SEO standards does not allow Spammy methods to boost the relevancy of low-quality sites. Search engine optimization professionals should follow the Standards of SEO by making websites more relevant, clear, and accessible.
The standards are the rules or guidelines of Search Engine Optimization that direct us to correct the incorrect paths.
What is White Hat SEO?
White Hat SEO is a Search Engine Optimization tactic that assists you to improve your rankings & results in Google, organically. These rules are available in the terms and conditions of Google Policies. Whatever we do, it will be according to the Google Webmaster Guidelines.
White Hat SEO mainly inclides:
Quality Content
URL Keywords
Page Speed
Effective Link building
Mobile Friendly Site
Rich Meta Tags
Proper Navigation
Quality Content
Content has been a king for ages! From the ages when there was no internet till now, almost everything revolves around it. At that time, poetry and the different written stuff were so meaningful and now everything is full of quality and non-quality content. That made quality content even more important because quality content is what drives the visitors to your website, that is completely accurate. A Good SEO working can bring traffic to your site but if you do not have quality content: the users will not return or will leave, it also effects the bounce rate and prevent your site from being ranked. Your content should be engaging and it should include ‘how-to articles’. Furthermore, you must optimize your site, which requires locating a keyword with a low volume and a high search rate.
After that, you have to optimize your keywords in an organic way and that will make it as a part of White Hat SEO. As you know that, the content is what takes the most of the attention of the user so it is necessary that it should be worth it.
URL Keywords
When you want your site to rank on a specific keyword, you have to include the SEO keyword not only in the Content but also in the URL. It is also a valid approach included in White Hat SEO. This valid approach allows us to use the keyword in the URL and you should implement it. If you want your website to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs), you need to pay attention to your URL keywords. Your keywords should be included in your domain name, as well as in the page name of your website.
Using keywords in your URL aids search engines to understand what is your website about, and can therefore help your website achieve a higher ranking. Moreover, including keywords does not mean that you can add long tail keywords because they can be a hurdle in your ranking process, simple words: your URL should be short. If your site’s URL is long then there are chances that it will confuse the Google. Furthermore, short URLs are more likely to rank easily and are approved as good approach by extensive research.
Page Speed
Page speed is basically the time that a site takes to get loaded and it leaves an impact on your site. It is also included in white hat SEO and it is an essential one because if your website is slow, no one will be interested to wait for your valuable content. They will automatically leave your site and visit another one. For sure you don’t want that! That is the reason you should work on the speed of your site so your audience gets a satisfactory experience while using your site. You can lose up to 45% of your visitors while your site is loading. Any action that you take regarding your website can have an impact on its speed. It is entirely up to you to make your preference. Your primary concern should be whether it will be beneficial to the user experience of your website or not. In Addition, it is in the policy of Google that site speed affects the website ranking.
Page Speed can be increased through Technical SEO. Technical SEO concentrates on the technical aspects of the website, one of them is website load time. It is the reason which makes it easy to crawl and understandable for the research purpose and factors like these are part of technical SEO.
Effective Link building
Link building is also a significant part of white hat SEO. To Rank the Website we have to take the links from a website which has high Domain Authority & Page Authority (DA & PA). There are a bunch of websites which generate traffic from back-linking process. If you do it accurately, your site will be ranked; however, if you do it inappropriately, it will undoubtedly have a negative impact on your website ranking.
There are multiple strategies that can be effective for link building and the core of them is that the links which you will get, should be of high quality and relevant to your site.
One of the effective strategies is guest posting on other websites in your industry. Guest post can aid you to reach a new audience and build relationships with other industry leaders. Moreover, if you will participate in online forums and discussion groups, this can be a great way to build links organically, as well as to get your name and website out there. But link building requires continuous work that you should do from time to time. It’s important to continually work on your link-building strategy and to keep an eye out for new opportunities. If you put in the effort, you’ll be rewarded with high-quality links that will help to improve your website’s visibility and search engine ranking. To know how to implement these strategies, you have to explore the detailed guide on it.
Effective Link Building is a part of Off Page SEO.
Mobile Friendly Site
Mobile friendliness means that your website is easy to use and navigate on a mobile device. It also means that your website is optimized for mobile devices so that it loads quickly and doesn’t use too much data. Mobile Friendly Sites are included in a type of Good SEO Standard. Your website should be mobile-friendly because there are millions of people who use mobile to visit sites, desktop users are lesser. That’s why Google also mentioned that the websites which are not easily accessible to mobile users will not be ranked properly. This is one of the most important SEO standards to be focused on.
Making your website mobile-friendly is important if you want to reach the widest possible audience. By making a few simple changes, you can make sure that your website is accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
Your website does not generate quality traffic unless it has Mobile Friendly Interface.
Rich Meta Tags
Rich Meta tags are a powerful way to improve your website’s SEO. They provide search engines with information about your website, including its title, description, and keywords. This helps search engines index your website more effectively and improve its ranking in search results. In addition, rich Meta tags can also help improve click-through rates from search engine results pages.
