Just the words “white hat link building” could be a cause for debate. Some people have labelled it a “myth”, and there seems to be much dispute on what exactly classifies as white hat link building.
Buying links is considered to be a grey hat method, but as all SEOs know, links set the foundation for any SEO campaign. Great content alone won’t get your website ranking on page 1 of Google – that’s the SEO reality – so isn’t buying links an inevitable part of your strategy? It may be in many cases, but it doesn’t mean that you should forget about the effective white hat methods.
Times Have Changed for Link Building
What used to be considered acceptable in link building is now considered frowned upon; when once link builders turned to link farms, they now avoid these globally titled “bad neighbourhoods” like the plague. The search marketing world changes and grows as the search engines mature, and in 2011 it seems that white hat link building is more important than ever.
The Panda Update got recently got businesses and search engine optimisation companies on their toes with a big clamp down on duplicate content, poor quality content and content farms. This wasn’t the first Google algorithm change and it certainly won’t be the last.
Currently, many of us tread that fine tightrope between white hat and black hat SEO, and there could be a definite shift to white hat with even more algorithm updates come. But as Matt Cutts once said to algorithm chasers, “Don’t chase algorithm, try to make sites users love.”
Remember J.C Penney
Earlier this year, Google manually penalised J.C Penney’s website after the New York Times published a revealing article called The Dirty Little Secrets of Search about the company’s black hat link building activities.
Since this particular case which occurred earlier this year, companies have been advised to go back to basics with their link buying tactic – instead of buying links, create link bait to gain those natural links.
How to Link Build as Ethically as Possible
Many people have their own definitions for “white hat SEO”. Our advice is to build your links in the most organic way you can. Whilst we know that all link building is done to improve rankings, there are some methods which give your website a more sustainable and natural link profile.
1. Create link bait – there’s really nothing more beneficial to your website’s rankings than natural links from influential sources.
2. Guest blogging – guest posting is an effective way to create back links for your website.
3. Maximise your outreach – gaining links requires a certain level of outreach, so being able to break the ice and build relationships with other website owners in your market niche is a very desirable skill.
4. Use social media – social networking sites are a great platform for you to promote your content.
5. Be creative – how can you get more links to your website in a creative way? Giveaways are a great idea if you have a product which people can post reviews about and link to your site, and competitions can inspire people to link to your organically.
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