duplicate content, hidden text, cloaking or doorway pages.

White hat article writing is about following the rules. If you do things the correct way you will be rewarded with a long and healthy career. Your client will also be rewarded with a website that will over time encourage higher rankings. White hat article writing has the ability to drive rankings and increase traffic. Traffic will remain interested as long as content is relevant and informative, easy to read and easy to navigate. This also means that website owners have a better chance at converting traffic into sales. White hat articles also help websites get better positions in article databases and in directory submissions.

Not following the rules has consequences. First a writer will lose reputation. Secondly a website will lose reputation or worse get banned. If either happens both website owner and the writer will bear the consequences.

At the end of the day many websites are only as good as their content.

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