While there is no guarantee that adding rich Meta tags will immediately boost your website’s SEO, it is definitely worth considering as part of your overall SEO strategy. If you have the time and resources, you can even create custom Meta tags for each page of your website. This can be a great way to further improve your website’s search engine optimization.
You should include the specific keywords in the Meta tags, which can force readers to visit your site. The Meta Tags usually decides how many people are going to click on your website to know more about it. But that does not mean you can write anything unrealistic to get attention because people nowadays are very wise to know what is realistic and what is unrealistic, that is why your task is to create realistic Meta tags. Your Meta Tag reflects the content that they will explore inside. That’s why; your meta-tags should be engaging and convincing.
Proper Navigation
Proper Navigation is becoming significant in the past few years because people have realized that their audience requires easy approach. Otherwise, their audience will look for the site which will assist them with proper navigation. If it is easy to use then people will love it to utilize. Therefore, your site should be easy to use. Users don’t want a messy or difficult site to operate that will waste their time. They always prefer a site which can be easily accessible through phone and desktop. As you can observe in the image that’s a site with proper navigation.
Everything that is valuable should be in bold or mentioned in such a way that the audience can immediately recognize it. Proper navigation is essential for any website, whether it is a blog post or an e-commerce website. If you have a blog, your informative blogs should highlight the information that you believe: your audience is seeking for. It can be written in bullet points or in bold. On the other hand, if your site is e-commerce, so people will be looking for the things like the price of seo services, product or the contact page etc.
What is Black Hat SEO?
When we attempt to go against the Google Algorithm, this is known as Black Hat SEO. It is the inappropriate method of ranking in which we do not care about the users and only strive to get Ranked in Search Engines.
Those who practice black hat SEO use unethical strategies to rank high, and they may obtain what they desire. This indicates that while they may be successful in ranking their website but there is no guarantee that they will remain there for longer period of time. If crawlers visit their site and discover black Hat SEO, they must pay a penalty that might result in their website being permanently removed from the google index.
Black Hat SEO techniques include:
- Keyword Stuffing
- Door Way Pages
- Cloaking
- Plagiarized content
- Paid Links
Keyword Stuffing
The most well-known Black Hat SEO method is “keyword stuffing.” When we intentionally insert extraneous keywords into the article, which does not make sense. The objective of Keyword Stuffing is to modify the position in Google Search, however unrelated terms have a negative influence on users. It does not look natural and the user will abandon your site, since he or she does not find it useful. You cannot add keywords at random to content without making sense, and if you do, Google will not recommend you.
If you are successful in finding the keyword that most people are striving to discover then you have to dissolve the word naturally to the content or write according to the content. Therefore if you do so, there are high chances that a good search engine optimization will help you to be ranked.
Door Way Pages
Doorway pages are used in black hat SEO to funnel traffic from search engines to a particular website. They are created by stuffing a web page with keywords and other content that is designed to rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). When people click on the links in the SERPs, they are taken to the doorway page instead of the intended website.
The doorways pages are created solely for the purpose of manipulating search engine results. They provide no value to the user and can even be harmful if they redirect users to a malicious website. Google’s first priority is always the visitors, that’s why it prefers every website according to Google Algorithm and to meet Good SEO Standards, for that, you have to lend satisfactory content!
In a nutshell, the sites that are built to rank for a certain query are the doorways. They lead the users to multiple pages which are not essential and in the end, they turn up on the same page. This practice affects in negative user experience. To understand the web & it’s structure, you should go for the basics of seo.
Cloaking
To rank the website, we get to learn about the various methods, including black hat SEO, which is not the right way to do it because there are various disadvantages to it, other than the benefits. If we talk about the wrong SEO Standards, one of them is cloaking. Cloaking in black hat SEO is a technique used to improve the ranking of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs). It involves showing different content to search engine bots than what is shown to human users. This can be done by delivering content based on the IP address of the user, or by using different user agents for different types of devices. Furthermore, it is designed to deceive search engines. It can result in a website being banned from a search engine, so it should only be used as a last resort.
Moreover, in cloaking, we strive to rank our content on different keywords which are not relatable. However, when the user will open the website he/she will get different results than what he expected and eventually it will stop your website to get ranked and google will never be going to support your site again. In short, the content is different for users and different for the search engine.
Mostly the spammy websites do cloaking in black hat SEO.
Plagiarized content
Back in the time, it was difficult for Google to find out whether the content is original or copied but in 2011 there was an update, that make Google even better, and Google can now find out which content is original, unique, and which one is copied. Those who know about this update use the spinning method. They copy the data from one site and paste it into any software or website that spins the data and removes the plagiarism from it. This is also considered Black Hat SEO. Even if the program removes the data, you cannot consider it original or compelling content and your targeted audience will not be inspired by the content.
