If you want to rank high on Google’s search engine results pages, you need to employ white hat link building techniques. Building high-quality backlinks that adhere to webmaster best practices is a proven way to increase your domain authority and organic search rankings. Let us look at what constitutes this top-ranking search engine optimization (SEO) factor and how white hat link building works.
The Definition of White Hat Link Building
What is white hat link building? It is an SEO strategy that is designed to improve your organic search rankings by increasing your website’s domain authority. It essentially involves building a network of links that enhance your site’s trustworthiness in relation to Google’s search engine algorithm.
Link building can be divided into white hat and black hat. White hat link building occurs when quality bona fide backlinks are earned within the capacity of Google’s webmaster guidelines. Black hat link building occurs when backlinks are created through spam or dishonest behavior that violates Google’s webmaster guidelines.
Because it is all above board, white hat link building techniques include creating valuable content, conducting genuine outreach, and securing lasting backlinks. White hat link building is a long-term approach to SEO that helps a brand increase its visibility and rank for essential keywords that match the search intent of its target audience.
1. Contribute Quality Content for Guest Posts
One of the most effective white hat link building techniques is guest posting, also known as guest blogging or content contribution. Guest posting is where you link up with reputable websites that publish blog posts and offer to write an article or story for them. If they agree to your pitch, you will get your guest post published on their site.
Guest posting works twofold. First, you will be able to establish yourself as a voice of knowledge and authority in your field and improve brand awareness. Second, you will most likely earn a backlink to your site either in the content of your article or in your author’s biography section. Either way, you will be driving referral traffic and leads to your site while link building.
However, you must link up with credible sites with high DA (domain authority). You can use free link building tools to find the right sites or simply contact the publications that you consider respectable. Note that many superior sites often do not openly advertise guest posting opportunities and that pay-to-post programs can be considered black hat.
2. Have Original and Unique Information
Creating your own datasets is an exceptionally effective way to create tons of white hat backlinks. Statistics grab attention and everyone loves to share new and interesting data. Doing research is a fantastic way to come up with original and unique information that will not only attract readers but also publications who want to cite your data.
A good place to start is to consider your market niche and how it can be tied to a topic that is currently trending. Take the idea further with people within your organization and social media followers and find out what they would love to know more about. Then, collect data from customers and social media users and compile it into an intriguing content piece.
Just the cold data is not enough though. Make sure that your content is written to engage. A catchy headline always helps. Create some custom images or helpful infographics that will make your post more informative and share-worthy. This will increase the possibility of your post going viral and receiving backlinks from high-DA sites.
3. Conduct a Large Amount of Outreach
With link building being so competitive, publications are getting massive volumes of emails each day. Therefore, if you want to connect with the big-name sites and get a response, you need to dedicate time and effort to outreach. This could mean sending a pitch to a prestigious publication once a week or sending cold emails to four hundred sites a month.
Outreach is often a numbers game. The more sites you contact, the higher the possibility of receiving a positive response. While you are doing this, however, do ensure that your outreach content is top-notch. To earn a backlink, your pitch needs to attract the editors on the target site. Your outreach should make them believe that you can write an amazing post.
If you are unsure of which sites to target, a tool like the Ahrefs Content Explorer can help you. Simply enter a keyword combination and the tool will give you a list of unique pages that are relevant to your niche. Then, it is just a matter of using the search filters to determine your target sites and contacting them one by one with your article pitch.
Summary
White hat link building is an excellent SEO strategy. The best white hat link building techniques are creating valuable content, researching and producing original data, and connecting with as many legitimate content publishers as possible. By focusing on the quality of your content and building relationships with other sites, you can build a strong network of supporting links and improve your search rankings exponentially.