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So here we are again, continuing our discussion on the 2 methods of SEO. I explained the penalising effect on websites who use black hat seo in my last post. Today let me share with you some bits about the white hat seo approach which is very important for every online website.

I have mentioned in my earlier posts how and why SEO should not be ignored. It is an inseparable part of Internet Marketing. It is indeed the low cost avenue to get relevant prospects from the internet. While all SEO companies claim that they do follow white hat approach it may not be easy for you to verify unless you have some basic knowledge about seo. I am aiming that this post will help you do that and take some informed decisions while selecting an SEO agency / professional.

Let’s get started then. White Hat SEO is the set of methods that are search engine approved and appreciated ways of optimizing your website and driving traffic to it. The idea is to follow the rules laid down by search engines in an attempt to gain a higher ranking for select keywords for your domain and website pages, thereby increasing organic visitors and higher ROI for business.

White Hat SEO techniques continue to be developed and good SEO companies like us who understand the value of slow and steady seo implementation will be best to guide your business’s future on the internet. Let’s look at some white hat methods.

Building Internal Links – this is a very important method to ensure that the website visitor is guiding to relevant content on the website. Internal linking refers to the practice of linking relevant page/s on a website using relevant keywords in the content or as links placed on the page. Search engine spiders are able to use these links to browse the site better because it tells them that your site has relevant interconnected content worthy of the visitor.

Content creation – Today every good SEO practitioner knows the value of fresh, relevant unduplicated content. We as an Internet Marketing Services Agency have deployed a team of content writers who ensure that the right content is churned out for our clients. Content planning is an important part of SEO strategy and we start on the plans right from the website designing stage. In case of existing sites we have had to change the content architecture to ensure seo friendliness. Adding fresh content at frequent intervals with relevant keywords, correct keyword density and smart internal links ensure that the site ranks high on the search engines relevancy list. A blog on the website is one of the best ways on adding regular content. This allows a business to establish its authority as also builds on the credibility factor.Building Links (Backlinks / inbound links) – Should just go for a link from a website? The answer is a BIG no. Getting a link back to your site great but you must look for more than just the link. Does the website have any relevance to the product / service you are providing, does it have a similar target audience base, will it allow you to post highly relevant content about your website, and does it have a good page rank (this rubs off on your site as well). Generating proper backlinks will allow for more Google juice for your website and that in turn will lead to faster movement up the ranking ladder. Think about the website visitor whenever you are building backlinks.

Backlinks or inbound links are an important part of the seo process but the manner in which these are implemented define the approach. One of the methods of generating backlinks involves posting highly relevant content on the site as also off it in an attempt to drive the user from that content to the website. Good content gets visitors and also gets shared leading to link promotion across the internet which in turn drives more visitors to the website via the content. This process is pretty exhaustive and time consuming but is the correct way. Site popularity is definitely affected by backlinks but not by the links generated by the black hat type link farming where you will risk your website and your business.

Tags and Codes – Yes each website page has a series of codes many of which are not implemented by inexperienced website design and seo practitioners. Alt tags for images, Meta tags for keywords, description, and title are all very necessary to tell the search engines all about the page you have hosted. This ensures better indexing and thus helps search engines show relevant results to users.

There is one more debated white hat technique called Reciprocal Linking. Debated because there is a thin line between the two seo methods based on the seo strategy selected. Reciprocal linking refers to exchanging links with other webmasters to get additional incoming links to your site. There are many different lines of thought about reciprocal linking among SEO practitioners today and hence this method has lost its value but still has some place in the SEO strategy. Intelligent reciprocal link building will survive the black hat seo test.

URL Structure – many times this small bit gets ignored. But it is important to ensure that each page of your website has a search engine friendly URL structure with keywords built and with the right kinds of parameters for search engines to index.

Site map submissions are another important aspect of SEO which must be followed on a regular basis. Using your webmaster account effectively, implementing analytics to regularly monitor data.

Matt Cutts in his blog in response to some magazine article said, “To Google, SEO only becomes spam when it goes against our quality guidelines and moves into things like hidden text, hidden links, cloaking, or sneaky redirects.” After that Google has made many more algorithmic changes to ensure relevancy despite the new black hat techniques and rightly so.

Happy Search Marketing.