You’ve heard of SEO. You’ve also heard of the various factors that help you rank higher on the Search Engine results pages (SERPs). What you may not know is that there are different types of SEO in existence today.
Now that you’ve been told that there are different types of SEO, you may wonder what they are. You may even find yourself pondering how they’ll affect you and your website.
The two types of SEO are black and white. They’re two things you need to have an understanding of today. Take a moment to make sure you’re on the right side of the “law” as you learn about the difference here.
Black Hat SEO and Google
Before delving into the tenets of white hat SEO, it’s essential to learn about Google’s history and how SEO services work. Doing so will give you a better understanding of where we are at with these things today.
Google has always prioritized connecting people with relevant information. Initially, they used keywords and PageRank to accomplish this. Therefore anyone whose page contained numerous commonly searched for keywords and had links pointing to their website would rank highly.
Unfortunately, some unscrupulous SEO services took advantage of this. They engaged in many shady tactics (e.g., keyword stuffing, hiding keywords, spamming backlinks). Since this ruined people’s experience with Google, the search engine introduced several updates to punish them.
Today it’s increasingly difficult for an SEO service to get past Google with these tactics. With this in mind, we’ll want to know more about “white hat” tactics.
White Hat SEO and Google
White hat SEO has an entirely different philosophy: Regardless of what actions an SEO service takes for your website, these should be done with the user’s experience in mind. In other words, the primary goal of white hat SEO is to try to make the internet a better place for everyone. There are many reasons why an SEO service should desire to do this.
Better SEO Results
Remember, Google will intentionally penalize black hat practices. While they may get you a quick, sudden surge in traffic, you’ll get better long-term results by engaging in white hat SEO.
A Better Reputation
Having an SEO service create good content, build solid links, and improve user experiences enables you to build a better reputation for your website. When this happens, people will want to become loyal customers.
White Hat SEO In 2021
White hat SEO continually changes due to new technology, user behavioral patterns, and Google’s algorithm updates. Google has been known to reward these behaviors by ranking websites that follow their rules higher in the Search engine results pages (SERPs). There are a few things you’ll want to make sure that your SEO service remembers so they can help you here.
Design Your Website with Visitors in Mind
You should keep your users’ experience in mind when you do anything to your website (e.g., design new pages, write content). Anything that detracts from their experience to alter search engine algorithms in your favor (e.g., keyword stuffing) is considered a black hat technique. In other words, if your users aren’t happy, Google won’t be happy either.
Improve Your Website’s Security and Speed
Security and speed should be your primary concern when you’re designing or technically optimizing your website. Remember, you want to provide your users with the best service possible.
Create Unique, Purposeful Content
At the heart of SEO is your content. This content has to serve a purpose (e.g., informing, entertaining), so it’s a true contender in the SERPs and appeals to your users simultaneously. In other words, you want to create immaculate content, not filler.
Build Useful Links
In the SEO community, link building is a contentious topic. To be considered a part of the white hat philosophy, you’ll want to make sure any links pointing to or away from your website are helpful. Undoubtedly links will increase your domain’s authority. By ensuring that your links are valuable (e.g., sincere, relevant, acceptable to publishers), you’ll know that you’re using a white hat technique.
Stay on Google’s Good Side with White Hat SEO
Regardless of whether you want higher rankings, improvement in your brand’s reputation, better experiences for your users, or a combination of these things, you’ll want to make sure you stay on Google’s good side. You should make these white hat techniques your priority. Now you have no excuse not to use them, since you better understand, the different types of SEO. You’ll want to use this knowledge to stay on Google’s good side.
At Local SEO Tampa Company in Tampa, FL, we understand that many things go into SEO. We also know that as a business owner, you’re busy enough already. Let us start working with you today to create a campaign to propel your website to the top of the SERPs.
