n today’s SEO practice, outreach is becoming more common and challenging. According to Google, backlinks are the top ranking factor. Therefore many SEO experts are willing to do anything to get links to build their brand’s backlink profile. There is a fine boundary between appropriate and inappropriate practices. This is where white-hat link-building comes into play
What does white hat mean?
The term white hat doesn’t only refer to link building. White-hat practices are those that adhere to Google’s guidelines. It simply means, following the guidelines of Google.
You should be focused on creating a good user experience by adding valuable content to your website. Avoid using unethical (black hat) SEO tactics to manipulate search rankings.
What is white hat link building?
White hat link building refers to the practice of getting backlinks from authoritative, trustworthy websites that go well with Google’s guidelines.
Websites can experience sustainable improvements in rankings and increase organic traffic by gaining inbound links through outreach.
Why Should You Engage Only in White-Hat Link Building?
While black-hat tactics might offer quick and easy gains, they are not sustainable and won’t withstand Google’s algorithm updates. Such practices may lead to severe consequences that can set back your website’s progress for months or even years.
Google frequently updates its algorithm that seeks out spammy or low-quality backlinks. If such links are discovered on your website your ranking on Google will suffer and you may face penalties.
It is important to follow Google’s guidelines and you must avoid manipulating Search engines. Do not buy, sell, or trade links for SEO purposes.
On the other hand, if your website has earned only authoritative, high-quality backlinks through legitimate white-hat link-building strategies you can be confident about your rankings.
White hat link-building techniques?
If buying, selling, or trading links with other websites is not considered a good practice, then what is the right practice? Here are a few white hat strategies that you can use:
Guest posting:
While it may take time and result in a lower number of links, the value of these links can be significant for your website. Guest posting allows you to have control over the context surrounding your brand and lets you include suitable keywords.
When you place guest posts on authoritative sites, it contributes positively to your backlink profile. In this approach, your primary goal should be on creating high-quality content that serves what your audience is searching for.
You can reach out to online media outlets, bloggers, and other websites relevant to your industry and offer to write an article for them. Within the article, you can link back to relevant content on your site as a valuable resource.
Content promotion:
Guest posting may be a slow and low-volume approach, but content promotion works quite differently. If you follow the best practice of off-page SEO, you can quickly place a large number of links which can result in a high volume of traffic.
You will have to create high-level content on your website and reach out to online media outlets, including news stations and magazines, and request them to feature your content on their platforms. This will help establish its authority within your industry.
Utility Link Building
For companies offering local services like home security, TV, or internet, utility link building can be a valuable strategy that demands minimal effort.
Unlike traditional content-focused link building, utility link building involves reaching out to relevant local government and real estate websites that host utility and resource pages.
By simply sending a quick email and requesting to be included as a resource, you can effectively target engaged local audiences who are actively seeking the services your company provides.
This approach allows you to tap into existing local demand without the need to create new articles or content, making it a convenient and beneficial link-building method.
Link Reclamation
Just like utility link building, link reclamation doesn’t demand content creation.
It’s an uncomplicated method of transforming unlinked brand mentions into active links or repairing broken links that should direct users to your website but are currently inactive.
Reclaiming Unlinked Brand Mentions
Through off-page SEO tools or Google search queries, identify where your brand name is mentioned online but lacks a link back to your website.
Reach out to those websites via email to express gratitude for referencing your brand and politely request them to consider adding a link to your site.
Broken Link Reclamation
If you have discontinued a product or service, updated or removed outdated content, or revamped your website, resulting in some URLs being affected which means those pages no longer exist.
Use off-page SEO tools to locate broken links that should direct users back to your website.
Identify what content or products those links referred to and find new pages on your website that have similar content or product.
Conclusion:
White-hat link building is the most reliable method to secure high-quality backlinks and maintain a strong position in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for the long run. Tools like SEMrush link builder will be a great help.
Avoid the allure of using unethical black-hat tactics Stay committed to following Google’s guidelines and refrain from engaging in unethical approaches.
