The white hat, black hat debate continues to rage on in forums around the Web, seemlingly with no end in sight. Is there a way to put this argument to rest, or is the industry forever doomed to be polarized by one extreme or the other?

For the most part, I've traded in my SEO hat for a fuzzy blue animal print hat, but mine used to be sort of a dingy white. I've always held to pretty conservative standards when it came to my client work, but I also never took on any clients in the super competitive industries like travel or national real estate. I applaud black hats for their ingenuity, if not for their methods. Mostly though, I hold to the idea that any search marketer should practice under the idea of full disclosure. If a company wants to rank number one for a vertical like airline tickets, is aware of the risks of aggressive SEO tactics, and wants to hire someone to rank their relevant site, I see no reason to turn them down.

I view search engine spam as the clutter that shows at the top of the rankings that has absolutely nothing to do with what you searched for, not as the company that uses some aggressive cloaking, linking or other techniques to rank their relevant site highly.

Not everyone feels that way though and many people are very vocal about the need to rid the black hats from the industry. Jim Hedger has some suggestions about putting together a governing body today in his featured article: "The First SEO Republic Forumed"