White hat SEO just isn’t enough. It’s time to take SEO to the next level. Clear Hat SEO.

I’m one of those SEO guys that started a long time ago. I remember my first SEO job I took with a company that promised me a meager base of $2K per month and a heap of bonuses tied to specific keyword phrases on any of 8 search engines. I maxed out their keywords on Google, MSN, Yahoo, InfoSeek, AOL and others. They increased online sales alone over 500% when the search engines had them indexed. Apparently I was breaking the bank – or they felt like I was because suddenly I was the 2nd highest paid employee with the company.

I remember being quite secretive about what I did to catapult them into the stratosphere on the search engines. I remember thinking that I had a serious talent that I’d better keep to myself or else lose my “specialness”.  I realize today that even if I told someone everything I did, they’d never be able to replicate it because what I did was “live” search engines. There was no way I’d ever be able to write down everything I did and literally I’d have to do just that if I were to try to share my knowledge on the subject.

Often times it’s intuitive what I do to a site to optimize it. I mean, I don’t use any SEO software anymore. WebPosition Pro was a great help back then, but for the last five years or so I’ve not once looked at my keyword density or anything like that. It’s in my head. I follow some of the top forums about SEO and I test things for myself. That’s where all my knowledge comes from nowadays.

There’s been a lot of talk about Black Hat SEO, White Hat SEO, Grey Hat SEO… recently there’s been “Blue Hat SEO” topics in the blogs. While I appreciate the differences I really only use SEO methods that Google agrees with. I’ve never tried to trick Google because it just wasn’t worth it to risk having a site I was working on penalized for any amount of time because I tried to go about SEO in a conniving fashion.

I realize that over the last few years I’ve struggled with another issue, that of transparency to the client I’m working with. Only recently I came up with the Clear Hat SEO idea to give a name to the type of relationship I try to form with my clients. I really want to be open with them about what I’m doing to optimize their site and yet that nagging idea about “giving the game away” still pings me in the head every now and then.

Clear Hat SEO is about total SEO transparency to the client on the part of the SEO consultant. It’s about building the trust of the client through total transparency. I’ve noticed that more and more I’m working with clients that have hired SEO consultants in the past that did serious damage to their site’s credibility. I believe legal action could be taken, some of it I’ve seen has surely been criminally wrong and a court of law couldn’t see it any other way.

I’ve seen SEO consultants build their own pages into a site… or build their own link-schemes into sites. I’ve found hidden links throughout sites. I’ve found malicious javascript inside the code of some sites. I’ve found plagiarized pages – blatantly copied word for word and given to the client as original content! I’ve seen some really disgusting things, if you do SEO – you likely have also. So, I’ve noticed that the SEO industry has a LOT of inept search engine consultants posing as legitimate professionals.

Why is the SEO industry so ripe for this? It’s the secrecy behind the SEO process. Traditionally it’s been pretty secret. Sure there have been forums for a decade about “how” to go about SEO, but you know – the real solid information, the kind that took me many experiments to figure out – is not often revealed in these forums. And maybe with good reason for a long time. SEO consultants feared losing money, losing respect, losing their jobs if they told the client exactly what they did to get them in Google’s top SERP (search engine result pages).

Now I think the game has changed. I feel a real responsibility as an SEO consultant to be as open as possible about what I’ve done to their site. I keep a daily log that’s available online as a Google Doc that they can bring up anytime to see the hours I’ve worked and the things I’ve done. You know what? I’m not worried one iota about whether or not someone could copy what I do.

Yes, it’s true. There is still so much variety in what I do for each client. Each client has a unique set of circumstances that tests my ability as an SEO consultant to come up with the right equation to bring them success in the terms they define.

I could write out a list of places I register someone’s sites – and I do, and not fear I just gave away a good portion of my secrets. I haven’t at all. I haven’t told anyone exactly what words I use when I register someone’s site – which change with each site. I haven’t given away the entire equation in minute detail telling the client every possible thing I did and why I did it.

It would be literally impossible for me to write down everything I did. It wouldn’t be conducive to my work flow at all. Even if I wanted to – I just don’t work like that. Instead I write down the obvious details of what I did. I share little of the WHY I did something because the WHY is what makes me special as an SEO consultant.

The WHY is what took me 10 years to figure out. The WHY is different every time I optimize a different site. The WHY is mine. All mine and that’s my value as an SEO consultant, not the details of what I did because that’s the end result of the plan… that is not the entire strategy behind the plan.

I hope I’m making sense to most of you that haven’t really delved into SEO yet. For those that have, I think you know exactly what I’m referring to. People have asked me for years and years… WHAT is it you do to get the rankings so high for sites? My head spins with that for a few minutes… Do they really want me to start talking incessantly for the next 4 hours straight to tell you what all matters to Google and how I attack the problem each time I’m hired? It IS that big. It is that complicated. It is that amazing a process that it can hardly be put into words.

I can share pieces of the puzzle, and I share as much as I can with clients I’m working with – I hold nothing back except the “why”. Clear Hat SEO gives it all away except the WHY. If one chooses to give away that too – up to them. We can come up with another term for that… how about LUCID HAT SEO?

:) I’m being funny now… but I do hope SEO professionals worldwide start holding themselves to a higher standard of operating procedure. I hope they start adopting Clear Hat SEO practices so SEO can come out of the closet. I hope people that hire SEO consultants start holding them to a higher standard. I hope some of them get their pants sued off them for SEO malpractice. I hope the world of SEO becomes a better place, a more friendly place without so much secrecy… fraud… fear of transparency… and this results in happier clients with a better view of SEO consultants and our industry.