This is an article by Amit Raj. He is a freelance SEO consultant based in the UK, who specialises in white hat link building techniques. Feel free to follow him on Twitter, and Facebook.

Why White Hat SEO is the ONLY way you should be doing SEO

Did you know that being on top of the search rankings will give you significantly more traffic, and therefore more chances to get business as compared to others on the bottom list? Websites ranked on the first page for a profitable keyword get the lion’s share, so to speak.

You can’t imagine the underhanded SEO strategies companies would do in order to get to the coveted spot. These are called black hat SEO strategies, which Google doesn’t like. So in just a few months, these sites will lose their top spot to those who exercise the right way of search engine optimization, called White Hat SEO. Google is getting smarter at sniffing out these offenders. It wouldn’t seem like good investment to put in money just to see your search ranking and business go down one day.

Is White Hat SEO is the way to go? Definitely. These are the types of optimization that will give you success in the long term. But before I share to you some great white hat strategies, take a look at one of the most important elements in any website: Content.

Great content will serve as your foundation to brand success. Regular, highly engaging pieces of content are great and all, but the less you pay for content, the less quality it would be. So it makes perfect sense to dedicate significant time and effort to put out high quality pieces. Dedicating 30 or so hours a week for content creation may be intimidating for some, but doing this will provide a greater ROI in the end.

The best site owners wouldn’t care how much you paid to craft content. They won’t mind the amount of time and effort you put in it. They won’t even blink if you don’t offer anything new to what’s on the table. The first thing they will look at is how high a quality it is.

Content is the structure that holds your SEO strategy up. With that in mind, here are some SEO strategies that you should completely avoid:

1. Cramming Your Content Full of Keywords

Putting in the same keyword on each paragraph or sentence will NOT help you get to the top of search engine rankings.

Google is a smart company. Every month or so they meet up with SEO consultants and they take a look at what SEO strategies web owners are exploiting to get to rank 1 in search. Google then closes these black hat strategies and penalizes the websites that use them. The keyword stuffing strategy was one of those that were found and shut down.

It may have worked before, but putting keyword after keyword will no longer get you closer to the top spot. It also gives a detrimental effect to your content. Keyword stuffing can make your content very difficult to understand. The emphasis should be towards the viewers who buy your products and services.

2. Cheaper Isn’t Always Better

That shared hosting service really looks like a good deal. It’s one of the lowest-priced hosting you’ve ever seen. You should definitely go for it, right?

Wrong.

Shared hosting is cheap for a reason. You share bandwidth and a server with other people setting up their websites. Think of them as real-life neighbors in an apartment complex. You may put up high-quality, engaging content on a consistent basis, but who knows what your “neighbors” are doing on their websites?

Google will take a look at these websites and will put up a huge fine or even blacklist them if they’re found doing shady SEO strategies. The websites found on that server will be affected in a way that their search rankings may also go down. Though this may sound unfair, there’s really nothing you can do. But there’s something you can do to avoid these kinds of things in the future- invest in an SSD VPS webhosting provider.

Moreover, having a website on a shared server will affect how your website performs. A slow down will affect how your customers see your site. Keep in mind that a website’s loading speed is also a factor on how they rank of Google’s search engine.

Bottom line is, you’d want to invest in a website hosting service that provides a 99% uptime SSD VPS hosting for a reasonable price.

3. Paying For Mass Links

There are many SEO experts claiming they could get you off your feet by submitting your site to thousands of websites, i.e., to get more link power. What most site owners don’t know is that these websites were created solely to accept links. These are frowned upon by Google and promptly blacklisted. In short, you won’t get anything from paying to get mass links.

Link building is legal, yes, but you will have to put effort into it. You’ll need relevant links in order to rank on websites. Search for websites that have similar niches, products or services and offer relevant links to them. Link building is like building up a relationship. Sure, it’s hard work, but it’s truly worth it for SEO purposes.

How To Build Great SEO

1. Content Is King

All websites big or small, local or international must have a separate blog that’s filled with regular, quality content. It should be professional and should have related content.

Create a content strategy that works well within your niche. It should focus on the audience and what your website is all about. Start off slowly and concentrate on one subject. More importantly, each piece of content you put out should be of the highest possible quality. Really scrutinize it and think about how your audience will read it and accept it. If you think your audience will love it to bits, then that’s well and good. Well-written, engaging and witty content get high rankings, links and a huge number of organic traffic coming your way.

Aim for consistency. If your schedule allows for two great content pieces, then do it. Never post mediocre content just for the sake of it.

2. Get A Responsive, Well-Designed Theme

It’s all about user experience these days. Make it a joy for your visitors to browse on your website. They should be able to get to where they need in 2 mouse clicks maximum.

3. Consistency Is Key

Keep in mind that getting to the top takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. The top web owners have spent years getting their website to the top page. Keep on building links and providing engaging content. Utilize the best plug-ins and tools to enhance your search engine rankings. The more you grow your SEO, the harder it will be for you to lose your rank.

Conclusion

Black hat SEO might be tempting to try out because they offer quick results in a short span of time. However, sticking to proven White hat SEO is really the way to go. Eliminate the elements of your website that could be bringing you down. Build up on great content and keep your audience in mind. This way, you’ll experience SEO success that will last for a long, long time.