How to Build Long-Term Website Success with White Hat SEO Skills

Over 1.5 billion websites exist online. Without search engine optimization (SEO), however, you’ll struggle to rank above your competitors. If you’re not on the first page of a Google search, how will your customers find you online?

To stand out from the competition, you need a thorough SEO strategy. Utilizing your white hat SEO skills can help you rank higher on search engines.

When you rank higher, your show competitors you’re an authority in your industry.

In addition to boosting your credibility, a higher ranking can also help you increase brand awareness, too. More people will visit your website, allowing you to boost conversions and sales. 

Using outdated black hat SEO tactics, on the other hand, can hurt your ranking. 

Discover the white hat SEO skills you need for success. With this guide, you can learn all about white hat SEO techniques and how they can benefit your business.

What is White Hat SEO?

Before you can start using white hat SEO skills, let’s answer the question “What is white hat SEO?” 

White hat SEO involves using Google-approved SEO strategy. These strategies will help you improve your search engine ranking. Then, you’ll reach more consumers and maintain your ranking. 

Black hat SEO, on the other hand, uses shady tactics that only work temporarily. These tactics include keyword stuffing and using links that aren’t reputable. 

Google wants to provide its users with the best possible search engine results. With that in mind, it pushes websites to play by its rules. Following white hat SEO tactics can include:

– Following Google’s General Guidelines to help it find, index, and rank your site

– Optimizing your content for humans (and not for search engines)

– Creating quality content your readers actually want to read and share

– Developing a white that stands out from your competitors

Black hat SEO neglects Google’s suggested strategies and techniques. Instead of following Google’s guidelines, black hat SEO uses unethical tactics to find and exploit Google’s algorithm.

A few black hat strategies you want to avoid include:

– Breaking or bending Google’s guidelines

– Optimizing for the search engine instead of your users

– Deceiving users using cloaking or doorway pages

– Hacking into other company websites

While some companies are comfortable using black hat SEO, it’s important to note that it’s very risky. Taking the white hat route instead can help you improve your overall SEO.

For example, Google might penalize your website. You might notice your site has disappeared from search engine pages or has lost its ranking. Either way, white hat SEO is the smarter route.

Using white hat SEO marketing will help you reach Google’s first page. However, you’ll need to use these tactics to appear for multiple keywords that are relevant to your industry. With research and the right set of strategies, you can boost your brand and attract more customers.

Why Does it Matter?

Utilizing your white hat SEO skills can help you improve and maintain a higher search ranking. Breaking Google’s rules, on the other hand, might get you banned.

There are are few pros to white hat SEO, including:

– Maintaining a better user experience

– It involves no risks

– It’s a long-term strategy

Here are a few more reasons to consider using white hat SEO techniques across your website.

Brand Reputation

It can take a lot of time and effort to build a reputation within your industry. Once you do manage to build a strong, positive reputation, you need to maintain it. One of the best ways to maintain your reputation is to show customers you’re ethical.

When you use white hat SEO tactics, your ranking will increase. Having a higher ranking than your competitors will help you appear more credible within your industry. You can then use that credibility as a competitive advantage.

When people trust your brand, they’ll come back.

Each time consumers return to your website for more content, you have the chance to increase conversions. 

Using unethical black hat SEO techniques, on the other hand, will cause your ranking to drop. Lower rankings will make it more difficult for consumers to find you online. In addition to hurting your online reputation, that could harm your brand awareness, too.

Increase Organic Visibility

Brand awareness is essential if you want your business to grow. After all, people won’t buy from your company if they don’t know who you are.

Achieving the top ranking on a search engine results page (SERP) will ensure consumers find you before your competitors. In order to maintain your top-of-page ranking, you need to continue using white hat SEO skills.

The longer you keep that ranking, the more organic visibility you’ll earn.

As people click on your website, you’ll generate more traffic. Increasing site traffic will also help you boost your SERP ranking. 

You can also use UX web design trends to increase clicks across your website. Increasing your clickthrough rate will also tell Google your site is a credible resource. Then, you’ll continue attracting more traffic, making it easier for you to maintain your ranking. 

Websites that use white hat SEO rarely experience big ranking fluctuations. Using black hat SEO, on the other hand, will require you to make changes constantly to keep your ranking. 

Increase Your ROI

Using white hat SEO tactics (and keeping up with trends) can feel time-consuming. It can also take a little time to keep up-to-date with your research and your customers. The time and effort you put into white SEO is worth it in the end, though.

By using white hat SEO, you can increase your return on investment for the long-term.

You’ll recover your investment and earn consistent profits by boosting your SEO ranking.

Black hat SEO, on the other hand, can cause you to lose time and money if your ranking falls. 

Black Hat is Costly, Risky, and Complicated

Using your white hat SEO skills can help you maintain an effective marketing strategy. Meanwhile, black hat SEO can become more costly with time. 

Black hat SEO isn’t cheaper. You have to consider the fact that Google is smarter and faster. The algorithm changes throughout the year.

With that in mind, you could end up wasting time and money with no guarantee of returns.

