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Going against the rules of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) will put your website at risk and harm your reputation. Practise white hat SEO as it follows the terms and conditions of search engine algorithms, which can help a website rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

 

Before going into details about white hat SEO strategies, let us first understand the definition and importance of white hat SEO.

 


 

What Is White Hat SEO?

 

White hat SEO refers to SEO practices approved by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, and many others, to help build organic traffic and increase a website’s ranking. 

 

Since 93% of online experience begins on search engines, practising white hat SEO can help promote a business, its products or services. In other words, the goal you should meet is to create content for humans, not for search engines. 

 

Last August 2022, Google launched a ‘Helpful content update’, which informs creators to focus on a people-first approach. This update will determine whether or not the content has value to users. Steer clear of keyword stuffing because Google’s latest keyword algorithm upgrades determine whether the website is excessively loaded with terms for SEO purposes or if the content is helpful to search users.

 

White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO

 

Search engines can be your best friend or worst enemy, depending on your SEO approach: white hat SEO or black hat SEO.

 

For white hat SEO, the objective is to adhere closely to the webmaster’s guidelines given by search engines. Focus on writing original material and using a sensible number of relevant keywords instead of stuffing the entire content with keywords and cloaking your web pages. 

 

Black hat SEO, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of white hat SEO. If you break the regulations to swiftly improve your ranks by using black hat SEO, expect to get penalised by search engines. Either your website will lose its ranking on SERPs or become non-existent forever. 

 

Look at the infographic below to understand the difference between white hat SEO and black hat SEO. 

 

White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO
Fresh and relevant content Duplicate content
Natural keyword density Keyword stuffing
Relevant pages and tags Cloaking text
Optimise image labels Sneak redirects
Linking to / getting links from reputable sources Parasite hosting
Make content accessible to search engine bots Paid links

 

Continue to execute white hat SEO to improve impacts on marketing campaigns. It might take a long time before you can reach your goals, but the rewards are worth the wait in the end.

 


 

What Are The Benefits Of Implementing White Hat SEO For Businesses?

 

Benefits Of Implementing White Hat SEO

 

1. Will Never Tarnish Reputation

 

Enforcing white hat SEO strategies will help your website rank higher on SERPs. Given that 71% of users click on the first page, your business will increase its credibility and consider checking out your products or services once they have seen your website on the first page.

 

2. Remain Listed On Search Engines

 

Unlike black hat SEO, your website will remain listed on search engines if you continuously follow white hat SEO strategies. If you do otherwise, search engines will penalise you by de-indexing your page, removing your web pages on their platforms’ ecosystem, which makes your business unsearchable on the internet.

 

3. Retain Long-Term Value

 

What happened during Google’s Penguin Update might happen again once search engines have decided that black hat SEO is becoming more prevalent. Due to the Penguin Update, many ranked websites that used black hat SEO in deceptive ways lost their positions on SERPs. Google has since incorporated the Penguin Update into its core algorithm to combat webspam.

 

Those who follow white hat SEO strategies will be less likely to become affected, and search engines will adjust the ranking accordingly. 

 


 

5 White Hat SEO Strategies

 

White Hat SEO Strategies

 

1. Create Original Content

 

Copying content from other websites is a recipe for disaster as it goes against Google’s guidelines. It is an unethical way to improve your search engine rankings, and the rewards are not worth the risk.

 

Create unique content for your website and cite reliable sources. Google and other search engines evaluate websites according to their webmaster’s guidelines, which help them assess web page quality before indexing them and including them on SERPs.

 

Google, for example, uses E-A-T criteria. The acronyms refer to Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. The E-A-T criteria help determine the quality and relevance of content. 

 

Google EAT

 

KNOW MORE: What You Should Know About Google E-A-T

 

2. Use Targeted Keywords

 

Create quality content and utilise keywords in the most natural way possible. Write conversational articles that appeal to your target audience and incorporate relevant keywords to improve your SEO. A website can rank higher, generate more leads, and earn conversions if done right.

 

3. URLs Should Be Descriptive

 

Besides using keywords properly when creating content, the web pages of a website should have deceptive URLs because these can help readers and search engine bots understand their content. 

 

Below are some tips that can help you create an SEO-friendly URL:

 

  • Brief and simple
  • Has keywords
  • Use a hyphen to separate words

 

Anatomy Of SEO-Friendly URL

 

LEARN MORE: How To Make An SEO-Friendly URL?

 

4. Replace Broken Links With Your Content

 

This white hat SEO strategy is to find a website where you would like to get a link, look for broken links from one of its web pages and email the website’s owner and suggest that they replace the broken links with your existing content. Since broken links can harm conversion rate, the website owner will most likely consider your proposal. 

 

Remember that broken links can damage the conversation rates. Although the links no longer work, these can still send signals to search engine bots that your website contains old content. Outdated information lacks value, making the content irrelevant to users and eventually losing its ranking on SERPs. 

 

Use tools to speed up the process rather than individually clicking on hyperlinks to see if they work or not. A few examples include:

 

 

5. Be Mobile Friendly

 

Mobile-friendliness is one of the search signal for page experience, so it should have  seamless interactivity and visual stability. Use Google’s Core Web Vital scores to know if you excelled in these key aspects.

 

Core Web Vital scores are set metrics from Google to help website owners understand the browsing experience of their web visitors and improve their website’s user interface to reduce bounce rates. 

 

Having lower bounce rates means the web visitors are spending more time browsing through the web pages, which can indirectly affect your search engine ranking.

Core Web Vitals Scoring Metrics

 

(Source: Search Engine Journal)

 

ALSO READ: Mobile SEO: A Guide To Optimising Your Website For Mobile Phones

 


 

Be Future-Proof With White Hat SEO

 

Following the rules has never been this rewarding. Practise white hat SEO and incorporate efficient marketing strategies so you can drive organic traffic to your website.  You could rank higher than your competitors in the long run!

 

If you need help with the white hat in Singapore, engage with an SEO agency! Contact OOm at +65 6391 0930 or leave a message on our website to learn more about our SEO services in Singapore. 

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