Search Engine Optimisation - White Hat VS Black Hat

Today at work I read an artitle regarding bmw and google. Basically BMW were using cloaking to get the number 1 spot for searches such as "used cars". Google have penalised them by reducing their page rank back down to zero. This brings up the topic White Hat vs Black Hat search engine optimisation techniques.

White Hat Search Engine Optimisation Techniques
Basically white hat techniques mean "doing things by the book".
Eg,

1. Optimise your title, and Meta tags for your site so they represent the content of the page being displayed.
2. Optimise your content to represent your chosen keywords and phrases.
3. Create incomming links from other related sites.

Black Hat Search Engine Optimisation Techniques
Basically black hat techniques mean "doing things that search engines see as being illegal".

Eg,

1. Cloaking
2. Spamming Keywords and Phrases
3. Linking from link farms

My view on this is simply, if you want your site to rank high and you want it to stay there use "White Hat" techniques. This will ensure that your site is going to stay in the rankings and won't be banned.

If you're happy-go-lucky inspired you might try some "Black Hat" techniques. This may get you immediate results but more often than not it doesn't take long for the search engines to catch on to it and you'll soon be banned.

If you want results fast why not participate in paid advertisments like google adwords, where you can bid for ad placement withing search results. This allows you to create targetted ads to a targeted audience.