The safest way to build links is according to the guidelines of Google which is white hat link building. The guidelines of Google are essential to follow for link-building to avoid the Google penalty.
Google loves links that are made by using the techniques of white hat link building. If you use these techniques Google will reward you by increasing the ranking of your page.
Most bloggers and writers find it difficult to do link building and generate white-hat links. Here is our guide to white hat link-building techniques that are the most effective ones. We tried these techniques and they helped us build backlinks from highly authoritative sites.
Before knowing the techniques of white hat link-building. Let’s have a short overview of the meaning and importance of white hat link building.
What is meant by White hat link-building
White hat link building is a strategy for search engine optimization. The ethical way of earning backlinks from relevant sites is known as white hat link building. The main focus of this strategy is the authority and visibility of your website.
The main conditions for white hat link building are the guidelines and regulations of Google. The techniques of white hat link-building include original and quality content, guest blogging, broken link-building, etc. We will discuss these techniques later on in this blog.
The importance of white hat link building is as follows;
- This helps you to enhance your website’s credibility.
- White hat link-building approach tells search engines that your website is trustworthy.
- By doing this, you will climb the ranking wall in search engine result pages.
- This adds value to your website.
- White hat link-building tells other companies about your company in their field. So, a chance for collaboration is created
Difference between White and Black hat SEO OR LINK BUILDING:
| WHITE HAT SEO/link-building | BLACK HAT SEO/link-building | |
| 1 | White hat SEO brings backlinks that are according to the guidelines of Google and other search engines. | Black hat SEO brings backlinks that aren’t according to the guidelines of Google and other search engines. |
| 2 | This improves the ranking of a page ethically or naturally. | This improves the ranking of a page unethically or unnaturally. |
| 3 | Focuses on original and quality content. | Focuses on duplicate content. |
| 4 | It involves necessary keyword placement in an article or blog. | It involves unnecessary keyword stuffing in an article or blog. |
| 5 | By using white hat link-building techniques, there is no chance of getting banned from Google. | By using black hat link-building techniques, there is a high risk of getting banned from Google. |
| 6 | Guest blogging, infographics, cold outreach, etc are techniques of white hat link building. | Cloaking, hidden links, keyword stuffing, etc are black hat link-building techniques. |
| 7 | White hat link-building has a positive impact on the online presence of your website on the internet. | Black hat link-building harms the online presence of your website on the internet. |
5 most effective white hat link building techniques
Techniques of white hat link building are essential to know because these techniques grow your website’s overall performance on the internet.
The most effective white link-building techniques that generate backlinks and are loved by Google are explained below
HARO
HARO (help a reporter out) is an important tactic of white hat link building. Through HARO, we can attract backlinks for high-authority websites. HARO was founded by Peter Shankman in 2008 and is a platform that connects journalists and bloggers.
In HARO, journalists and writers are seeking answers and stories related to their queries. We can get backlinks from websites by responding to their questions quickly. Using HARO to build white hat links rapidly is a good option for SEO professionals.
There are many advantages of HARO such as it gives experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness to your website. It builds brand awareness and referral traffic by getting backlinks for high-authority sites.
If you want to get backlinks using HARO, follow the following points;
- Give quick replies(usually within hours) to questions as it is highly competitive.
- Solve queries and write about those stories related to your own business.
- Be straightforward in your answer and don’t be so comprehensive in your answer.
- Try to give them quotable points that are easy to understand.
- Provide unique stuff to them and track the results of your answers over time.
To utilize the workings of HARO,u have to sign up to connectively first. After adding details of your and verifying your email, it asks you whether you are a journalist or an answer-giver. After choosing your profession it gives you queries related to your interest and keyword.
Here is an example of a user whose website is about eco-friendly products on Google. The primary keyword is eco-friendly products. By entering your keyword in the search bar HARO gives you queries related to your keyword such as;
GUEST BLOGGING
Guest blogging is an effective technique of white hat link building which is defined as the writing or publishing of articles or blogs for other websites.
Usually, guest bloggers write content that is relevant to their websites. The reason behind this is to get backlinks and attract traffic back to their website. Guest posting helps you drive traffic and audience to your websites, improve your SEO, build relationships with brands and companies, and grow your brand or company.
The question arises of how to start guest posting. Before you start guest blogging you have to keep in mind the following points.
- Set goals according to your specific niche.
- Select topics that benefit your brand or company.
- Search for opportunities and sites that hire guest bloggers.
- Write the post and link to your website’s content.
- Publish the post with the approval of the person who hires you.
- Stalk on the results of that website over time.
