I sat in on some Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) sessions earlier in the year, and I was amazed at the number of different approaches that are NOT being explored in the science of searching, filtering, and validating good information on the web. Many people (and companies) have disparaged some of the classic methods of vetting and scoring information relevance, mostly on the argument that they are "too slow" to keep up with the Web. But there are some academic and company researchers who putting serious effort into it, and I believe we will eventually see Google and other search engines implement some radical new methods and presentation styles over the next few years.
From a human point of view, we evaluate data not only on the content itself, but also on organization, presentation, source, surrounding environment, and a host of explicit and implied corroboration factors. Automated search algorithms and filter routines only consider a minuscule fraction of these today.
As I’ve sat here today pondering on some issues, I started thinking along the lines of how the practice of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) really is like an ongoing battle between the white hats and the black hats (think of wizards, where the ones with white hats are the good guys and the ones with the black hats are the bad guys). While thinking down this path, my thoughts took a jolting turn towards the lure of black hat tactics. Even to this day, I can’t resist surfing around my favorite black hat forums/sites to read the latest thoughts and tactics these people come up with. Let’s think of it as… competition analysis, shall we? 
So, I thought I would take you on a little journey and show you just how the dark side operates and why so many people engage in black hat SEO when it’s supposedly such a “bad” or “unethical” thing. I plan to get you into the processes and methods present in black hat psychology, then show you how to translate those thoughts into actionable white hat ideas.
I think it’s safe to say that anyone serious about practicing SEO (be it freelance, consulting, agency) can’t help but dabble in the black arts at least once. After all, it really isn’t that difficult to set up a blog or Web site to use as a test bed for theories. If Google just so happens to blacklist the site, no one is losing out. Now, having said that, the only *real* goal behind implementing black hat SEO is to make money. That’s it. In the end, it’s all about money. Not rankings, traffic, or fun; just money. But like I said, that’s the goal behind actually *implementing* black hat methods; not necessarily brainstorming them. Just bear in mind that you absolutely should not implement like a black hat when it comes to clients and/or sites that you don’t want to risk getting blacklisted. Thinking like a black hat SEO, on the other hand, can result in some creative white hat tactics — so long as you have the initial intent to end up with them despite how far down the unethical path you might brainstorm.
While thinking through the processes of black hat SEO psychology to cherry-pick the aspects that I feel can be beneficial/usable to white hat SEO, I decided to deduce the black hat thinking process into as few actionable steps as possible; then, realize those steps in the form of a flow chart. What I discovered is that white hat thinking is very similar — with the exception of the objective, the high risk “money” step, and the step I listed as “circumnavigation.” For your consideration, here is the (rather ugly, I know) flow chart (click the image below to see the full-size image):
A Study in Black Hat SEO Psychology
As you can see, I’ve broken down the process of black hat SEO thinking into one basic flow comprised of an objective followed by 5 steps. On the next page, I will delve further into those steps — as well as demonstrate an example of black hat thinking with the intent of formulating an actionable white hat idea.
