White hat Link building is a widely used SEO technique that can help a website rank higher in the search results. Search engines use these links to determine a website’s relevancy and authority. So, sites with more links are considered superior. Not only this, links also play a key role in helping the users and search engine crawlers find a website’s content.
However, while building links for a website, one question remains and it’s what is the right way to do it. This is how the concept of white hat link-building was born. Many started to manipulate the search engine rankings and get their website to appear more authoritative than they actually are. Sounds appealing, but these practices bring severe penalties by Google, and if you don’t want to land in trouble, you better focus on white hat link-building. Wondering how it’s done? Well, that’s what we are here for!
In this blog post, we are covering:
- What is white hat link building?
- What are white hat link-building practices?
- White hat vs Black hat SEO?
Let’s begin!
What is White Hat Link Building?
White hat link building is a search engine optimization technique of gaining backlinks through means of strategies that comply with Google’s guidelines. It is considered the safest way to build the authority of your website since the practices involved in this way do not generate any Google penalties.
Though it’s a slower way of building the links, it is greatly helpful in nurturing long-term results.
However, marketers feel that outreach, to some extent, is necessary.
So, what do we understand from this?
We believe the link should be considered white hat if they are used like this:
- When a website owner accepts your request to post your content as it will benefit their audiences
- When someone naturally discovers your content and links to it
- When website owners believe their audience will show interest in your guest post pitch and agree to share it on their website
In all the above cases the goal is to satisfy the user so until your content is helpful and user centric, you don’t need to worry.
Gray Hat vs. Black Hat vs. White Hat Links
White, grey, and black hat link building are different ways of gaining backlinks. While white hat link practices are strictly based on Google’s guidelines and black hat strategies are focussed on exploiting the loopholes, grey hat techniques act as a fine line between them.
| Black Hat link | Grey hat link | White hat link |
|---|---|---|
| Explicitly against Google guidelines | Involves practices that are not purely spammy but also not white hat at the same time | Focuses on generating links on high-quality and credible websites |
| It employs practices like using Private Blog Networks (PBNs), link farms, or automatically generating comment links | It uses practices like reaching out to websites and requesting them to link to your site. | Employs practices like Digital PR, high-quality guest posting, promoting linkable assets, etc. |
| Practices can still work in the short term | Practices work most of the time | Works best in the long term |
| Ineffective with betterment in search engines | Hard for Google to identify between grey hat and white hat optimization | Google will view your website favourably and is likely to reward you with higher search rankings |
| Risk of a manual penalty | Useful until you understand you are not risking something big like content quality. | No impact on your rankings with changing algorithms |
How to do White Hat Link Building?
There are several ways you can get highly authoritative sites to add hyperlinks pointing to your content.
1. Use Statistics (Digital PR)
Blog writers, students, new article writers, etc, often include stats to back up their content. It’s a widely used practice. You can leverage this aspect to get more backlinks.
All you have to do is conduct a survey to find the relevant stats of your niche and post them on your website. This way websites would add your content’s link their site. It’s easier than getting backlinks from cold email outreach. It will also make you sound less salesy and more helpful.
Just make sure the data you share is original and related to what your business does. For example, if you are a digital marketing company. You can share stats on the number of sales that took place in 2024, etc.
This technique will work as an incredible asset for raising your brand’s authoritativeness.
Surveys, stats or data studies are the type of digital PR strategy, which Google recognizes as one of the effective white hat link-building techniques.
2. Guest Posting
Have you ever heard of “Link baiting?” It’s a very useful strategy to attract backlinks.
In simple terms, link baiting is the process of creating content with the goal of getting people to link to it or share it. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. Content marketing includes finding what works for you, choosing content formats like whether you want to create ultimate guides, detailed case studies, etc., and so much more. With guest posting, you can captivate your audience, encourage sharing, and attract valuable backlinks. This can lead to increased organic traffic, improved search engine rankings, and enhanced brand awareness.
You’ll need a dedicated team to work on promoting your content. Kinex Media is a 15-year-old digital marketing agency. With so much experience, we can efficiently increase your backlinks in a short time span.
