Search engine optimization (SEO) is a well-known term in the online world. Everyone who hopes to make money through Google knows the importance of SEO as part of their online marketing strategies. According to Hubspot, 61 of online marketers admitted that both SEO and enhancing their organic presence make for their top 2 inbounding marketing strategies.
Simply put, SEO is the practice of making your website or blog rank high on search engines. When you rank high on search engines, it means your page will attract more visitors. Traffic is what brings the dollars to your bank accounts.Search engines have guidelines that page optimization is based upon. If you followed these rules to the letter, you are said to have performed white hat SEO. Black hat SEO is the opposite of white hat SEO. It refers to deceitful and risky SEO tactics to improve rankings on search engines. Here is a quick insight into the world of white hat SEO and what you need to know to optimize your page the right way.
The Basics of White Hat SEO
Before the evolution of search engines, people would predict the kind of algorithms used by search engines to rank websites. Frankly speaking, these were just black hat SEO techniques such as link farming, keyword stuffing, duplication of existing content and a host of other intelligent strategies. However, as the search engines evolved, the need to tighten things a little bit became crucial. They found tricks of eliminating some of these black hat SEO practices subsequently forcing everyone to go the white-hat-SEO route.White hat SEO is the only sustainable ranking strategy that can expand your presence online. It guarantees on-going conversions and exposure for years to come. Despite all the promises of success, white hat SEO is difficult. Don’t expect an influx of customers to come knocking at your door just after a few days of implementing all strategies suggested here. It takes time to take effect but once it accelerates, you will enjoy the fruits forever.
White Hat SEO Tactics
You need two vital components to kick-start your success with white hat SEO: great content and link building. Let’s close in on each one of them and see how you can leverage them for better SEO results.· Content
You have probably heard the term “content is king” more than a hundred times already as far as online marketing is concerned. This is because the term is huge in the world of search engine optimization. According to a study carried by the Content Marketing Institute, only 37% of responders said they have effective content marketing strategies. The main aim of Google, Bing, and other search engines is to display useful content to users in relation to their search queries. When a user types a keyword on the search engine, its crawlers launch into the exercise of scanning available pages online. The objective is to discover the websites that cover topics that closely relate to the search query plus other stuff such as back-end codes for specific descriptions, tags, and instructions. Your content should be engaging, error-free, and relevant.· Link Building
Link building is as important as having quality content when it comes to white hat SEO. To score high, you want to get appropriate links that have strong relevance to your site. One of the ways you can ensure this is to create a resource center—one that works on just about all websites. Apart from adding links, Premier SEO Ninjas believe that a good resource center makes you an authority and inspires trust with Google.Other White Hat SEO Tactics
Although content and links are the two sought-after elements used by search engines to rank websites, there are a few more that will help your SEO efforts a great deal. ● Navigation: Forbes recently printed a report about a study done by Tank Design that showed labels are users’ best friends. According to the research, many large B2B companies still miss out on the importance of navigating their websites by making use of labels such as “Services”, “Products”, and “Resources”. You might have amazing content and plenty of relevant links to your site but if your site is not well organized, users will take off with maximum speed and minimum delay. No one wants to waste all day navigating a tricky website, at least not when there are a thousand other simple and navigable sites with relevant information out there. Your goal should be to keep users on your site for as long as you possibly can.● Relevant Keywords: Before developing your content, you want to do proper keyword research. This is what will help you predict what users are looking for and what search engines’ bots are likely to pick out. As you do the research, you will probably realize you need terms that closely relate to the niche of your business.Why is White Hat SEO Important?
Sure, you can implement black hat SEO tactics and still get your website ranked high on search engines but the stakes are just too high. Your site can be completely banned on Google, Bing, and other search engines. Sometimes, search engines are merciful and only penalize websites for employing black hat SEO but even then, you are likely to experience a massive drop in website rankings. Getting banned from Google is a major downfall. According to Internetlivestats, an average of 40,000 visitors enters a search query on Google every minute. That translates to 3.5 billion searches per day. Showing up in Google’s bad books is as good as signing a death sentence for your online marketing strategy. White hat SEO is an ethical way of conducting SEO through the creation of good content and hence an amazing user experience. Even if the results don’t come overnight, they will someday. And just like that, you are more knowledgeable about white hat SEO. With a good content strategy, use of relevant keywords and backlinks and finally making your site easy to navigate, you can rank high on Google without having to employ black hat SEO.