According to Meetanshi, 62.96% of people find more authentic blogs that are written by guest bloggers meaning multiple authors. There is a success story of Gregory Ciotti of Help Scout in the field of guest blogging who runs a customer service software company. Her website name is Help Scouts. By giving her content to reputable blogs and niches, she acquires backlinks which helps her to build authority and visibility of her website. Guest blogging is the real reason for the growth of the Help Scout website.
The amazing thing about guest posting is the amount of people you will meet through it. This means either in the comments of your posts or simply the relationship with the person owning the blog. Leo Widrich
Leo Widrich said that guest posting is not only about writing content for someone but we build relations with influencers, bloggers, and website owners through guest blogging. Building relations helps us to get backlinks from highly authoritative website.
DIGITAL PR
Digital PR stands for digital public relations. Digital PR’s role in SEO is to optimize the website and build the authority of a website. It builds the white hat links for your website by making public relations. This technique is a great way to acquire backlinks for authoritative websites.
In this white hat link-building strategy, you must create sensational and remarkable answers. Tell them information about the story of your answers to journalists and writers. When they find the story about your answer on your website they will give you a backlink automatically.
Digital PR builds relations with influencers, journalists, bloggers, and website owners to get backlinks from them in exchange for writing about their queries. Unlike traditional PR, digital PR builds relations online that benefit your website visibility and ranking.
You have to remember these points before you are going to do this whitehat link-building technique;
- Create original and quality answers and content that gives worthy insights to journalists.
- Do creative campaigns as it is a strategy to get brand awareness and encourage people to publish your content.
- Have an eye on the current events. Monitor the events and react to these events. Make your answers related to them.
- Use the term product PR in this white hat link-building technique. When a person clicks on your product link, a chance is generated that the clicker buys your product.
According to a case study, rankings of 597 first pages of an e-commerce brand increased in just 6 months using this white hat link-building technique that is digital PR.
INFOGRAPHICS
Infographics play a crucial role in white hat link-building tactics. We Have used and tried this strategy for years and it proves to be a great tactic for getting backlinks.
The term infographics is a combination of two words: info and graphics. Info means information and graphics are designed images and graphs. Infographics are the images that are designed by the editor or owner of the website. Infographics are placed on a website for the gaining of reader’s interest.
Many types of infographics are placed on a website related to the format and angle of the blog on a website. Types of infographics include
- Timeline infographics show the achievements or history of a specific keyword over time.
- Statistical infographics show stats of the title of the heading.
- Comparison infographics show the comparison between two or more terms.
- Process infographics show the process of making different items.
- List infographics show the list in your blog such as techniques or steps of something.
Each type of infographic has its specific purpose that is designed according to the angle of your blog.
How can we start designing an infographic? You will understand and learn by looking at the points below;
- You must have an idea of what type of infographic you are going to make.
- After having an idea for an infographic, overview the content of the blog post and the main headings you are going to add to that infographic.
- Designing your infographic is the next step in this process. If you have contact with a graphic designer call him, if you need help finding one by using Fiverr or Upwork. With advanced technology nowadays, you can do this work by using Canva. Canva is free to use and has so many templates in it.
- After designing your infographic, share it with different platforms to build links.
Here is an example of a statistical infographic showing results of popular link-building tactics in 2024 of responses to each tactic:
BROKEN LINK BUILDING
White hat link-building techniques include broken link-building. What are broken links? Broken links are the dead links found on a website. Broken link building is a process of finding dead links on a website. After finding these dead links you have to make contact with the website owner to replace these dead links with links to your working webpage.
How does a link break or become dead? This is due to reasons such as changes in URL, deleted webpage, or the website owner of that link deleting that content.
When you click on a broken link, a page opens that shows the 404 error or it is written that this webpage did not found like this:
Broken link building is beneficial in terms of SEO and uplifting the E-E-A-T of your website. Following are the points of how to do broken link building:
- Start finding websites that are relevant to your niche or website.
- Use tools such as Ahrefs and Moz to find broken links on that website.
- After having a list of broken links ensure that these links are pointing to content similar to what you have to offer.
- If you don’t have the content that has broken link points. Create that type of content that must be unique and provide additional insights or updates.
- Contact the website owners with broken links informing them about the broken links and offering your content as a replacement.
- Provide the URL of the replacement link and tell them why they should use the link in their content.
- Once you get a backlink, monitor that backlink regularly.
CONCLUSION
For long-term rewards, you have to do white hat link-building by applying these effective and helpful techniques. These techniques build the ranking, credibility, traffic, and authority of your website.
Black hat link building can be easier for some bloggers but these strategies are dangerous for your website. If you want the safest way to build links, white-hat link-building techniques are marvelous to use.
Don’t hesitate in applying these effective techniques to build your link building. Applying these techniques improves visibility and credibility of your website. For further help, feel free to contact us.
