White Hat SEO: The Complete Guide to Long-Term Rankings

Google’s algorithm is updated more than 500 times annually — hence it is impossible to dodge the algorithm with black-hat techniques.

White hat SEO, on the other hand, is like fine wine, it takes patience and time to develop the taste, but the result is worth it. While all black hat users walk on a tightrope, white hat practitioners always remain at peace with quality SEO techniques. 

Sometimes due to the claims of black hat practitioners, we feel tempted to try on sneaky PBNs or cloaking to get speedy search results. But, these so-called super-fast tactics put you at the mercy of strict search engine algorithm updates, which may result in a severe google penalty. 

On the contrary, white hat SEO helps you achieve sustainable rankings and a good reputation and saves your precious time, money, and effort in the long run.

Therefore, white hat practices ensure unshakeable results with little to no risk. 

So, why play with fire when you can attain reliable rankings employing white hat SEO techniques?

Read this post to pave your path to sustainable and organic search engine rankings. 

What is White Hat SEO?

White hat SEO refers to all the practices that help uplifts your website’s search engine results without violating any terms and conditions. It could be high-quality content, optimizing website speed, and having easy navigation.

Importance of White Hat SEO Techniques

Ethical Practices

Google and other search engines bring you up when you value your audience. White hat SEO strategies emphasize ethical practices that are rewarded by Google updates. In contrast, black hat SEO practitioners over-optimize their websites for search engines rather than people.

Aligning with Search Engine Guidelines

Think of the world wide web as a dense jungle of websites where Google updates like RankBrain, Penguin, and Panda update maintain the balance of this ecosystem. White hat marketers always play by the rules.  Hence they never get hit by those updates.  They get rewarded for contributing positively to the ecosystem.

Appearing at the Top and Retain Long-Term Value

White Hat SEO methods make your website stand out in the crowd of other websites. It’s like the survival of the fittest — the more you maintain the quality, the higher the chances of better long-term search rankings.

Key Components of White Hat SEO

Quality Content

81% of marketers see content as a core business strategy.  Hence proved why content is one of the most crucial components of white hat SEO techniques. It might sound complicated, but there is no rocket science behind crafting high-quality seo content. 

It is simply about creating the most helpful content that can solve queries, help people learn something new, and provide value to your target audience in one way or another. Simply put, it’s the content crafted for people rather than search engines. 

Link Building

Black hat SEO tactics are followed so frequently that upon thinking of link building, we think of blog commenting or irrelevant forum posting. Ethical link-building is highly encouraged by search engines.

It mainly includes guest blogging on niche-specific websites through which you can create high-quality backlinks. Moreover, other techniques, such as link reclamation, permalink optimization, and keyword-rich anchor texts, can also boost your rankings. 

On-Page Optimization

On-page optimization is the heart and soul of white-hat SEO methods. Contrary to popular belief, there is much more to it than just meta-tags optimization.

From featured images and meta descriptions to placing keywords strategically and optimizing page titles, there is so much to on-page SEO, making it one of the essential white hat methods.  

Site Structure

Website de-cluttering is crucial to a better user experience. If website visitors fail to navigate your site, they will be more likely to abandon it in frustration. Moreover, Google bots use your links as connecting dots to determine the link between pages. Hence it is one of the essential white hat SEO tactics. 

Mobile Optimization

With a mobile phone in every hand, it is needless to mention why mobile optimization is vital to white hat SEO. A study shows over 52% of traffic is generated from mobile phones.

Therefore, you should optimize your website by keeping the mobile-first mentality in mind. Each element should be mobile-friendly, fluid, and scroll-friendly to meet Google’s guidelines. 

User Experience

88% of users don’t return to the website where they had a bad user experience. Therefore, search engines favor websites that provide an optimal user experience, including fast page speed, easy navigation, and relevant content. Positive user experience leads to low bounce rates and higher engagements. 

Best Practices for White Hat Search Engine Optimization 

You will find these fail-proof tips helpful if you want to be on top of search results while playing by the rules.

Content Strategy

According to Helpful Content Update, Google announced to reward people-first content and devalue all the Google-pleasers. Fortunately, creating unique and valuable quality content is easier than it sounds. Below we have mentioned the best practices for crafting an efficient content strategy. 

Satisfy User Intent

The best content is made for people rather than search engines. Hence a quality web page has all the elements users expect to see. Be mindful, RankBrain is always on patrol, so everything above expectations is welcome- below expectations, no chance.

