The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques keep changing from time to time and all thanks to the regular Google search algorithm updates. One major way to rank your keywords is strictly following the webmaster guidelines. The webmaster guidelines suggest the best SEO practices and nevertheless White Hat SEO methods. The white hat seo strategies have the power to rank your keywords in a long-run. I am here to share my views on the top 10 white hat SEO techniques to boost your organic rankings in 2018.
White Hat SEO Tips 1: Time to Migrate to “HTTPS”
There was a day, where SSL “https” is must only for websites which perform or include online money transactions. Time up fellas! It’s time to upgrade to https even if you are a startup or blogger website.
Official Google Webmaster blog says HTTPS is a Ranking Signal
Interestingly, Google Chrome will show a “Not Secure” warning for all pages served over HTTP, regardless of whether or not the page contains sensitive input fields.
I personally saw my friends started questioning the authenticity of certain websites they fall in love with for years.
Even one of my client asked, “Why my website shows Not Secure label in Google Chrome?”.
I simply replied them, one of the easiest way to Remove Not Secure Warning in Chrome is to migrate from http to https i.e. install SSL certificate.
As because peoples love authenticity, Google loves users experience.
White Hat SEO Strategy 2: Boost Your Page Speed
“Page Speed” is the first white hat seo technique that must be followed in 2018. Google prefers best user experience, while users prefer fast load time, consequently, page speed becomes mandatory seo ranking factor.
- Go for some of the best hosting companies in the industry to have zero/negligible downtime.
- Move to the nearby server location for your audience.
- W3 Total Cache is one of the best WordPress plugins to boost your server performance (purely for those who use WordPress CMS only).
The PageSpeed Insights offers valuable information about your area of improvement in terms of website speed.
White Hat SEO Tricks 3: Schema Markup
The search engines can read interesting features on your website through “Schema Markup Language”. You can bring out some of the valuable information about your website like site links, star ratings, author names & images in the search results through Schema markup. This feature is termed as “Rich Snippet”.
According to research, websites which have featured rich snippets has high CTR (click-through ratio) than those who haven’t.
Though Google doesn’t promise to bring all your schema markup, it might bring when it is necessary.
The Schema markup is available in 3 different formats, such as,
- JSON-LD
- Microdata
- RFDa
Among these, the Microdata schema markup is very easy to implement as it is an HTML version.
However, Google recommends using JSON-LD* format to validate better.
Note: Please have detailed technical knowledge about implementing Schema markup codes on your website. False or poor implementation will not only throw error in Search Console but also reduces your ranks to some extent!
White Hat SEO Advice 4: Use Compressed Image
You can’t have a better impression of your content without adding a suitable image. The images are one of the key engagement factors in user behavior on site.
To attract visitors, I tend to use high-resolution image on the site, which is good in one way, perhaps failed me on other.
Yes, using high-resolution images reduces my web page speed. Hope you know, website speed is a ranking factor in Google. Later I realized, “reducing the image size is one of the easiest ways to load website faster”.
If you aren’t using WordPress, you can try the CAESIUM Software for image compression prior to upload.
As I use WordPress CMS, I prefer “WPSmush Plugin” to compress image faster & cleaner. You can try the free version WPSmush image compression plugin, whilst pro version as more features to add.
White Hat SEO Guide 5: Use Proper Meta Data
The “Meta Data” helps Google to understand what you are trying to display to the users. Google recently updated their meta description character length to 320 characters from 160 characters. You can utilize this increased space to add one more valuable sentence to your website along with any of the targeted keyword or LSI keyword as well.
Google can read images through valid meta data i.e. Image Alt Text.
Most of the B2B & E-commerce websites failed to add Meta Data to their images. Don’t forget, Google Image search can also bring the decent share of traffic to your site.
It’s time to update Alt Text for all your images on the website, don’t leave Favicon too (LOL).
White Hat SEO Instructions 6: Good Content with Good Length
We can have 3000 words separate article on “why content is king always?”. That’s the power of content. At the same time, to have an evergreen ranking, Google prefers lengthy content.
Length doesn’t mean you have to write any piece of shit for 2000 words!!!
Users prefer detailed knowledge on their search queries.
If you offer something like a definition or description size, they might get the same in “Answer Snippet” section itself. Using thin content will eventually lose your ranks and traffics consequently.
If you ask, “what is the minimum word count to avoid thin content in the website?” I would say anything higher than 300 words.
But, If you ask, “what is the maximum number words for a blog in 2018?” I would say there is no real deadline for sure. However, I prefer to have anything between 1500 – 2500 words.
Until you write a decently engaging content, targeted readers won’t find pain in several scroll downs to find the depth of knowledge. Hence, good content with length enters in our top 10 white hat SEO techniques for 2018.
White Hat SEO Techniques 7: Analyze Competitors Periodically
Competitors aren’t my enemies, to me, they are more than my close friends
Competitors will always try to defeat you by following some unique strategy. Inspiration can birth from anywhere, why not from the competitor.
You really don’t know where your company’s next big idea will come from!!!
Competitor analysis is a must activity for any website. Keep a practice of auditing your competitor website performances periodically. Look for the recent changes or development in terms of keywords, website UX, user experience, on-page & off-page SEO activities and more.
Inspired things are far better than copy/theft activities.
Look for competitor’s backlinks, find where you are missing the real opportunity.
White Hat SEO Method 8: Long Tail Keywords & Voice Search Queries
If you are a startup, instead of waiting for your short keywords to rank, why don’t you try a low competition & long tail keywords?
Keyword research is must for any article content. Most of the long tail keywords won’t have high competition. Working on them will bring you some real-time niche traffic. Build a funnel right from there by linking your targeted pages. This white hat seo technique will not only boost your short keywords organic ranking but also, gives you decent conversion at the end.
Next, the voice search is the real big challenge in SEO 2018 and it is featured in my Top 5 SEO Trends in 2018.
The Mobile users are more fascinated towards using the latest trends and use this opportunity to grow beyond horizons. First, find what are all the voice search queries your website can have and include them in your content accordingly.
Google published Google Assistant Voice Search Queries with Live Examples
Following those voice search assistant guidelines on your website will be very useful to build your mobile audience. That would be another meaningful white hat seo strategy in 2018.
White Hat SEO Practice 9: Sharing is Still Caring
Peoples spends a lot of time on the internet and at least 50% of those time shared by Social Media. Create a better social media presence for your business, brand, website, blog or whatever. Share all your quality efforts on your website in the relevant social media including, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Stumbleupon and more.
Even though social media signals aren’t a ranking factor in 2018, why care when you receive good traffic and decent peace of conversion from social media!!!
Yes, Sharing is caring! Thanks for sharing this article on your social media.
White Hat SEO Technique 10: Check Webmaster Report
The Google Search Console (webmaster tool) has tones of information about your website performances in the search space. You can have a clear pitch of your website pros and cons through proper analyze of the same.
The “Links to Your Site” in the search console gives you knowledge of links pointing your site. Download the complete links and check for the unnatural links. If you find anything that isn’t yours (like porn, gambling or any unwanted other), file a disavow links to get rid of penalty actions.
Click here to Know How to Recover from Google Penguin 4 Penalty
Check for the crawl errors report. You will get some of the links that aren’t good in the search engines eyes. Remove those unwanted 404’s and broken links or better redirect them to the homepage.
Check for the sitemap. Look out the index rates. If something isn’t good with the sitemap URL, check for that URL’s issues and fix them immediately.
Those above stated are the top 10 white hat seo techniques in 2018. If you find any other best white hat seo strategies to concentrate in 2018, share in our comment section.