Black hat strategies are also riskier. If you get penalized due to black hat SEO techniques, you could miss opportunities to market your business. Then, you’ll have to waste time trying to remedy the penalty.

Black hat SEO tactics also require a lot of technical know-how. Trying to learn these techniques could cost you valuable time. Instead, consider using your white hat SEO skills to boost your ranking for the long-term.

White Hat SEO Strategies

Now that you understand the importance of white hat SEO, let’s discuss a few techniques you can utilize this year.

UX Web Design

The first thing you need to do to improve your website’s SEO is to improve your website. If your site doesn’t work well, your SEO won’t work properly, either. 

There are a few improvements you should consider making to your website. First, keep the latest user experience (UX) design trends in mind. UX design trends prioritize the user the same way Google does.

By using UX design, you’re making your website easier for people to use and navigate. When your website is easy to use, people are more likely to stick around. The longer the stay on your website, the more their dwell time will improve.

When people click around and explore, it improves your clickthrough rate and decreases your bounce rate.

Google considers these metrics when determining your SERP ranking.

To use UX web design, make sure to utilize white space. Giving your content room to breathe makes it easier to read. You should also use shorter paragraphs and sentences to improve readability.

Next, make sure your site loads quickly.

53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.

If your site takes too long to load, you’re frustrating users. As a result, you might lose paying customers. 

Then, check your navigation. Make sure it’s easy for users to explore your site. You should also make buttons easy to find and click on.

Improving your website with UX design trends will help you increase your ranking and conversions. 

Unique, Valuable Content

Once you’ve updated your website, start crafting unique, valuable content for your audience. 

Content is essential for a white hat SEO strategy. Otherwise, what reason do people have to visit your website?

Make sure your content is relevant to your audience. You might want to focus on a niche, which can make it easier for you to attract traffic.

Next, make sure your content shows your expertise, authority, and develops trustworthiness. Also referred to as “EAT,” this strategy will help boost your ranking.

Demonstrate your expertise by using insightful data and information about your industry. What information can you offer that no one else can? Use links from reputable sources to show your brand authority.

Then, use social proof such as reviews to build trust. 

Experiment using different forms of content (blogs, infographics, videos) to determine what your audience prefers.

Satisfy User Intent

To develop a strong SEO strategy, make sure to consider what your audience wants to read. 

When they search on Google, what are they looking for? What’s their intent when they search certain keywords?

Understanding user intent will help you create content your audience wants.

By providing this content, they’ll learn to trust you for the information they need.

Thorough Keyword Research

Keyword research is the foundation for a strong SEO strategy. You can use tools like Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Ahrefs to determine what your customers are searching for.

Then, develop a list of these keywords. You can use your keyword research to develop content based on search trends. That way, you can attract traffic to your site based on what people are searching for.

Don’t forget to use competitor keywords, too.

Use the Power of Schema

Using Schema tools will help your content appear at the top of Google SERPs as a snippet. Snippets appear as lists, bullets, summaries, recipes, videos, and more. 

Utilizing Schema will make it easier for Google to read your content. 

Then, Google will display your content in a way that’s more eye-catching for users. Rich snippets appear at the top of search pages, allowing you to appear in searches before competitors.

Optimize On-Page SEO

Make sure to work on your on-page SEO, too. Here are a few tips to get you started:

– Use descriptive URLs that contain your target keyword

– Include internal links in posts to encourage people to explore your content

– Use keywords strategically instead of cramming keywords into your content

– Optimize images using alt tags that include your keywords

Optimizing your on-page SEO for your target keywords will help you generate more traffic.

Link Building

Link building is an important component on white hat SEO. Using links from reputable resources tells Google you’re a trustworthy resource, too.

If you want your site to rank higher on SERP, you need backlinks. 

Make sure there aren’t any broken links on your site. Then, include links from reputable resources in your industry. Link building will help boost your ranking so you can attract more traffic. 

You can also use guest posting to attract more people to your site from someone else’s blog. Learn more about how links add SEO value here.

Make Sure You’re Mobile

50% of searches begin on a mobile device. For an effective SEO strategy, make sure your site is mobile-optimized. Otherwise, mobile users will have a difficult time exploring your content.

Google also uses mobile-first indexing to determine rankings. If your site isn’t optimized, Google will look to your competitors instead.

Keep Up with Trends

Google’s search algorithm changes throughout the year. In order to use the best possible white hat SEO techniques, make sure to keep up with the latest trends.

For example, consumers will complete 50% of all searches using a voice assistant this year. The fact that 35.6 million Americans use voice-activated devices at least once a month is changing SEO. 

In addition to updating your content for voice search and optimizing for snippets, you can also use influencers to boost your content ranking. Influencers are people your customers already know and trust. If they endorse your brand, you can attract more people to your site.

Keeping up with the latest trends will help you find new opportunities to attract traffic to your site.

Building Long-Term SEO Success: The White Hat SEO Skills You Need to Succeed

SEO allows you to build a long-term marketing strategy to set your business up for success. By utilizing your white hat SEO skills, you can boost your brand and attract more business. 

Ready to boost your brand and your business? Request a digital marketing review today to get started.