White Hat SEO refers to legitimate techniques used to increase a website's ranking on SERPs, in line with Webmaster Guidelines and search engine algorithms.
White hat SEO is important because these techniques keep everything above board and ensure that high-quality websites fill SERPs. Complying with Webmaster Guidelines means that web pages are rewarded and avoid being hit with a Google Penalty.
Certain penalties can also be incredibly hard to bounce back from, whereas white hat SEO techniques are long-term and effective strategies that increase SERP ranking, engagement and conversion rates.
There are many white hat SEO techniques that don’t get websites in trouble and instead increase a site’s authority and popularity. Below are some of the most important:
This one may seem pretty obvious and simple, but you’d be surprised. Instead of using content farming to generate articles, create unique and insightful content. Make sure your website is free from grammatical and punctual errors. And, strictly NO article spinning.
Create well researched and easily digestible content, related to your website that fulfils the searcher’s query. Use short snappy sentences that are easy to read.
Create content for the user.
Link building is one of the most important SEO techniques for ranking. And, unfortunately, there is no quick fix. It will require a lot of effort and planning. You must create content that other websites with similar content will want to link to.
For this technique, reach out to other companies and organisations and explain your value to them. You could even request to write a contributing blog on their platform. Think big.
Good link-building also helps Google find new websites.
Optimising the components of your page is also an essential white hat SEO technique. This means making sure your title tags and meta description are insightful, punchy and include relevant keywords. This goes for your URL and image alt text too!
Great keyword research is at the heart of good white hat SEO. It might be time-consuming, but it is a rewarding long-term strategy (and one you’ll need to keep revisiting). For this technique, you will need to look inward.
What is the basis of your company? Who are your audience? What keywords do they use? And don’t forget to examine your competitors too.
Analyse keyword difficulty and popularity – this will steer you onto the road of success.
There is an extensive range of tools to help websites optimise their pages with white hat SEO techniques. These tools include:
Worried you’ve been steered down the shady route of black hat SEO in your business? We’re here to help.
Contact us and we’ll hook you up with a great marketing team that can help you see the light!
If your budget won’t allow that just yet, we also have some awesome training courses that will set you up with tried and tested SEO practises to improve your rankings and get you where you want to be.
