White Hat SEO:The Definitive Guide

Last updated Nov. 14, 2023

This is a complete guide to white hat SEO.

So if you want to rocket your site to Google’s first page (without breaking the rules), you’ll love the strategies and tips in this guide.

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

About The Author

Hey, it’s Brian Dean.

When I launched my first website back in 2010, I used 100% black hat SEO.

Keyword stuffing.

Shady links.

And strategies that were designed to “trick” Google.

Even though these shady tactics worked temporarily… they didn’t last.

That’s why I eventually switched over to a white hat SEO approach.

(In other words, Google-approved SEO strategies)

And it worked!

Today, thanks to the strategies in this guide, my site ranks on Google’s first page for thousands of different keywords, including competitive ones like, “keyword research tools”:

And now it’s time for me to share these strategies with you.

1. Keyword Research

2. Amazing Content

3. On-Page SEO

4. Link Building

5. Technical SEO

6. Case Studies

Chapter 1:Keyword Research

In this chapter you’ll learn exactly how to find keywords that your customers search for every day.

Specifically, I’ll walk you through 5 proven keywords strategies that I personally use to find keywords.

Let’s kick things off with our first strategy…

Find Awesome Long Tail Keywords With Google Suggest

This couldn’t be simpler:

Just type in a keyword that you want to rank for…

…and jot down the keywords that Google suggests.

Why is this important?

Well, most people struggle with SEO because they target keywords that are too competitive.

(I can’t tell you how many people email me saying: “I want to rank #1 in Google for ‘weight loss’.” #facepalm)

That’s why Google Suggest is so darn powerful:

These suggested keywords are “long tail keywords” that aren’t insanely competitive.

But because Google is suggesting them, you know that people actually search for them.

Copy Competitors’ Keywords

Honestly, this is my go-to keyword research strategy right now.

You can easily spend HOURS hunting around for the right keyword.

Or you can just steal the exact keywords that your competition is targeting.

Here’s how it works:

First, find a competing site that’s doing really well with its SEO.

Then, pop that site into a keyword research tool like SEMrush.

Bam! You get a list of the exact keywords that the site already ranks for.

Online Communities

This strategy is simple:

First, head over to an online community where your audience hangs out, like Reddit.

Then, pay attention to the words and phrases people use over and over again.

(Especially when asking questions)

These questions make GREAT keywords.

If you want to automate this process, check out Answer The Public.

It’s a free tool that analyzes the web for questions that people ask around your topic.

Google Search Console

Here’s one of my favorite ways to find new keywords.

First, head over to the “Performance Report” in the new Google Search Console.

Google Search Console – Performance Report

By default, you’ll see keywords sorted by number of clicks.

The thing is:

These are keywords that you already get traffic from. So sorting by clicks isn’t super helpful.

Instead, sort the queries by “impressions”:

Google Search Console – Sort by impressions

And take note of any keywords that you could create a great piece of content around.

Why?

Well, if you already “accidentally” rank for this keyword…

…imagine how easily you could rank if you actually tried!

Speaking of ranking with content, that’s what the next chapter is all about.

Chapter 2:Amazing Content

When it comes to search engine optimization, content is EVERYTHING.

In fact, when you consistently publish great content on your site, you’re well on your way to the top of Google’s first page.

Fortunately, publishing amazing content isn’t as hard as it sounds.

All you need to do is make sure that every piece of content that you publish has the three features I’ll outline below:

Feature #1: Long, In-Depth Content

If you want to rank higher on Google, you need to STOP publishing generic, “me too” content.

(Like: “5 Tips for X” or “7 Reasons to Start Y”).

Why?

A recent study of search engine ranking factors found a strong correlation between in-depth content and rankings:

In other words:

Content that ranks well today covers an entire topic on one page.

For example:

Earlier this year I found a keyword that I wanted to rank for: “Mobile SEO”.

Instead of a generic list post, I created a massive 4,000+ word guide:

And because my guide shows you EVERYTHING you need to know about mobile optimization, it very quickly climbed up to the top 3 in Google:

Feature #2: Satisfies User Intent

Thanks to an AI technology called Google RankBrain, Google can measure whether or not searchers are satisfied with a particular set of search results.

In other words:

If your content gives searchers what they want, Google will rank you higher.

For example, check out this piece of content that I first published a few years back: 21 Actionable SEO Techniques That Work GREAT.

My primary keyword for that page is: “SEO Techniques”.

So before I wrote a single word, I asked myself:

“What would someone searching for this keyword want to read?”.

In this case, the answer was pretty obvious: they want to get a list of no-nonsense SEO methods.

So I didn’t start my content off with a lots of background information. Instead, after a very short intro, my post dives right into tip #1:

And because my result makes people happy, Google WANTS to show it to more people.

(Which means more website traffic for me!)

Feature #3: Great User Experience and Readability

Like I just mentioned, Google closely tracks how people interact with your site.

Specifically, Google pays VERY close attention to one thing:

The amount of time that people stay on your page.

If Google notices that people leave your site after a few seconds, you can expect a rankings drop.

(Want to see a real-life example of this happening to my site? Check out the video below)

So: how do you keep searchers on your site longer?

Here are two simple tips that work great:

First, write an introduction that gets straight to the point.

For example, check out the brief intro from this post on my blog about SEO tools:

Next, make sure your content is SUPER easy to read.

That means…

Big font (15px+):

Lots of subheadings:

And short paragraphs (1-2 sentences MAX):

Now that you’ve published a piece of awesome content, it’s time for chapter 3.

That’s where you’ll learn how to keyword-optimize your content.

Chapter 3:On-Page SEO

Here’s the deal:

There’s a lot more to on-page SEO than just “optimizing your meta tags”.

