How can you create a portfolio when one of your focus skills is SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and you’re white hat? Well, you can show off some sites that you work on and hope that people will recognize good SEO.
What is white hat SEO you ask?
A quick answer would be setting up web pages and websites as a whole so that you are making sure that both search engines (spyders) and searchers can easily determine what a page or website is about and that it matches their query as closely as possible.
Why white hat?
Well, ever since the first websites were created there have always been content creators who want more people to go to their website which is natural. However, some will use deceptive means to gain more viewers (black hat). There is also a variation called “gray hat” which treads the line and while not fully deceptive engage in very questionable practices.
Why does it matter?
It matters because when you search for something you truly want the best match for your query and search engines have spent an amazing amount of time and money creating their search algorithm. This constantly changing code tries to make sure that the top results you receive match your query the closest. When somebody engages in black hat practices they try to “game the system” and use deceptive means to fool the search algorithm. Primarily this is done for financial gain and only has the website in question’s best interest in mind. You can easily identify black and gray hat SEO operators because they guarantee that you can be at the top of the search results for any given word and they are also the ones who get the angriest when the algorithm is updated.