White Hat & Black Hat SEO: What’s The Difference? (And WHY You Should Care)

White Hat and Black Hat SEO take their name from an old Western movie trope. One is good. One is bad.

 

Both are capable of getting you results. But the differences between the two can mean the difference between success and failure for your business.

 

Search engines like Google and Bing are constantly changing their ranking algorithms in secret. And nobody knows for certain how they function.

 

Search engines change their algorithms for two main reasons:

 

• It provides fair competition
• It delivers users the most relevant and trustworthy content

 

Search engines have general guidelines, that when followed, help them find, index and rank your site using bots that perpetually crawl the internet in search of new and updated pages.

 

What is White Hat SEO

Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare?

 

“Slow and steady wins the race,” was it’s moral.

 

For this analogy, White Hat SEO is our tortoise. Slower on the go, thus requiring more time and effort to reach the winning post. But a victory by way of White Hat SEO tactics is always more virtuous and rewarding.

 

White Hat SEO puts search engines second to the human experience. But still follows the general guidelines of said search engines to the letter. No shortcuts or shenanigans.  

 

White Hat SEO respects the algorithm. And utilises legitimate SEO techniques to increase search traffic organically. Like offering site visitors original, high-quality content that they can’t find anywhere else.

 

It starts with creating a content strategy. Before you write or film anything. Building pieces of content one on top of the other will present opportunities for mutual linking. It paves a clearer path for users to navigate your site. Eventually converting them into loyal visitors and regular customers.

 

You’ll need to identify the best keywords to use. Appropriate use of the right keywords across your content, especially in titles and headings, is a sure fire way to catch the attention of search engines. Conducting a little research using tools like Google Keyword Planner is a great way to uncover the best keywords for your article or page.     

 

Try using intriguing title tags that include your main keyword(s). Title tags are displayed in your content’s URL, search results and when a page is shared on social networks. So it’s important that yours are attention-grabbing.

 

Don’t forget to link. Linking internally is an effective way to guide visitors through your site. And links to high-authority external sites will boost your own credibility with search engines and trustworthiness with users.

 

How easy is it for visitors to find what they’re looking for on your website? Improving navigation, simplifying site architecture and increasing page-load speed creates a better user experience that keeps people on your page for longer.

White Hat SEO strategies promote fair and honest competition for better ranking on search engines. With its emphasis on customer satisfaction, optimised user experience, quality content and always abiding by search engine guidelines, White Hat SEO is a proven route to better rankings. And staying in the good graces of Google.

 

What is Black Hat SEO

The vengeful gunslinger. The boastful hare. Black Hat SEO cheats to achieve better rankings on search engines by using aggressive techniques that target and influence search engines directly. At the expense of the human experience.  

 

They’re tricks like using spam blogs or publishing low-quality, duplicated content not intended to attract real people. Or scraping and plagiarizing content.

 

It’s using software for link farming that connects you to other sites with low-quality content for the sole purpose of increasing visibility.

 

Keywords are good.

 

But keyword stuffing, the practice of overloading your content with keywords in an unnatural way, or using tiny or hidden text, is bad.

 

Using unrelated or irrelevant keywords is also frowned upon. “Kim Kardashian” is probably a popular search term. But plastering her name across your content in hopes of winning a couple of extra clicks is cheating.

 

Gateway pages bursting with keyword phrases, but no real meaningful content, that use JavaScript or meta refresh tags to redirect users to a different page without their knowledge, are definitely not best practice.

 

It’s important to compete fairly. Don’t publish negative campaigns against your competitors. Or report them as Black Hat practitioners when they aren’t.

Some Black Hat SEO agents will even go as far as hacking other sites. And after gaining access, place their own content there. Often without the site owner being aware of it.  

 

Search engines do not appreciate any of these dodgy practices. They’re unethical and punishable offences that could ultimately end up crippling your site.  

 

We are not smarter than the algorithm. While it might be possible to get away with using certain Black Hat SEO techniques to steal some quick gains in the short term, search engines will eventually recognise these tactics for what they are. And be quick to meet swift digital justice.   

 

If you’re caught attempting to deceive search engines with Black Hat techniques, you can count on a poor ranking at the very least. In many cases, non-compliant or offending sites are temporarily, or even permanently, de-indexed altogether.

 

This means that no matter what search phrases are used, the de-indexed site will not appear in any search engine results. And the lack of a searchable online presence is a death knell to just about any business.

The temptation of securing some fast and easy results with Black Hat SEO may seem inviting. But you’re never going to beat the house. The search engine is the dealer. And the dealer holds all the cards. So why gamble with your business’ future?

 

Be the tortoise instead. Plan. Scheme. Plod. Put on a White Hat and take your time when practising SEO. Because “slow and steady” wins the rankings race every time.

