(Writing Portfolio) White Hat SEO – How to Achieve Organic Results and Stay Ahead

Did you know that there are 3.5 billion searches on Google daily, that’s 1.2 trillion per year! Do you want some of that action? Since you’re reading this article, we know you do. Let’s get started on your organic SEO.

Black Hat vs. White Hat

First, let’s get this topic out of the way. Although tempting, with the promise of fast results, black hat SEO seldom lasts.

It may work for a while, but search engines will catch on and release updates to demote these kinds of websites. If you want to remain in Google’s good graces, stick to white hat SEO.

SEO is a topic that requires constant moderation since it moves fast, and changes happen all the time. With each Google update, you should keep an eye on these trends and adjust accordingly.

Ranking in Desktop Searches and Mobile Searches

Nowadays, organic SEO involves more than standard optimization techniques. You’ll want to rank at the top in mobile searches too. There is a difference.

Who knew that your optimization efforts could vary depending on your industry? Some industries spend more time online using mobile, while others prefer desktop interaction.

For example, service, news, and health industries prefer to use their mobile devices. But more often, government, education, and finance industries get online via a desktop computer.

Take a look at the mobile comScore stats to see what your industry prefers and optimize for it. But how? Glad you asked.

Optimizing for desktop-based searches is what the SEO industry has been doing since the start, before mobile was even a thing. Let’s call this standard search engine optimization.

Before you can show up in results, the search engine crawlers have to find and read your content to see what it’s about. That means telling them through HTML.

Standard Optimization Methods

That said, here are the best practices to make sure your website’s pages have a chance for top rankings in search results.

Image Alt Text: Use your target keywords within the alt text of your images.

Beware of Flash: Don’t rely entirely on Flash technology, the search engines can’t read text within Flash.

Link Structure: Use an effective link structure that lets the crawler access all your pages. Link your pages together, so it has a path to follow. Orphaned pages are unreachable. Point links to all your pages and be mindful of the anchor text you’re using. Don’t use keywords in the anchor text pointing to your other pages.

Titles and Descriptions: Use keywords in your titles and descriptions. Use a hook that will entice searchers to click.

URL Naming: Use keywords in the URL of the page and make your URL’s memorable, not a bunch of jumbled characters.

Keywords in Content: Use keywords naturally within your content, approximately 3-5 times. It’s a good idea to include them in the first paragraph and a subheading on the page. Don’t overdo it because Google considers too many of them spam, or keyword stuffing.

Header Tags: Use an H1 tag for your main page header and H2 tags for your subheadings.

Useful Content: Write helpful content that keeps your visitors on the page. Avoid thin or duplicate content within your domain.

Duplicate Content: Don’t make your content compete against itself. Combine like content into one page.

Page Speed: Your site’s pages should load fast.

Index Map: Make sure you have an index map and that Google knows about it.

It’s a long list, but after a while, it will become second nature to you. Don’t have the time or desire to work on your organic SEO? Consider hiring an optimization company to do it for you.

Optimize for Mobile Too

In 2018, mobile website traffic is up to 52.2%, increasing a whopping 36% over the last five years. That’s not something to laugh about. After optimizing your website for organic SEO, there are a couple more things to do for mobile.

Responsive Design

Google prefers mobile pages to be responsive. Responsive design displays a page based on the size of a user’s screen using media queries. Use Google’s testing tool to confirm your mobile optimization level.

Check Your Page Speed

Having a fast website is essential for SEO and one of the things that Google checks. It’s even more important for mobile SEO. Mobile devices have less bandwidth and RAM available. Here are some things that help speed up your site:

• Optimize all your images. Use correct dimensions, minimal file sizes, PNG format for graphics, and JPG for photos. Consider using CSS sprites for images like buttons and icons.
• Use browser caching.
• Minify your code: JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
• Reduce page redirects.
• Avoid render-blocking JavaScript.
• Improve your service response time: check databases and memory. Response time should be under 200ms.
• If possible, use a content distribution network (CDN), a type of content delivery system.

Local Organic SEO Optimization

If you rely on local customers finding you online, you’ll want to optimize for local search as well. Local SEO involves making sure that your city and state are in all the places that your keywords go. You’ll also want to embed a map to your Google Plus listing.

Have any more killer white hat SEO tips? Share them with us by commenting below.