For most people, the internet is a place where businesses create and manage websites that have their brand name. Then they research on ways to increase the traffic of their website, to basically let more people know about their brand. The most common way of increasing your website’s visibility is through search engine optimization (SEO), which is about optimizing your website to make it appear in the first page rankings of a search engine.
There are two ways that you can practice SEO, the first one is where you follow the rules and has no repercussion which is called white hat SEO. The second is the one that makes use of techniques and strategies that search engines deem as rule breaking, and will eventually get the website banned from search engines.
Obviously, practicing white hat SEO is the right way to do things, but do you really know what it is? Here’s something that can help you:
White Hat SEO
White hat SEO refers to the utilization of maximization techniques and strategies that focus on the human aspect of search engine optimization rather than on the search engines. Also, the people who practice white hat SEO do their jobs in accordance to the rules and regulations of search engines.
White Hat SEO Techniques
#1. Quality Content
If you didn’t know, search engines detect if there is well-written, unique, and quality content on websites. They show to the end users which website has quality content in them, and they rank them based in it. For websites that don’t have quality content, they’ll surely be not shown on the first stage of the search engines – the only exception is when a website practices black hat SEO. To give you an example, there are two websites that offer the same services. The first website’s content only contains the descriptions of the service and their contact number. Meanwhile, the second website contains the services they offer, the description, the testimonies of past customers, and how their services can benefit the people. Which do you think would the search engine prioritize and show on the first page? Obviously, it’s the second website because they have far surpassed the first one in terms of content quality.
Hence, if you need to optimize your website, start with quality content!
#2. Semantic Structure
With quality content comes the importance of the semantic structure of your article or blog post. Semantic structure is basically all about the titles and headings of every content that you publish in your website. For example, Google analyzes the title of your content and collects the information, and determines what the topic of your content is. And puts it in every search result if the end user is searching for something that is related to the topic of your content. Also, the subheadings also help the search engine know what the topic of your content is, and headings and subheadings give more weight to the search engine results.
#3. Separate Content From Design
Separating the content from the design makes it easier for search engines to find what they’re looking for in your content. Because when th code for the design of your content and the content itself are mixed, the search engine will have difficulty looking – even to the point that it fails to look for it. So, separation is for the best if you want to optimize your website.
Why White Hat SEO is Important
Basically, not practicing white hat SEO will eventually get your site banned from Google and other search engines. This means that your website will never show up for the search results and will lead to minimal to no traffic in your website. Google, as you may know is the world’s leading search engine, and is used by millions – or even billions – of people each day. Which gives your website a high possibility to be discovered and visited by a new end user! By getting yourself banned, you remove any possibility to have high traffic in your website. This is very damaging if the website that you handle is for a business.
The worst part is that when you get banned by Google, there is only a low chance – to the point of never – that you get re-enlisted. Hence, always practice white hat SEO techniques and always avoid those of the black hat SEO!
About the author:
Jeric is a freelance writer that features food, lifestyle, travel, DIY subjects, and nature. He is an adventurer, taking on the world and everything it has to offer, may it be the good and the bad. He also has a weird love for reggae and sharks.
