Black Hat and White Hat tactics are the terms used to describe two different approaches to SEO. The short answer is, think of it like black magic and white magic – one is risky, one is safe. Black Hat SEO is used because its tactics have fast results in a short amount of time. White Hat tactics take a little longer but have a long-term success rate. Black Hat SEO is risky because it includes practices such as keyword stuffing, which as mentioned above, can really hurt your ranking and site authority.