Google constantly updates its PageRank search algorithms, making it challenging to rank high on SERPs consistently. The updates impact how indexed websites are rewarded or penalised for their SEO performance. The only way to rank higher is to implement the best White Hat SEO techniques. Before diving into some useful White Hat SEO practices, let’s briefly look at what White Hat SEO is and how it affects e-commerce businesses’ rankings.
White Hat SEO 101
White Hat SEO is a term that refers to strategies in line with the terms and conditions of search engines like Google. The contemporary industry is big with SEO, which means you’ll find differing opinions on the most effective method of website optimisation. Experts at the top SEO agencies in Liverpool believe that the idea of the ‘best’ strategy is largely subjective because one thing that works for a certain brand in a particular industry might not suit another. The more important thing is knowing the difference between White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO.
What’s Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat SEO refers to unethical SEO techniques that are against the guidelines set by search engines. This could include publishing poor-quality content, keyword stuffing, and other deceptive shrouding techniques designed to deceive search engine crawlers.
Why Are White Hat SEO Techniques Crucial for E-commerce Businesses?
Failure to adhere to the rules set by search engines can get the website banned for life. Considering search engines like Google are visited by millions of users daily, each visit increases the probability of your site being discovered by a new visitor. Undoubtedly, Google is a powerful source of traffic for your e-commerce website, so being banned could result in a devastating drop in website traffic, business, and revenue.
What’s more, once you’re banned, there’s no guarantee that Google would ever re-list you. Black Hat SEO tactics also put the users at the peril of being penalized. Therefore, e-commerce businesses targeting long-term benefits should only incorporate White Hat SEO techniques. Now let’s look at some top White Hat SEO techniques to help your e-commerce business rank higher.
White Hat SEO Tricks You Need to Implement for Your E-Commerce Business
#1- Increase the Mobile-First Approach
Taking a mobile-first approach will help your e-commerce business reach the target audience. Considering that most online viewers today use mobile devices, it’s crucial to create a responsive, mobile-optimised website.
Ensure that the mobile site loads quickly and all the details on the page load efficiently whenever opened on mobile devices. In today’s world, local and mobile searches are inter-linked, which is especially profitable for e-commerce businesses.
App advancement is another important part of advancing your e-commerce business digitally through mobile. Keeping a tab on Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a great way of assuring that a higher proportion of traffic comes to your mobile-optimised site.
#2- Fine-Tune the User Experience
After streamlining a website, the next step is to consider whether the users visiting the site or using the mobile app are satisfied with its functionality and interface. You need to make sure they don’t front any problems while browsing or making a purchase.
Try not to have any undesirable and disruptive pop-ups that limit the user from viewing or scrolling freely to explore the rest of the site. When people are satisfied with the UI offered by your web application or mobile site, they’ll suggest it to others. Eventually, this would help boost the website traffic for your e-commerce business.
#3- Focus on Keyword Research
Keyword research is undeniably one of the simplest forms of digital marketing. Plenty of tools are available online for discovering and choosing the right keywords for your website’s content. Google Analytics, Google search console, and similar tools are also helpful for learning what type of content drives more traffic to your website.
#4- Design a Unique Content Marketing Plan
According to an expert SEO agency in Liverpool, designing a unique content marketing plan is one of the most helpful White Hat SEO tools. Innovative content marketing plays a crucial role in producing impactful content and generating traffic that helps build authority.
It helps stimulate users’ interest to urge them to take an interest in your e-commerce brand’s offerings. Power content marketing is also beneficial for educating people regarding several aspects of your business offerings while helping your brand stand out from the crowd.
#5- Precise Link Building
Link building helps turn relatively more traffic to a website. However, it’s important to do it within limits and according to the guidelines set by the relevant search engine. Moreover, linking to authority pages can increase ranking, but extreme link building can sometimes be considered a Black Hat SEO practice.
White Hat SEO strategy involves uniting with owners of other websites to request them to add links that redirect their visitors to your site’s content. This could be achieved through email outreach or guest blogging on high-domain authority sites.
#6- Image Search Optimisation
Images with proper titles and ALT meta tags hold plenty of power in terms of boosting White Hat SEO. Not only does it improve rankings on SERPs, but the meta descriptions also emerge in place of the images when they fail to load on the website. Use high-volume keywords organically to improve the web pages’ visibility significantly.
#7- Inbound Linking
Adding quality links takes commitment and time, but the great impact on SERPs ranking and improved overall website traffic make using inbound links a well-deserving effort. They help the readers access relevant information to understand the website better without any hassle. Internal links also boost the rankings of pages linked by sending linking authority to the pages. This ultimately helps search engines index the website more efficiently.
#8- Maintain Robust Local GMB Listing
Producing locally relevant SERPs is another way the search engine algorithms try to meet user intents. Most users viewing restaurants, businesses, and outdoor fun things they can enjoy don’t like to browse search results that are thousands of miles away! Prioritise regional searchers to become the prominent fish in the small pond. It helps e-commerce websites become much more relevant and profitable.
Claiming the Google My Business (GMB) page for your e-commerce brand is the best way to reap the benefits of these searches. When insisted, the GMBs arrive in a specially dedicated box known as the Map Pack, which appears before other search results. Users can conveniently find useful information such as the company’s phone number, physical location, prices, reviews, and website URL.
Be Future-Proof with Robust White Hat SEO Strategies by Top Liverpool SEO Agencies
Most of the White Hat SEO strategies are future-proof as opposed to the Black Hat SEO tactics that are likely to get exposed in the long run. Even if the search engines currently don’t know exactly how they work, they’ll eventually crack the code based on search results that make little sense. Relevant links, keywords, content, site map, and the best Schema markups, GMBs, and mobile-first approach help build enduring and reliable progress.
About the Author
Lauren works with an SEO agency in Liverpool. They’re a regular contributor at Search Berg and write about various things, including copywriting, SEO, reputation management, and ways to keep up with White Hat SEO strategies for businesses in different sectors. The content aims to provide people with effective ways to expand their reach and cut through their digital competition in Liverpool.
