Black Hat, Grey Hat, White Hat SEO... What's the Difference??

Remeber the old cowboy movies where the villian wore the black hat and the sheriff or good guys wore the white hats, well that is the perception of black hat and white hat SEO.. While that may be true in some cases, most times it is not. The main difference is that the "black hat" looks for shortcuts and ways to automate as much as possible. The "black hat" basically pushes the envelope with search engines, linking, etc... to the farthest limit, but still does not do anything "illegal", atleast in most cases. The white hat is a "by the book" person and follows all guidelines...

This is not a very good description, but we have had a few questions from readers and I just wanted to throw out a quick explanation. I will go indepth soon and hopefully give a better explanation... In my opinion, if you don't know every side and option of black hat and white hat then you are missing out on a lot of knowledge even if you don't utilize certain things.