And in this chapter I’ll show you four of my favorite on-page SEO strategies.

So if you’ve ever wondered: “How do I actually use keywords in my content?”, you’ll LOVE the tactics and case studies in this chapter.

Strategy #1: Descriptive URLs

Google uses your page’s URL to understand what your content is about:

That’s why you want your URLs to be:

Short
Keyword-rich

For example, my target keyword for this blog post is “ecommerce SEO”:

So I made the URL for that webpage: /ecommerce-seo:

Simple.

Strategy #2: Internal Links

Why is internal linking important?

Two reasons:

First, these internal links help Google understand your content better.

How? Google looks at the anchor text that you use in your internal links.

In other words:

Keyword-rich anchor text helps Google understand the topic of the page that you’re linking to.

For example, this internal link helps Google understand that the page I’m linking to is about “RankBrain”:

Second, internal links send link authority to pages that need it, which can give them a rankings boost.

Strategy #3: Use Keywords Strategically

In the old days of SEO, you could rank your site using a black hat technique known as “keyword stuffing”.

(This meant cramming keywords into your content 1000 times)

Today, search engines are MUCH more sophisticated.

Which means that keyword stuffing doesn’t work anymore.

What does?

Using your target keyword (and close variations of that term) a handful of times on your page.

Like in your title tag:

The beginning of your content:

And in H1 or H2 tag:

Strategy #4: Optimize Images With Alt Tags

Remember:

Google, Bing and other search engines can’t “see” your images.

Instead, they rely on the text they see in “alt tags”.

And when you optimize your images using descriptive alt tags, Google can get a full grasp of your content’s overall topic.

(Which can help it rank for more keywords)

For example, check out this image from my post about getting more traffic to your website:

What does that image show? An increase in traffic.

So I made my alt text for that image: “increase in traffic”.

Who said SEO had to be complicated 🙂

Chapter 4:Link Building

There’s no doubt about it:

If you want to rank your site to the top of Google’s search results, you need backlinks.

(And lots of ‘em)

The question is:

How do you build backlinks to your site WITHOUT resorting to black hat link building strategies?

It’s simple, actually: just stick to the four white hat link building strategies in this chapter.

Strategy #1: The Skyscraper Technique

The Skyscraper Technique is as white hat as it gets.

First, you evaluate Google’s first page for content that’s already ranking well.

Next, you figure out what that content has in common.

Finally, you write a post that’s similar to what you just found… but WAY better.

For example:

A while back, I wanted to create something around the topic of: “how to optimize videos”.

So I did a search for terms like “video SEO”:

And I analyzed each piece of content that was ranking in the SERPs.

(By the way, SERP = Search Engine Results Page)

Anyway:

I noticed that most of the content I found were list posts and guides.

To me, a guide made the most sense for this keyword. So I went with that.

Specifically, I wrote a guide that CRUSHED the other guides about video SEO:

And because my content deserves to rank on Google’s first page, it now ranks in the top 3 for my target keyword:

Strategy #2: Broken Link Building

This is one of my favorite white hat SEO tactics.

Here’s how it works:

First, find a page on the web that you’d like to get a link from.

Next, use a tool like Check My Links to scan the page for broken links.

Lastly, let the person that runs the site that their page has a broken link:

(And if you have a page on your site that could replace the broken link, suggest that they replace that content with the dead link)

Strategy #3: Industry Studies and Original Research

This strategy definitely takes some work.

But when done right, an industry study can land you LOTS of backlinks.

For example, earlier this year we published a study about ranking signals that impact voice search SEO.

Even though this content is only a few months old, it’s already racked up an impressive 521 backlinks.

Strategy #4: Guest Posting

When it comes to guest posting, you have two options:

You can write guest posts for any site that will publish your content (even if the site isn’t remotely related to yours).

You can publish guest posts on authority sites in your niche.

And make no mistake:

When it comes to SEO, these two approaches are VERY different.

In fact, Google considers spammy guest blogging a “link scheme” that can get your site penalized:

In my case, I ONLY write guest posts for sites in my niche, like this one that I wrote for the Buffer blog:

And I recommend you do the same.

Chapter 5:Technical SEO

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

Technical SEO can make or break your entire site’s SEO efforts.

Really.

Fortunately, thanks to lots of helpful tools, you don’t need to be a coder to master technical SEO.

And in this chapter I’ll show you four of the most important technical SEO best practices:

Speed Up Loading Time

Google is usually secretive about the factors that go into their algorithm.

But there’s one factor they’re not shy about:

The importance of your site’s loading speed.

So:

How do you know if your site is fast enough?

First, use a Google tool called PageSpeed Insights.

If you have bloated code or huge images slowing down your page, this tool will tell you about it:

If you want to dig deeper, try WebPageTest:

Unlike Google’s PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest gives you A LOT of details on your site’s performance…

…and hooks you up with actionable things you can do to reduce your site’s loading time.

Use a Smart Site Architecture

When your site is brand new with only a few pages, your site architecture doesn’t matter that much.

But as your site grows, your architecture becomes REALLY important.

What do I mean by “site architecture”, exactly?

It’s how the pages on your site are organized and arranged.

The goal is to keep your architecture “flat”. That way, it only takes 3-4 clicks to go from one page to any other page on your site.

Why is this important?

Flat architecture helps link authority “flow” from one page to another… which can improve the search rankings for every page on your site.

Fix Errors

Next, use the uber-helpful Google Search Console to find errors and problems with your site’s technical SEO.

Just head over to the “Index coverage report”.

And see if Google has trouble finding your important pages (which can happen if you blocked Googlebot by mistake).

As you can see, everything is A-OK for me.

But if you do run across errors, I recommend checking out Chapter 2 of my guide to the Google Search Console, which breaks down errors that you might run into.