WhiteHat Link Building And Its Importance

One of the top Google ranking factors is building backlinks and the term ‘link building’ is becoming very popular in the marketing industry, people are desperate to build their brand’s backlink profile with whitehat link building tactics and they will do anything to get link. But what matters is the approach you are using to get those links as it can affect your search engine rankings. Google allows the whitehat SEO approach as per their standard guidelines.

Let’s find out more about White-hat Link Building! 

What is WhiteHat Link Building?

Whitehat link building is an approach that aligns with Google’s webmaster guidelines. It focuses on long-term search engine optimization results and involves creating good quality content and then conducting outreach to external websites with the aim of getting an inbound link from them. Whitehat SEO links are responsible for increasing traffic and organic search rankings instead of manipulating the algorithm of Google.

What is a Whitehat Link Building SEO Approach as per Google’s guidelines and why is it important?

If you are using a WhiteHat SEO approach by following the guidelines of Google, it will help Google to find, index, and rank your site. If you do not follow quality guidelines then your site will completely disappear from the Google index. The quality guidelines give an overview of how to avoid tricky and manipulative ways to get links. If an approach doesn’t comply with quality guidelines then it doesn’t mean that Google approves it.

The basic principles that Google asks website users to adapt in order to build links using a whitehat technique:

• Create a webpage that belongs to users and not search engines.
• Don’t trick your users. Create content that gives value to the users.
• Avoid spamming tactics and aim at improving search engine rankings.
• Make your content unique and engaging.

Techniques you should avoid:

• Generating content automatically for the sake of search rankings.
• Building links using link schemes.
• Creating web pages with little or no original content.
• Cloaking, scraped content, doorway pages, hidden links.
• Stuffing irrelevant keywords in your web pages.

If the above guidelines are violated by any site then Google takes action against it.

WhiteHat Link Building Techniques :

Below are some of the whitehat strategies that you can follow in order to build authoritative links:

Guest Posting:

Guest blogging or guest posting is an amazing whitehat link-building technique. Although it is a slow process and you get a lower number of links, they are worth the extra effort.

For guest blogging, you contact websites that have a blog and pitch a topic to write for them. If they accept your offer then you will get your blog post published on their website which in turn drives links, traffic, and improves rankings on SERPs and brand awareness.

The links that you place through guest posting allow you to control the context around your brand and include suitable related keywords. The main aim of this approach is to create quality content. You can reach out to online media outlets, bloggers, and other websites related to your niche and ask to write an article for them. This will assist in building your brand as a reliable source of information and authority in your industry.

Content Promotion:

Guest blogging is a very low-volume approach however content promotion is the contrary. Content promotion can bring you many links in a short amount of time and quickly expand your brand awareness.

If you have written an appealing blog post that covers your organization’s key messages and is backed by facts and figures but the blog post doesn’t reach the relevant target audience, it is useless and your hard work is wasted! Therefore, it is important to reach out to online media outlets to promote your content.

There is still a lack of understanding regarding content promotion as 12% of marketing professionals think that their content is targeting the right audience with relevant content.

Utility link building:

If your organization is selling local services like TV, internet, etc then utility link building is helpful as it requires less effort on our part. There is no need to write articles or create interesting content but you can send a quick email.

You can look for utility and resource pages on local government sites or real estate sites, reach out to them and ask them to include your website as a resource. It is an easy way to target local, engaged audiences that are already looking for the services you provide.

Link Reclamation:

Link reclamation is an easy way to turn unlinked brand mentions into links or fix broken links that should lead to your site but don’t. It is an integral part of an effective SEO strategy and it is important to understand its value.

Building links is not an easy task and when your hard-earned links suddenly disappear or when you find a broken backlink, it is very frustrating. It is important to maintain your rankings as it preserves link juice.18% of backlinks result in a 404 or redirect to an irrelevant page.

• Reclaiming Unlinked Brand Mentions:

Using Google search queries or off-page SEO tools, find instances online where your brand name is mentioned but doesn’t link back to your site.

You can generate new backlinks from online mentions, citations, images, or other references to your brand or company. You can email those sites and ask them to include a link to your site.

• Broken link reclamation:

Broken links are previously existing backlinks that are now lost or broken and need to be found and reclaimed. You can use your off-page SEO tools to find these broken links that should lead back to your site and email the sites to let them know the link is broken. Ask them to replace the old links with the new ones and regain link value.

HARO – Help a Reporter Out:

Help a reporter out is a free service that lets you submit your content to HARO and receive free press, traffic and links.

It offers an easy-to-use platform for submitting your content to media outlets like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., The Huffington Post, Mashable and more.

HARO is the leading resource for finding new sources of traffic, leads and customers. In fact, they have over 2 million sources listed on their site – that means good chances of getting seen by the right people!

You can use HARO as a way to get in front of journalists who write about topics you’re interested in – like entrepreneurship or mobile apps – but be sure to keep it useful by providing them with valuable information they can use.

Conclusion:

Building links using a whitehat approach is a long-term sustainable strategy. This helps to maintain your rankings and position in SERPs over time.

You should never try to trick Google by using black hat tactics as Google will take strict action against it. So it’s better to stick to the guidelines by Google and use ethical link-building strategies to build backlinks.

FAQs

What is black hat link building?

Black hat link building is an unethical way of building backlinks that go against the guidelines set by search engines. SEOs use it to get a site to rank higher in search results. SEOs do not use this technique to help users but simply boost the rankings of a page by manipulating the search engine algorithms. The use of black-hat link-building tactics can cause damage to your website and even lead to your domain permanently de-indexing.

Which is the best link-building type?

The backlinks you create using whitehat SEO methods like guest posting, content promotion, link reclamation, etc. These are the best link building types as they are in consideration with Google’s webmaster guidelines.

How do you build backlinks?

Build amazing backlinks by following these five steps:

• Step one: Find the relevant sites and content to which people are linking to.
• Step two: Find out who’s linking
• Step three: Explore the reasons why people are linking
• Step four: Create the bait
• Step five: Pimp your content

What is a good link-building strategy?

Below are some of the powerful link-building strategies:

• Replicate your competitor’s SEO backlinks.
• Use the broken link-building strategy.
• Try to regain missing backlinks.
• Build links with images.
• Write guest posts.
• Get on ‘best of’ lists.
• Connect with other industry experts.
• Join link-building communities