The world of Search Engine Optimizing (SEO) is ever evolving, if you don’t play by the rules, the future of your online business can be precarious. Gone are the days where the so-called SEO specialists, got away with keyword stuffing and click baiting. There are still people who believe that such BlackHat strategies, when used mildly, can earn them a place at the top. Well, time will prove them wrong. Consequently, the ability to distinguish good from bad or WhiteHat from BlackHat techniques can turn out to be vital.
Spam Comments: Is spam commenting still on your bucket list for link building? Really? Well, if it is, you should have reconsidered this trick a long time back. However, it is not too late to start fresh. Just keep in mind that links from blog/s comments which are usually tagged with the user name or as website addresses are a no follow for search engines. You really do not want to invest time on a strategy that only brings visits (again, you don’t get quality visits from spam commenting. 9 out of 10 times it will just bring unwanted bots and more spammers) to your site, but no link juice from search engines.
Paid Links: Search engine algorithms continually become more sophisticated over time. They are becoming smarter with each update. Last year; Google even confirmed integrating machine learning as part of their algorithms. With all these updates, you literally have no chance of escaping Google’s/Bing’s clutches with paid links. So don’t waste your money.
Keyword Stuffing: Keyword stuffing is one of the oldest tricks in the book and an easy to unveil strategy. Just be concise, explicit and accurate with what you are saying and no more.
Invisible Text: Yes it’s all about visitors now, so it is fair to say that you could get away with stuffing keywords or content on a page while making it invisible to the users. From the Blackhats perspective, visitors get what they want and you are doing no harm to them by incorporating some invisible text into the websites background. Well, you are absolutely wrong, this is totally against Google’s guidelines. Getting caught will men a harsh penalisation and possibly the end of your business website.
Link baiting: It easy to grab the attention of your readers with awesome titles. “Top 5 link white hat link building strategies you should try in 2016” sounds appealing, but what if the list came with 5 outdated link building strategies that were used in 2010? Now that is going to disappoint your readers and search engines will reflect equally poor results.
Now let’s get into some good white hat strategies that you should try in 2016.
Engagement: follow the top bloggers in your industry and let them know how you are impressed by their work. You can use the comment section on pertinent blogs to communicate with them. It would be good to let them know how helpful their studies have been in enlightening yourself on the topic, ask relevant questions and keep them in the loop. They are bound to link back to you one day, sooner or later. Like wise when someone gives you positive feed back return the favour.
Ensuring optimum keyword density: Ensure that your website offers quality content. Quality content broken down means: ensure that the people leaving your website are satisfied or have learned something genuinely new. Keeping check on the optimum and relevant keyword density throughout each page on the website is a winner.
Competitor Research: Populating a back link profile of your competitor is always an ideal and quick strategy to find untapped White Hat backlink opportunities. You can use sites like a ahrefs and Open Site Explorer to get hands on the backlink profiles of your competitors.
Be on the lookout for algorithm changes and keep yourself updated (Moz.com is a great source for these alerts). The quicker you can tailor your strategy according to new changes in the algorithm, the better. Additionally, you can avoid getting caught out by breaking the rules with out dated tricks.
Bibliography
Markitwritecom. (2016, 28 April 2016). SEO Showdown: Black Hats, White Hats, And Sheriff Google – markITwrite. [Weblog]. Retrieved 29 May 2016, from http://www.markitwrite.com/seo-showdown-black-hats-white-hats-and-sheriff-google/
Mozcom. (2016, no-date). Google Algorithm Change History. [Weblog]. Retrieved 29 May 2016, from https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change
Cubettechcom. (2016, 27 May 2016). All About Editorial Links. [Weblog]. Retrieved 29 May 2016, from http://cubettech.com/blog/all-about-editorial-links/
