In the world of SEO there are two concepts regarding the strategies to follow. The white hat SEO as a representative of “the right thing”. And the black hat SEO that would be the “bad” (in the sense of dangerous).
They are basically SEO philosophies. Although in theory they are opposites, it does not mean that they are incompatible. For this reason, some prefer to use the term gray hat, since they use techniques from one side and the other. But let’s get down to business.
What determines what is good SEO and what is bad? The answer is easy: Google. If you do things right, that is, according to Google’s guidelines, perfect. If you want to accelerate the positioning and try to manipulate the search results, sooner or later they will find out and the drop will be greater.
What is the white hat SEO that everyone talks about?
John Wayne enters the “Saloon”, red scarf tied around his neck and white hat. He walks over to the bar and orders a whiskey, turns his head and looks around the room. The door opens and Yul Brynner enters, shirt with rolled up sleeves and black hat… Surely if you have seen some other western, this scene will be familiar to you. The vivid representation of good (white hat) and evil (black hat).
The metaphor fits like a glove, a metaphor that derives from computer hackers. The ethical (or those who do good) and criminals. Well, in SEO, all the actions that are within Google’s guidelines are white hat SEO and all those that are not or Google has communicated that they are not good, are bad and dangerous. But dangerous for you, of course.
The white hat SEO techniques that we use the most
SEO strategies evolve as Google evolves. Establishing an effective strategy now may mean it won’t be in a few years, but if we think like Google thinks, we can know what strategies work and will always work. These are the best white hat SEO techniques for 2018 are:
Mobile first
We all have it clear, and studies show it. Smartphone searches already exceed computer searches and it shows in SEO. It is not the same to navigate with your mobile than with your desktop mouse. So, first think about the mobile version of your site. How do the menus look? Can I easily access the content? Is it easy to navigate if my fingers are like blood sausage?
All this will be transcendental to help you win a space in a world where mobile is the rising trend, making the user feel comfortable when browsing your website with their smartphone and preparing your page for mobile first indexing.
Quality content
No copying, no rewriting, no changing a few words. That we are not in the institute, please! Google already says it: “content is king”, and if it says so, it will be for a reason. Content creation is an art and, above all, an art that is measured by quality, not quantity. How many times have we heard a client tell us: a text of 300-400 words is enough, right? Well, neither yes nor no. But in most cases it is usually no.
Obviously, facing the user, we must tell him what he wants without rambling but we must offer him an explanatory and deep content that clarifies his doubts but without filling it with useless straw to reach an X number of words.
In addition, it is not recommended to fall into an over-optimization of keywords, but you also have to give Google spiders the clues and signals of what your website is about. Therefore, we must create quality content, user-oriented and optimized for Google. And not the other way around.
Bet on long tail strategies
We all want to be in the top 1 with our main keyword. But on sites that are new or haven’t done much (or anything) SEO, it doesn’t happen overnight. One of the best white hat techniques to position yourself is to go from less to more. That is, bet on keywords with fewer searches, but also less competitive, because these URLs will position more easily and that is very good. They do not provide a large number of monthly visits, but they will give signals to Google indicating, in addition, that these keywords are also part of our niche.
To find long tail keywords you must research, study and analyze.
- Research: use the Google search engine suggestions, the Keywordtool.io, even use your own instinct based on what you know about your target audience…think about how people search for your topic. Look what kind of words he uses to define concepts. Oh, and don’t forget what kind of questions people are looking for about your niche.
- Study your competition: use analysis tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to see where your competitors are attacking. Look at which keywords have the most traffic, on the pages that generate the highest conversion and take note.
- Analyze: Go through all of the above. Find what works for the competition, improve it and go in search of new untapped long tails. Remember, if you have a new website or have not worked with any SEO strategy before, you will have to work three times as hard as your competitors to get good results.
Solid link building
Getting natural and quality links is a complicated task if you do not want to go through the box. Okay, that’s true. That is why it is sometimes very easy to fall into spam to avoid paying for good links. Coincidentally, in a forum that talks about my topic, someone writes an answer that, ops, links us. Nooo… you can tell by miles that it’s not fortuitous.
Fortunately, Google is getting smarter and understanding when links aren’t natural. If you really want to bet on your project, use a professional and quality link building strategy. Plan, study the competition, create useful content so that they link to you and if you have to pay, pay. Or collaborate with bloggers, whatever. Each link must have a meaning and importance, each link must be justified. In our article natural link building: what you need to know to achieve it, we share some tricks that you may find useful.
Before deciding on a link to your website, see what kind of traffic it has, what it talks about and who links to it. It’s a lot of work, we know. But believe us, your project is worth it.
So fresh they take it right off my hands
It seems incredible, but many companies create a website, put the products and sit down to wait for people to buy from them. No, gentlemen, this does not work like that and in the article that we have published about how to attract more clients to my website, we clearly explain why.
If you want to be on the first page for your main keyword, you have to earn it. Google attaches great importance to freshness or what is the same: that your site is fresh. Create a blog and upload content, improve urls, optimize opportunity keywords, improve speed, control cannibalizations. In short, take care of your website with a good SEO and content strategy and don’t forget it.
White hat SEO, ascending slowly but surely
SEO is like a race for points. If you don’t do anything, you don’t move forward but you don’t go back either. But each SEO action you carry out will make you advance and even overtake your competition (meaning being better positioned). If you stop, then you will stay there and your competition will continue to advance until you pass.
Now, like everything in life, there are ways to go faster. The black hat are techniques that can help you position faster, it is clear. Ok, but friends, Google is not stupid, and surely it has some gentlemen reading black hat blogs and seeing what strategies are coming out. If you detect ways to manipulate your results, don’t worry, sooner or later some new update will nip it in the bud. And then the regrets will come.
Yes, Google. Yes, sir.
When Google speaks, SEOs are silent. If Google says that loading speed influences positioning, at BigSEO we work so that our clients’ pages load like lightning, we optimize images, we review server behavior, we put our experts to work to create a WordPress with clean and fast code that helps you improve the positioning, such as the Orbital Theme.
If you say that semantic variety is important, our team develops complete content strategies with a wealth of derived keywords, because we understand that humans are capable of searching for the same thing in many different ways and that search engines have the intelligence to interpret it.
We understand that if Google says so, it will be for a reason. And someone will come out and say: well I search with Bing, great, congratulations. But Google is the search engine par excellence, whether you like it or not, and if they themselves tell you what they consider to position a website, listen and apply it to your project.
Something that we are very clear about in our web positioning agency is that in SEO it is very important to be up to date with changes. What has always worked does not mean that it will work tomorrow. You have to see, study and optimize as Google changes. Of course, it is important to pay attention to reliable sources and professionals in the field, not what anyone says on the Internet.
At BigSEO we apply innovative strategies and solutions that help our clients grow in organic traffic and visibility, but we have always been clear that betting on the white hat is betting on the security of knowing that you are doing things right and that you will not be charged a project for messing around with bad practices.
You will see that following this simple premise, if a new Google animal appears, your website will benefit.