 

Article first published here: White Hat & Black Hat SEO: What’s The Difference? (And WHY You Should Care)

What’s best for SEO: Squarespace or WordPress?

Let’s say you’re business isn’t getting the results you’d like. So you decide that it’s time for a website refresh.

 

But you’re also not a website developer. So ‘ease of use’ is going to be huge when it comes to deciding on a content management system (CMS).

 

You’ve done your homework. Narrowed it down to Squarespace and WordPress. But which CMS is going to deliver the best SEO results?

 

Who has the better, easier to use, features? Which system will get you ranking higher in search engines like Google?

 

We broke down the perks and pitfalls of both. And put together an objective comparison that will help you decide which one is best for you and your new business.

 

WordPress and SEO

WordPress is an open source platform. Which means its source code is available to anyone wishing to develop their own templates, themes and plugins. And because these elements can be shared or sold to users by their creators, it means an almost infinite number of functions and design options are at your disposal.  

 

That makes WordPress a very flexible platform where much of the code can be modified to suit your needs.

 

Combine that with its simplicity of use, and it’s easy to see why the platform has become so popular in recent years; powering close to 30% of the internet.

 

WordPress users make 41.7 million new posts and 60.5 million new comments each month. Every six months, WordPress registers 1.1 million new domains. And there are currently more than 44,600 WordPress plugins available.

 

But the enormity, accessibility and simplicity of WordPress doesn’t come without a few conditions and concessions.  

 

Take those 44,600+ plugins for example. They’re available with little to no quality control. So in the unregulated landscape of WordPress, the mileage really can vary when it comes to user-created content.

 

The best way to know whether or not something like a plugin is worth your time, or worthy of your site, is to check its customer reviews. When 92% of consumers are trusting peer recommendations over advertising, it’s hard to argue against the fact that social media marketing is more important than ever.

 

In terms of SEO, selecting the right plugins can be crucial to your site’s success. SEO specific plugins like Yoast, All In One and The SEO Framework feature automated tools that can be very useful to users not well-versed in SEO techniques.

 

Even if you already have some SEO experience, there are less-general plugins that focus on particular SEO elements which can still be of use to your site.  

 

But there’s more to WordPress than just plugins that give it a leg up on a lot of its competition.

Rich snippets are structured data markups that can be added to a site’s HTML. Adding rich snippets to your WordPress site will give search engines a better understanding of precisely what information each page on your site contains; which results in improved rankings.

Search engines take into account the loading speed of a website. And because WordPress gives you the opportunity to choose your hosting, it gives you greater control when it comes to optimising your site’s load speed. Another factor that has a significant impact on search engine rankings.

 

WordPress also offers a caching plugin that creates static versions of your content and applies other techniques that achieve a higher load speed. Which will allow you to set your speed code according to Google’s PageSpeed recommendations.

 

Squarespace and SEO

Unlike WordPress, Squarespace is not an open source platform. Only their developers are able to build tools for your use.

 

While this limits the sheer number of available tools, it maintains a consistent level of quality across all their offerings.

 

Elements like plugins are well tested before they’re made available. And if you do encounter a problem with a particular tool, their support team should fully understand your question due to their familiarity with the product.

 

The compromise with Squarespace is flexibility.

 

While its drag-and-drop interface is easy to use, even if you have zero tech or design experience, Squarespace is less responsive than WordPress.

 

On the other hand, Squarespace’s drag-and-drop model lets you see what your finished site will look like in real time as you’re building it. Unlike WordPress where pages need to be previewed or published before you can see how they’ll ultimately look. With Squarespace, your every move is automatically saved and shown to you in its ‘live’ version.

Squarespace does lack many of the SEO tools present inside WordPress. There are no SEO plugins. So you’re limited to captions, descriptions and extracts visible on the page for search engine rankings.

 

Rich snippets cannot be used directly. They can only be used through Google’s Data Highlighter tool. Which undoes some of the platforms surface convenience.

 

Sites created with Squarespace can only be hosted through Squarespace’s shared hosting service. So your hands are a bit tied when it comes to increasing the speed of your website loading; code cannot be adjusted to search engine requirements.

 

But there are benefits to Squarespace that search engines do value.

 

With Squarespace, you can generate the sitemap XML file. Or use the clear HTML markup.

 

Squarespace is an incredibly mobile-friendly platform. The importance of which in today’s climate cannot be denied.

 

With Squarespace, you can create the SSL version of your website; creating the kind of secure HTTPS website that search engines adore. You can also register your web page with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to show search engines that you exist and offer the valuable content.

 

It’s hard to pick a “winner”. And there’s no one platform we can recommend over another. Because user needs and experience levels can vary wildly.

 

If you’re a beginner that can’t be bothered with plugins and prefer simplicity, Squarespace can still earn you positive SEO gains through high-quality content, smart use of keywords and attractive SEO titles.