User intent falls into three of these categories, so be sure you create content around these intentions.

• Navigational- When the user is seeking a specific website. 
• Informational: When the user wants to learn something. 
• Transactional: When the user wants to buy something.

Craft Long-form and Share-worthy Content

83% of marketers believe focusing on quality rather than quantity of content is better. In-depth and unique content establishes authority and builds your trust in the audience. Moreover, it helps you gain backlinks and is more likely to be shared on social media.

So, be it video content, text content, articles, infographics, or any other elements, it will rank and stay for a long time if your content has something extraordinary and valuable for the users.

Link Building Techniques

Google has employed a vast team of manual reviewers who keep analyzing the sites. Moreover, Google Penguin detects rampant link building to prevent unnatural and shady link schemes — with these two in action, the chances of your website making it far are thin.

Here are the ethical link-building techniques that will help you achieve sustainable ranking. 

Content Contribution

The No.1 and the most effective link-building technique is content contributions such as guest posting in your niche. You can launch a blogger outreach campaign to reach out to the sites willing to publish guest content and get a quality link to your website.

Unique and Valuable Content

Secondly, you must create unique, highly-valuable, long-form data that sites prefer to link. It will be a one-time hard work, a long-term reward, as people will keep linking and sharing such content. You can even promote your exceptional content via online media outlets like magazines and news outlets. 

Link Reclamation

Lastly, link reclamations can be another convenient way to build quality links. Find the broken links through SEO tools that might have been lost for various reasons.

Once you have figured out the link referring to, find a new similar page you can link it to now. Reach out to the site admin and request they replace the link with the new one. 

Keyword Research

Thanks to the RankBrain update, SEO practitioners are now more focused on using hand-picked and highly relevant keywords that are helpful for both search engines and people.

Below we have mentioned some effective keyword research techniques that are 100% white hat yet effective for quick and long-term ranking.

Keyword Golden Ratio

This keyword research technique allows you to leverage untapped and high-potential keywords. You need to find the keywords within 250 search volume, while you may ignore the search difficulty with this method. Now search the term on Google search with “allintitle:” and pick the terms with a maximum of 63 results. 

Here is an example:

In the end, you need to calculate the golden ratio using this formula:

KGR= Allintitle/search volume

The search engine results below 2.50 will be an optimum target keyword for quick and long-term ranking. 

Scour the Online Forums

Online communities, like Quora, Reddit, and other niche-specific forums, are the hotspot to find the most effective keywords. You must pay attention to the frequently used terms and cross-check them using tools like AnswerThePublic.

Queries like these are more likely to be ranked faster than others.  

Steal the Competitor Keywords 

Despite the word steal, there is nothing black hat about this technique. Use the keyword tools like Semrush or Ubersuggest, and you will get a long list of keywords you can use for your website. You may even use the keyword gap tool and make the most of untapped keywords.

Technical SEO

Dealing with messy URLs, improper redirects, duplicate content, poor navigation, and slow page speed issues sounds complicated to many. Thanks to user-friendly tools and plugins — you can tackle the tasks without coding knowledge.

Here are some technical SEO best practices you can employ for long-lasting organic search results:

Improve Page Speed

Use the Google tool named PageSpeed Insights to determine your website speed. Here you will get suggestions for the measure you can take for improved loading performance.

Fix Technical Errors

It’s great if you have access to tools like Ahrefs for a complete SEO audit. Otherwise, you may use the search console to find all the errors on your website. You can send the report to a developer to help resolve the issues.

Measuring Success

Lastly, monitor your efforts to determine whether you are progressing as expected. Again tools like Semrush, Ahrefs and Google Analytics, and Search Console will give deep insights into your keyword ranking and the goals associated with the keywords. 

Moreover, these tools give you a detailed insight into website traffic, CTR, and bounce rate. All these insights will help you further to alter or enhance your white hat practices.

Skyrocket your Search Engine Rankings with Traffv Now!

We have provided an all-inclusive guide to the best white hat SEO techniques. But if you want professional support, we’ve got you covered at Traffv. With our best white hat SEO practices, we enable site owners to rank higher on Google and other major search engines.

We’ve been making their SEO wishes come true with a dynamic approach and helping them outperform their competitors.

So check out our SEO services and supercharge your organic traffic!

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