3. Link Reclamation or Link Repurposing.
In this technique we are going to look at where our competitors got links and persuade those websites to link to us instead. To go ahead with this technique you will first need to find some old articles with a lot of backlinks and then find out who is linking to them using tools like Ubersuggest or Ahrefs. Then, send an email pitch asking them to link to your article instead as it has up-to-date content in it.
Here is an example of a pitch you can write to them:
Hey Team Infoloid,
This article piece that you wrote has some outdated advice in it as it has recommendations that do not work anymore. We wrote a guide on how to …………… Would you mind linking to it in your article.
I can also provide you with the content if it would save time.
Regards,
Grace
5. Build Links to a Resource Page
Resource page link building is a way to get your website noticed by search engines. You do this by finding websites that list helpful resources on a specific topic. Then, you ask the website owner to add a link to your website on their page. This helps your website rank higher in search engine results and attract more visitors.
Here are the steps for it:
- You first have to find resource pages. You can do it using search engines like Google to find resource pages. Use search terms like “keyword inurl:resources” or “keyword best resources.”
- Now, check for broken links. Look for broken links on these resource pages.
- Offer Your Resource. If you have a high-quality resource on the same topic, offer to replace the broken link with a link to your content.
- Reach Out to the Website Owner. Contact the website owner politely and explain why your resource is a good fit.
Why Resource Page Link Building is Beneficial
- Backlinks from authoritative websites can boost your website’s ranking in search engine results.
- More visibility in search engines leads to more visitors to your website.
- Backlinks from reputable websites can improve your website’s credibility and authority.
- Reaching out to website owners can help you build valuable relationships within your industry.
6. Fix broken links
When a website link is broken, it leads to nowhere. By fixing these broken links and offering your website as a replacement, you can get a backlink (a link from another website to yours), which helps your website rank higher in search engine results.
Simple steps to fix broken links
- Use a tool to find websites with broken links.
- Make sure the broken link is on a topic related to your website.
- If you don’t have content that fits, create something new.
- Now, reach out to the website owner.
- Politely contact the website owner and offer your content as a replacement for the broken link.
A backlink from a reputable website can boost your website’s search engine ranking. More backlinks can lead to more visitors to your website.
7. HARO
HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a valuable tool that can help you acquire high-quality backlinks. You can position yourself as an expert source for the journalists by offering valuable insights in exchange for a link back to your website. The more authority the website has, the more it will be advantageous for you. The high authority journalism publications include Forbes, Business Insider, and The New York Times.
8. Brand Mentions
Brand mentions are really great but what if they don’t link? That would be all in vain. Even John Mueller said in a Google Office Hour episode. So, you should really work hard on turning unlinked brand mentions into backlinks.
According to uSERP’s 2024 State of Backlinks Report, unlinked mentions are the fourth most commonly used link-building tactic (tied with link insertions and link exchanges).
Here are some simple steps you can use to turn your unlinked brand mentions into backlinks:
a. Find the mentions. You can simply do it on Google. Just perform a Google search in your brand name, to prevent the results from coming from your own website; go to Google, enter your brand name and search modifier -site.com.
Pro-tip: Set up alerts to be notified when new unlinked brand mentions appear.
b. Contact the author of the article and ask them to add a link to your website. When reaching out, personalise your email pitch and offer added value.
9. Local Business Listings
Did you know that listing your business on popular local directories like Google My Business and Yelp can automatically provide backlinks to your website?
Let’s see how that works!
When you list your business on Google My Business, you have to provide business information, which also includes your website links. Now that directories are highly indexed by search engines, any link to your website from these will act as a “backlink.” This will signal to Google that you are a credible business and significantly boost your rankings in search results.
Start Using White Hat SEO Today!
If seeking long-term online success, then white hat SEO is the key. We can help your website organically in the most relevant results and optimize your lead funnel. With us, no changing Google algorithms will ever negatively impact your website’s online presence since we only use practices that are ethical and comply with Google’s guidelines.