 

But if you’ve got a little experience, or are patient and willing to learn, the advanced tools available through WordPress truly set the sky as the limit when it comes to SEO for your new website.

 

Article first published here: What’s best for SEO: Squarespace or WordPress?

Why social media marketing is more important than ever

In what feels like the blink of an eye, social media marketing has gone from being “just another marketing tool” to being one of our most crucial marketing tools when it comes to ranking results on search engines like Google.

These days, it’s hard to achieve much without social. And its relevance, significance, and influence is only going to get larger as time goes by.

Need a reason why social media marketing is here for the long haul? Here’s five.

 

The potential of social media marketing is still being discovered

 

The longer social is around, and the more we use it, the more we’re discovering its cache of benefits. And that’s part of the medium’s relentless popularity; that one-two punch that provides access to a wider base of users and a broader base of marketing tools to help you achieve outstanding results.

In the past, social was viewed as something you might use to accessorize your approach to market positioning and search engine rankings. Today it’s the main event attraction. And its full potential is still being unlocked.

Social gives you an already developed audience It gives you the ability to target specific customer categories. Learn to use it the right way, and it becomes one of the most effective weapons in your marketing arsenal.

 

Social media marketing gives you better positioning in the market

 

Without a presence on social media, it’s almost like your business doesn’t exist. It’s more than an advertising tool. It’s the apparatus by which you’re able to improve and influence your overall positioning with the target market.  

Social provides a massive audience to draw potential customers from. But allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the users most likely to be interested in buying what you’re selling.

Go global. Advertise locally. It’s a platform with near endless possibilities.

Social networks let you use a variety of post-types too. From video clips to blog posts or short, sharp advertising lines – there’s something available to attract the attention of different users.

And on top of using to social to create and build a reputation for you or your brand, it’s a useful tool for education and driving traffic directly to your website. Which will help improve your positioning on search engines and increase conversions.

 

Community influence is an important branding factor

 

Word-of-mouth has always had a persuasive impact. And now that social provides everyone with a pulpit to preach from, word-of-mouth is more powerful now than ever before. According to Linkedin, 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations over advertising.

Good and bad experiences alike are shared via social networks. And because the world is now connected through social, news spreads like wildfire.

When reports are positive, it often results in new leads. And an attractive offer on your part can convert those new leads into new customers.  

There’s also the effect sharing can have on your business. When your content is engaging, whether that be words or images, it increases the likelihood that it will be shared by social media users who encounter it.

When your content gets shared on social networks, it improves your digital reputation, multiplies the effects of your marketing efforts and earns you new customers. That all leads to bigger profits and better returns on your investment.

 

Expanding your customer base through social media marketing

 

It’s not just the cool kids anymore. Everyone uses social media today. And most people are active with profiles on several different social networks simultaneously. So the ability to reach even the smallest group of total social media users is still astonishing compared to what was possible in the days before social.

This is not a fact wasted on different social media platforms either. They’re well aware of their own promise. That’s why many have developed their own marketing tools that can help grow your customer base.

You have to reach people before you can influence them. And tools that allow you to target relevant users with pinpoint accuracy, combined with new features like “live video,” allow you to publish quality content that accomplishes both quickly and at a fraction of traditional marketing costs.

 

Social media marketing achieves better ranking on search engines

 

If the proliferation of viral content has taught us anything, it’s that offering users quality content can result in a much broader customer base. Create a piece of content that goes viral, and you’ll see traffic to your website go up. And your search engine ranking results increase.   

Publishing quality, credible content is the best way to attract attention to your brand or business. Followers are apt to share content they find entertaining, informative or appealing with their friends and social network connections. Which will only increase your popularity and bolster your online presence. Quality content helps define your authority and appeals to the ranking factors that drive search engine results.

When users like your content and share it across the different social networks, it will gain you new followers, drive more organic traffic to your website, and increase the popularity of your channels.

As traffic grows and you continue to gain followers, visitors and customers, your ranking goes up. And as your ranking goes up, traffic increases and you gain more followers, visitors and customers. It’s a cycle.

And that cycle is in large part driven by content.

Social media marketing is more important than ever.

It’s an inexpensive means of achieving incredible reach. Which leads to engagement and causes conversions. It’s an effective way to generate brand awareness and drive more traffic to your site; ultimately converting consumers into passionate brand advocates.

These days, the customer journey more often than not begins online. And social media networks are among the most popular destinations for internet users today who now spend, on average, 135 minutes a day interacting on social platforms.

That’s up from 90 minutes a day just five years ago. And as this trend continues to move in this upward direction, making social media marketing part of your overall marketing mix will become more than just increasingly valuable. It will become downright essential.   

Article first published here: Why social media marketing is more important than ever