If you’re not sure the difference it’s important to know what white hat link building is. If you learn nothing else… Black hat techniques are to be avoided at all costs…
If you are new to SEO, you may get confused by what white hat, black hat, and gray hat symbolize. It is very important that you make an effort to understand the key differences between the three before you set out to conquer Google rankings for your website.
This guide will help you understand why white hat SEO is important in link building and suggest practical, tried and tested methods that will help you achieve targeted online traffic organically.
Google search algorithm is a complex and constantly evolving solution which favors different SEO improvements while penalizing the others. White hat link building techniques can be best explained as using those methods that are approved by Google.
These are the techniques you want to concentrate your efforts on if you want to rank high in Google SERPs (search engine page results).
You can think of white hat techniques as the ones that get a “thumbs up” from search engines, while other (black and gray hat) methods are frowned upon.
How is White Hat SEO Different from Black and Gray Hat?
The world of SEO now offers many cutting-edge techniques and innovative choices to attain your online marketing goals. It can make you don various hats as an SEO specialist.
If you are new to SEO, you may get confused by what white hat, black hat, and gray hat symbolize. It is very important that you make an effort to understand the key differences between the three before you set out to conquer Google rankings for your website.
Google search algorithm is a complex and constantly evolving solution which favors certain SEO methods while penalizing the others. White hat link building techniques can be best explained as using those methods that are approved by Google.
These are the techniques you want to concentrate your efforts on if you want to rank high in Google SERPs (search engine page results).
You can think of white hat techniques as the ones that get a “thumbs up” from search engines, while other (black and gray hat) methods are frowned upon.
This guide will help you understand why the truth is that white hat off page SEO is important in link building and suggest practical, tried and tested methods that will help you achieve targeted online traffic organically. Outreach Frog posting service only uses safe and sustainable techniques.
How is White Hat SEO link building Different from Black and Gray Hat?
White hat SEO inculcates all search engine optimization techniques which help grow traffic and audience in a natural and organic way.
This method incorporates multiple positive strategies to attain SEO goals while following the rules set by Google and other search engines. White hat link building methods offer you the opportunity to rank in search engine results higher than competitive websites in a non-sketchy or deceptive way.
However, this does not mean that you won’t find gray hat or black hat techniques tempting. These approaches can offer the mirage of quick results with minimum efforts. Building Black hat links, for instance, may save you from a lot of effort to find potential influencers or sites that want to link out to you. See our outreach blog.
You can skip the whole thing by simply using a variety of non-ethical practices, like creating content and building links through automated tools or using your own website and Private Blog Networks (PBN) to create backlinks.
While these may seem to offer great results, you need to understand that all the good work will be cut down to zero when Google catches up to you and penalizes your site and it’s very rare after than if you purchase on of our quality SEO packs or internal linking will help you recover.
Then, there is the gray hat link building approach to SEO, which walks a fine line between white hat link building and black hat SEO. This includes those methods that haven’t yet been refuted or supported by Google yet. In short, you really don’t know where you stand with gray hat.
And while gray hat techniques may offer you the short-cuts you are looking for, it is only through age-old white hat SEO that you can make long-term difference to your page rankings.
In fact, certain white hat link building efforts go on to provide benefitsthat stay even after 6 months to 2 years. You would find that the backlinks you painstakingly acquired are providing link juice even after weeks and months.
This is one of the major reasons why most SEO experts recommend white hat SEO link building over the severely short-term results of gray and black hat SEO.
Why You Should Only Be WhiteHat
The answer is simple – search engine rankings. It is not just Google that frowns upon and typically penalizes black hat and gray hat SEO techniques for link building. Below are some important blogging tips any business should pay close attention to.
Almost all search engine algorithms look for and weed out non-ethical efforts made towards search page rankings. This is to offer searchers a results page which is more organic and true to their search “intent”.
Hidden links, content automation, and keyword stuffing are just some of the sneaky black hat practices that search engine bots keep their eyes peeled for. You can expect some heavy penalties if you dabble in this lot.
In fact, if you look for it, you would find that most search engines clearly state in their Terms of Service that using non-ethical practices could result in your website getting completely banned from their results.
In short, it is not so much that you will miss out on something if you don’t use white hat techniques. The point is you cannot afford to not use white hat link building strategies.
Some Well Established Methods
Link building can be tough, especially in the early days when you are still trying to carve a niche for yourself and build a reputation. Compared to other marketing channels however, SEO can often deliver the highest ROI. It can be difficult to create really good content and then find the right people to connect with, who would be interested in linking out to you.
However, these guaranteed white hat link building methods will get you started on the path to achieving your SEO goals in no time at all.
Blog Promotions
One of the simplest ways to build links without using bad tactics is to build a blog and then use it to promote your content. Internal linking is the best and easiest way to build links.
By linking to your own content and using helpful, quality, relevant keywords, you can help search engines, like Google to understand what your content is all about. Updates in the Google algorithm equipped the AI to search for relevant cluster keywords.
