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Even if you are not a marketing maverick but have run your own business, you must have heard the term “white hat SEO techniques” and “black hat SEO” from your digital marketing team that works hard on building your business’s online presence. 

Practices that improve a website’s search ranks on a search engine results page (SERP) without deviating from Google’s rules are referred to as “white hat SEO.” On the other hand, black hat SEO is known for seeking out and using Google algorithmic weaknesses.

How To Differentiate Between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO?
While the end goal of both these search engine optimization (SEO) techniques is to boost search engine rankings for a website, the tactics deployed by the two are quite contrasting.

Have you ever visited a blog page that repeatedly uses a keyword in the middle of a sentence that does not blend with the content naturally? This is called keyword stuffing and is a prime example of black hat SEO.  Keywords are usually stuffed within the content to grab the attention of the search engine algorithm without any intention to add value to the readers.

White hat SEO on the other hand seeks to inform the audience rather than simply grabbing the attention of the search engine. White hat SEO seeks to create a balance between psychology and SEO. The same blog post uses keywords naturally, provides unique content based on research and is written with the intention to educate the audience would be following white hat SEO techniques. 

Some more examples of black hat SEO techniques are publishing duplicate content, unethical link-building practices, click-baiting with metadata, click-baiting with anchor texts, and spamming with content on a website. 

Even if you are not a marketing maverick, you need to know what techniques your digital marketing team is using and make it a rule to only follow white hat SEO techniques, because that is what will get you sustained success for your business. 

Let’s look at some white hat SEO practices that you should follow that can boost your search engine rankings. 

Invest In Valuable Content
According to the State of Content Marketing Report, 86% of marketing teams use blogs as a tactic for lead generation. Writing long-form content on the internet is a full-time job and it is a good idea to take the help of content writing services to help you publish high-quality, original content that satisfies the user’s intention. 

Here are some ways you can strive for valuable content for your target audience:

• Understanding your target and their needs. Perform thorough market research to achieve this. 
• Include keywords based on content instead of content based on keywords. 
• Use subheadings and plenty of white space when formatting your material so that people can quickly scan it.
• Using pictures and video. Try to use non-text-based content formats to break the monotony for the readers. 

Not sure how you can create high-quality content for your website while following white-hat SEO techniques, take the help of content writing services to help you with this. 

Take The Mobile-First Approach
90% of people who use the internet globally access it through their mobile phones, according to reports from Statista. The mobile-first strategy can therefore when implemented appropriately, reduce website bounce rates and boost conversion rates. 

According to the method known as “mobile-first design,” web designers first create websites for mobile devices. This can be done by initially creating the web application for the smallest possible screen size, and then gradually expanding it to larger screen sizes.

Even while many websites are already responsive to mobile devices, using a mobile-first strategy may help you achieve your goals if you want to improve the user experience for your website users, for example through website personalization.

Since there are space limitations on smaller screens, it makes sense to design for mobile devices first. Teams must ensure that the website’s main elements are readily visible to everyone using such screens.

Follow Ethical Link-Building
The foundation of search engine optimization (SEO) has always been link building. 

However, link-building techniques have become sophisticated throughout the 23 years that Google has been around. Today, Google prioritises high-quality connections above low-quality links to make sure that websites with useful content are placed higher.

Your website would rank better on search engine results pages (SERPs) the more high-quality links it has. 

Instead of purchasing backlinks from websites with high domain authority (DA), create link-worthy content with informational and instructional content. 

That is to say, in order to obtain backlinks, your material must not only provide answers to queries and solutions to issues, but it must also do so in a distinctive manner. 

Not sure how you can create link-worthy content and improve your network of backlinks? Take the help of SEO services to show you the ropes of ethical link-building practices which are good for your search engine rankings. 

Optimise Your Metadata 

One of the best white hat SEO techniques is to optimise your metadata, titles and descriptions for the search engine algorithm along with the end user in mind. 

According to Google, descriptions that are the same or identical on every page of a website are ineffective when individual pages appear in search results. Moreover, meta descriptions and titles that do not provide accurate information about the content of the website are as good as clickbait. This is because the user would click on the link after reading its meta description and would enter the website with different expectations. If your metadata does not reflect accurate information, even though the click-through rate of your website is high, there is a chance that the bounce rate would be higher and this is not a good thing. 

When possible, accurately describe each page in your descriptions, and take the help of a digital marketing agency if required. Use page-level descriptions elsewhere and site-level descriptions on the homepage and other website pages. Try prioritising your content if you don’t have time to create descriptions for each page; at the very least, write descriptions for essential URLs like your home page and the sites that receive the greatest traffic.

You need robust SEO tactics as part of your content marketing plan to increase Google search traffic and strengthen your ranking signals. Particularly white hat SEO techniques are a successful strategy to raise your rankings without being concerned about being penalised. Even while following the rules takes time and takes longer to produce results, it’s still your greatest option for creating a reliable and long-lasting online presence.

All the best!