WHAT IS WHITE HAT SEO?
White hat SEO refers to any sort of strategy that follows the rules. Google sets out various recommendations and/or guidelines in terms of quality content. Essentially, white hat SEO means you’re doing exactly what the search engines want you to do. This means you’ve created a long-term plan that doesn’t try to trick any crawlers and will withstand any future algorithm updates.
WHAT IS BLACK HAT SEO?
Black hat SEO is the opposite of any sort of strategy that follows the rules. Essentially, you’re breaking the rules to earn higher rankings in a less honest way. You may increase your website or page’s rank in the search engines; however, you’re doing so in a way that violates the search engines’ terms. More often than not, black hat SEO doesn’t work out in the long-run as you’re unable to adapt to algorithm updates.
WHICH METHOD GETS BETTER RESULTS?
Each method has its own benefits and drawbacks. In fact, many marketers and/or web developers struggle to decide which way to go. For instance, white hat SEO can work exceptionally well, but it takes more time to see results. Black hat SEO, on the other hand, offers fairly quick results, but there’s always the risk of reputational damage or having your website blacklisted. Let’s review exactly what kind of techniques fit into each category.
TECHNIQUES THAT FALL UNDER WHITE HAT SEO
Many of the most successful companies choose white hat SEO techniques. Why? Google, the most popular search engine, will ban your site if they see you using too many black hat SEO techniques. As they’re the most popular search engine, they’re an incredibly powerful source of potential traffic to your website. If you’re banned, you’ll notice a drastic decline in traffic, and in some cases, business opportunities. What’s worse, there’s no way of knowing if they’ll ever remove the ban. If you’re looking to play it safe, here are some of the most common techniques that fall under white hat SEO:
Write high-quality content
Your content should be unique and specific to your website. This means you should avoid mass-produced or outsourced content that will be found on a number of other websites. Try to write in a way that meets the needs of searchers rather than focusing on ranking well on the search engines. Creating valuable content that answers the questions your visitors are asking is the best way to rank higher. Aim for longer content — around 2000 or more words — to get the best results.
Before you post anything, double check for any spelling and/or grammar errors. Then take a moment to consider whether or not the content is share-worthy or link-worthy. If people share or link back to your content, your search ranking will increase. Lastly, make sure your content is relevant to the products and/or services you provide and the keywords you’re trying to rank for. Google and other search engines look for relevancy.
Pay attention to your meta description
Your meta description is the short paragraph of text that appears in the search results under your page title. It’s best to write your meta description for your target audience rather than worry too much about the search engines. You’ll notice this is a common theme. Google and other search engines want their searchers to be happy with the results they get. Don’t overstuff your meta description with keywords — one or two of them will suffice. Remember, a meta description can make a huge difference in terms of whether or not a searcher will choose your result over the others.
You can add a meta description in the <head> section of the HTML code on your website. Your CMS should give you complete control of your meta description. There are SEO plug-ins available, such as Yoast, that allow you to add a meta description and preview an example of how it’ll show up in search engine result pages (SERPS).
Perform thorough keyword research
This should always be your first step. Although it’s frowned upon to “keyword stuff” — the act wherein you fill your content with keywords to rank higher — keywords are still incredibly important. Start by performing a few searches on words and/or phrases you think people would use to find the products and/or services you offer. Notice how the search engine will show you similar searches? Add these to your list. You can also use a keyword generator tool. SEMrush, for example, will provide a list of words depending on your product and/or service.
Keep in mind; there are two types of keywords: single words and long-tail. When you’re researching a list of keywords, try to have a good amount of both types of keywords on your list. You’ll want to rank for both types as they’re both important. Additionally, try to have a good mix of highly competitive and less competitive keywords. If you aim for highly competitive keywords only, you may have trouble getting on the first page.
Get relevant, high-quality backlinks
Backlinks, also known as inbound links, are links that are directing back to your website. Google and other search engines see backlinks as an indication of importance for any given website. Essentially, they’re a sign of popularity and relevance, which is important because the search engines give more credit to websites with a high number of backlinks. If other websites are linking to you, it means your content must be good quality, and therefore, you end up ranking higher.
Remember, there are low and high-quality backlinks. You don’t want backlinks from spammy websites. When backlinks come from sites with content related to your website, they’re considered more relevant backlinks than those coming from sites that have nothing to do with you and your product and/or service. It’s even better if you can get backlinks from high authority websites, such as news outlets.
Add internal links whenever possible
Internal links are hyperlinks pointing to another page on the same domain. As long as you don’t overdo it, internal links are a great sign that your website offers value in terms of a range of posts. They make it easier for users to navigate your website, help establish information hierarchy, and above all, spread link equity around websites. How many internal links should you include on a page? Aim for no more than 2 or 3. Try to add your hyperlinks to keywords that lead to pages about that particular topic.
In order to create a lot of internal links, you’ll need to have a lot of content on your website. This means you need an effective content marketing strategy wherein you’re posting new blogs on a regular basis. Remember to use anchor text as opposed to linked images. Although it’s fine to link images, it’s not as effective as text.
Keep Page URLs Short and Concise
Permalinks, also known as permanent linking structure, refers to the way a URL reads on the user’s address bar within their browser. Google and other search engines look at your permalinks — searching for information or insight into what that page is about. Make sure you add keywords to your permalinks but keep them short and concise. Several studies have stated that shorter URLs rank higher than longer URLs. The goal is to incorporate your keywords but keep it within 3 or 4 words. You can add hyphens to separate words.
This is also about ensuring a better end-user experience. Would you rather visit a site with a URL of www.example.com/exam-33-ple or www.example.com/example-URL. You want people to click on your website and know what they’re reading and/or doing at all times. Plus, you want those who use assistive technologies to be able to hear what the URL is clearly. WordPress offers the ability to change permalinks easily. You can simply go to Settings > Permalinks.
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