Hence, it is very important that you invest adequate time in creating a quality blog. In fact, if your blog becomes popular, you could get the right tool to reach out to other authorities in your industry and build a relationship by offering to link to their website or content through yours.
This will give you the opening you need to position yourself for a polite request to ask of them for backlinks through their website and blogs.
Creating Infographics
Infographics are the new answer to readers having the attention span of a goldfish. They are also a simple way of placing links to your content. Infographics are basically content depicted in pictorial form. These are images that contain loads of information about a particular topic. They are meant to be crisp, concise, and attention grabbing.
You can place links of your best content within these infographics. Readers who are hooked and want to know more can read the long form content by clicking on the link.
However, you need to make sure the content is worthy of the infographic. In fact, it is best that you pick up your best posts and then design attractive infographics around them.
At the bottom, add the source list which can be your link and other reputable websites. You can even contact other authority sites in your industry and request them to host your infographic on their social media accounts or websites. This is one of effective ways of link building strategy to get quality backlinks.
Posting on Guest Blogs
Look for influential or authority blogs in your industry. Reach out to these people with content ideas and ask them whether they would be interested in hosting it.
The process of posting blogs and content written by you on other people’s blogs is called guest posting – a kind of white hat link building SEO. Make sure you pick trendy topics which would be of interest to their readers, as well as your target audience.
You can achieve a high-quality backlink (or maybe even two) by reaching out to truly authoritative websites.
The best way to promote your website is to place the link in the content body, preferably towards the beginning and then again in the aut
hor intro. There are certain blogs that don’t allow backlinks in the content body.
This strategy doesn’t just help you get backlinks. But, also opens up a whole new world of audience. You could not access these people by following your traditional exposure techniques. See some FREE position tracking tools to help you for new SEO’s.
Linkable Assets To Help With SEO
Linkable assets are a great way of getting your content shared and acquiring some serious social media shares. These are the content pieces that are informative in nature and can answer a particular question thoroughly.
People tend to share these with their colleagues, friends and families because they assume those people would also be interested in learning more about the particular topic.
It is important that you use only long-form content for this strategy. It should be anywhere from 2,000 words to 3,000 words. The piece should be well-written with no great walls of text.
Remember, you need to make the content as attractive and appealing as possible if you want others to take enough interest to link to it on social media or their websites. This is a truly passive way of getting white hat backlinks.
Blogger Outreach
Influencer outreach is a great way of getting backlinks. However, you can’t just pay these people to post your content. That is frowned upon by Google. In fact, any tactic that escapes RankBrain (Google AI) is a big no because it does not allow Google to provide organic search results.
But, you can use blogger outreach in the right sense and work towards building relationships with these people. Friends tend to help each other out and if you know an influencer through social media or another place, they are more likely to read your piece and perhaps even add a backlink.
The best way to achieve this is by sharing and linking out to their content first. This can bring you to their attention and prevent you from sending a cold email. You can also join online forums, such as Facebook groups or other online communities.
Try to stay active on these forums by taking part in discussions and answering questions. This will go a long way to help you establish yourself as an authority in your niche.
Social Media Links & SERPS
One of the popular avenues where people look for new content is social media. There are numerous social media platforms from Tumblr to Pinterest that helps people discover the latest trends and fresh content. You can get some nifty backlinks if you promote social media shares for your content.
You need to get your content out to the right audience and then make it easy for them to share it across their various social media platforms. Engage with your followers and target audience on social media.
This will improve your views and shares. Make sure you also make share buttons easily accessible on all blog posts and request people to share the post with their friends.
Mobile Optimization
If you haven’t yet optimized your website or blog for mobile viewing, then you are missing out on a lot of views. Statistics states that 50% of all internet searches are made on handheld or mobile devices. You need to learn to optimize your blog for mobile users.
All your SEO efforts (white hat link building or not) will go to waste without mobile optimization since Google has reported that sites which are not mobile-friendly may not rank as high as others. This means that you need to get your site mobile-friendly as soon as possible.
Plus, you need to make sure that the backlinks are mobile-friendly as well. Google Webmaster Tools can be used to check whether prospecting sites are mobile optimized or not.
Comments With Links
Commenting on authority blogs in your niche can be a simple and effective way to get your word out to others. It can help you build relationships with other industry influencers, which can help you get the backlinks you require.
Make sure you read the blog before commenting because you should only leave meaningful and insightful comments. Don’t make the rookie mistake of placing your link in the comment. Otherwise what you will be doing is spam.. something that benefits no one and may harm your white hat link building strategy.
Testimonial Backlinks
Testimonials or brief blurbs are used by many companies on their sites. These testimonials are written by users explaining why (or what) they love (about) the product or service so much.
If you have used any service or products related to your niche, then you can ask the brand whether they would be interested in a testimonial from you. Ask if you can mention the name of your company alongside your name in the testimonial.
Other Link Types; Business Listings and Web Directories
Relevant website directories can help people find your website and also a way of buiding links in the process. Make sure you use one of the several free online tools to check the Page Authority and Domain Authority of the site.
A directory is only as helpful as the score is high. You should also consider creating business listing using Yahoo, Google, and Facebook to gain another backlink.