White Hat SEO Tactics To Boost Your Website’s Ranking
Websites in Google’s index may see changes to their search engine optimisation (SEO) rankings as a result of regular updates to Google’s PageRank system. If you’re an SEO specialist, you know how important it is to stay out of Google’s bad books and in on the PageRank action.
“White hat” SEO strategies are those that follow Google’s guidelines and “black hat” strategies are those that try to game the system. (rule-breaking techniques that Google penalizes). When attempting to increase their search engine rankings, Google hopes that website owners will play by the guidelines and do so in good faith. Those who break the guidelines are penalised and see a decline in their search engine rankings.
As the head of two SEO firms, IronMonk Solutions and Little Dragon Media, I’ve had a lot of luck getting my own and my customers’ sites to the top of search engine results pages. So that you can improve your search engine rankings without risking Google’s disapproval, I’ve compiled a summary of the white hat SEO strategies I find to be the most effective.
Focus on Mobile Devices First
By the year 2020, mobile device online traffic will have overtaken desktop traffic. That’s been true ever since 2016 in reality. Google has since switched to a mobile-first search strategy. That’s why a mobile-first strategy in SEO is so important.
Your chances of ranking highly in SERPs go out the window if your page’s content isn’t readily available on mobile devices, or if images or other elements don’t load properly from a smartphone or tablet.
Pick Effective Search Terms
Search terms that have both a high keyword difficulty (KD) and a high search traffic cannot be the basis of an SEO campaign. The level of competition for these popular search terms is extremely strong. Choose keywords with KD scores between 50 and 70 on a scale from 0 to 100 for the greatest outcomes.
To get started with keyword research, choose a tool that can examine your rivals’ SEO data and produce a preliminary keyword list. Choose 20–50 “smart” terms (e.g., those with a moderate KD and volume) from that list to use in your content creation. The task can be completed using any of the best topic research software tools.
Ethics-Compatible Link-Building
Even though Google’s PageRank algorithm drastically alters the SEO success factors for a website, link-building’s significance remains constant. Your site’s credibility increases in proportion to the number of other sites that connect to it. Your domain’s PageRank performance will improve as its reputation grows.
The good news is that Google is growing better at detecting and penalising spammy link profiles. A Google penalty is possible if the search engine discovers that some of your backlinks weren’t acquired naturally. According to Google’s latest PageRank update, any purchased backlink is considered a black hat tactic. Any advertiser worth their salt would do well to steer clear of them.
Make sure that the strength of your content is used to produce high-quality references as you develop your backlink network to maintain a clean backlinking strategy. Paying for guest articles or link spam from commercial third parties will come back to haunt your SEO results sooner rather than later.
Enhance Rich Snippets
Only 3% of websites are using Schema, Google’s rich snippet enhancement tool, according to the most current third-party reports. This is despite the fact that rich excerpts are used in over a third of Google’s highest-ranking search results. Rich snippets, in a nutshell, are supplementary pieces of information drawn from a page’s HTML that typically increase its native click-through rates. (CTRs).
Since then, a senior Google webmaster has verified that rich snippets and the structured data they rely on are not ranking signals. The success of your SEO approach is heavily influenced by your organic CTR, but adding rich snippets with Google’s Schema tool can increase it by as much as 30%.
Adjust Settings For Best Results
Only using KD metrics and total search traffic in your keyword research formula is a mistake. In 2020, it will be imperative that your SEO terms reflect the goals of your target audience. If you operate an online store selling camping gear, for instance, you shouldn’t waste time developing a content strategy around keywords that won’t help your target audience (campers and survivalists) find answers to their questions.
If you want to discover keywords that match your intent, try searching for things like “camping equipment” in Google. Google’s Suggest feature displays commonly used search queries as suggestions before you press enter. The result should be a list of long-tail terms that correspond to the research interests of your intended audience.
Modifying Old Methods For Newer Methods
The days of mediocre content ranking well on the backs of funded guest posts, spam advertising, and paid backlinks are over. In 2020, you’ll need a white hat SEO plan if you want your page to appear on the first or second SERP.
White hat tactics focus less on what you should do and more on what you shouldn’t. Don’t spend money on link building or guest posting services. Develop robust, useful, and mobile-friendly material instead. If you pick strategic, intent-driven terms, you can gradually construct an organic network of authoritative backlinks.