There is no doubt that black hat SEO tactics can be used to inflate search engine rankings and drive traffic to a website. However, one of the major risks associated with these tactics is the potential for plagiarized content. Plagiarized content is not only a violation of copyright law, but it can also lead to search engine penalties and a loss of traffic. As such, it is important for website owners and SEO’s to be aware of the risks associated with black hat SEO tactics and to take steps to avoid them.
Paid Links
Paid links are one of the most controversial topics in the SEO world. Some people believe that they are a necessary part of any black hat SEO strategy, while others believe that they are nothing more than a scam. There is no doubt that paid links can be effective in helping to improve the search engine rankings of a website. However, there is also no doubt that they can be misused if you will not be going to use that correctly and in Black at SEO people take a link from any website, which really impacts their site. Paid links are generated through different applications and software that can generate bundle of links quickly to boost a website. This technique is used for a short period of time but can result in negative ranking of a site.
If you pay any other website to put the link on their page but both of you have a different niche so, the link will be considered spam and there are chances that it will be penalized. In short, when paid links are used correctly, they can be a valuable asset. However, if you will use them incorrectly, so they can leave more harm to your site than anything else. That is why no one really desires about it. The correct way might take a bit of time but it will last longer than the wrong one.
What is Grey Hat SEO?
As you are aware, White Hat SEO is the practice of adhering to all of Google’s guidelines. Black Hat SEO, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of white hat SEO. If we don’t strictly adhere to Google’s guidelines and want to rank well in any case, we follow Grey Hat SEO.
If we talk about Grey Hat SEO so, it is between white and black hat. Because it is neither White Hat SEO nor Black Hat SEO. It might be a one-way transfer or a combination of the two. Furthermore, it might assist or hinder your ranking. It’s not entirely a negative practice, but it’s done with the purpose of gaining the rankings.
- Using Expire Domain
- Utilizing Hosted Blogging Platforms
- Specified Paid Links
- Spinning the Content
Using Expire Domain
Using Expire domain is one of the Grey Hat tactics which is between the Black Hat SEO and White Hat SEO. There are a bunch of websites that got expired but they have the history. When you discover a website that has 100 or 1000 backlinks, When you will buy that website it can assist you to be the one who has the authority of the strong site. You can find out how was the previous data, was it relevant to your niche or not. If not, than that can be a problem for you. That’s why you have to go for a website which is related to your niche.
There are a few things to keep in mind when using expired domains to maintain the SEO Standard. First, make sure that the domain is not blacklisted. Second, check the domain’s backlink profile to make sure it is clean. Third, use tools like Moz, SemRush etc to find expired domains history and previous records.
Utilizing Hosted Blogging Platforms
There are a few platforms from which you can get the free Backlinks and that is not technically Black Hat SEO. These are a few websites from which you can get Free and Safe Links:
- YouTube
- Tumblr
- Medium
- Bloggers
- Instructables
These are the platforms from which you can get the free links but the problem is that new accounts on these platforms don’t really get the attention easily. Accounts that have been active for a long time receive the most attention and clicks. That is why it may take some time to get ranked.
Specified Paid Links
While paid links can significantly boost a website’s ranking, they can also be risky. If the links are not carefully placed, they may result in a Google penalty. As a result, it is critical to remain cautious when implementing paid links into your SEO strategy.
Paid links can be classified as either Black Hat SEO or Grey Hat SEO, depending on the site from which you are obtaining backlinks. There are websites that offer guest posting which are basically paid links but they are disguised in the name of guest blogging. You can use the tag sponsor post and that can be close to the White Hat SEO but when you don’t do that so it is considered as Grey Hat SEO. Grey Hat SEO can be used if it will be more on the white Hat SEO side because that is what can aid you but if you will go for more black SEO side then you should be ready to face the disadvantages.
Spinning the Content
Spinning the content is about taking the existing data of any website and should add to any spinning site or toll and you will get new data. Although it is not the greatest or even good practice, most individuals utilize this Grey Hat SEO strategy to rank. You must pick the data from one site and publish it on another, but first, you must use the tool to spin the data so that there is no plagiarism left. When you rephrase the data to eliminate the plagiarism, you can publish the data on your site using the keywords for which you want to rank.
If you are not concerned about the quality then Spinning can be the best option for you. The spinner can remove the plagiarism in your content but it will never generate a new idea that will make your website different from other! People always prefer a site that is different because if they are visiting different sites so they are not seeking for same data or information. If your objective is to only get the traffic then you can go for a content spinner tool.
Importance of SEO Standards
If we run towards the shortcut and follow the black hat SEO, Google can ban us because it violates the Google terms and conditions.
Google is a platform in which plenty of people are striving to make their website ranked and that’s why some of them reach for a black hat SEO. But suppose if you have put the data on the site but didn’t utilize the white hat SEO and go for the opposite one so, what if Google bans your website and you can never have the website again on search results. It will definitely break your heart!
The correct SEO approach may take some time but it will surely assist you in the future. If you want your website to stay close to users then don’t ever go for a way that can ban your website forever.