5 Top White Hat SEO Tactics To Use In 2022 And Beyond

Google changes its search algorithms at least 500 times a year or at least 2x a day. Some of their updates may have a minor impact on a website’s ranking, but there are major changes that can significantly alter the SEO landscape.

This is why it’s important that you keep yourself updated with the latest Google search algorithms to ensure that you know which search engine optimization techniques to continue using and which ones to retire.

SEO tactics you need to stop using in 2022

The following SEO techniques are outdated and are no longer serve their purpose.

1. Using PBNs

Backlinks have always been one of the most important factors that Google and other search engines look into when it comes to ranking websites. A lot of marketers believe that the more backlinks you have, the higher you will rank in search results pages. Black hat SEO has taken advantage of this but in a less reputable way.

Black hat SEO uses PBN or Private Blog Network to generate backlinks. PBNs have a network of inactive domains with existing link juice in them. They use these domains to link to your website to increase your backlinks. While this technique works, they are not guaranteed to work for a long time because Google is highly like to catch up on them. When they do, sites that use PBN will lose points and fall back on their rankings.

2. Using low-quality backlinks

Ten years ago, SEO professionals tried to acquire as many backlinks as possible to cheat Google’s page ranking algorithms. While more backlinks mean higher page rank, that’s not what’s going to happen if you use low-quality links. This is just like using PBNs.

Nowadays, Google puts more emphasis on high-quality backlinks from high-authority sites over links from spammy sites. Aside from that, you can also get penalized and your web pages removed from search indexes if you’re caught using low-quality links.

3. Optimizing only for desktop

Nowadays, more than half of the world’s website traffic comes from mobile devices. In 2016, Google announced that it’s moving away from desktop-first indexing and has since fully transitioned to a mobile-first approach. This means that Google and other search engines use a web page’s mobile version to index and rank websites in search results. In other words, to rank high in search results pages and get more organic traffic and boost your sales, make sure you optimize for both mobile and desktop.

White hat SEO tactics to continue using in 2022 and beyond

Aside from knowing what white hat SEO tactics work best nowadays, it’s also important to fully understand how to make them work to improve your optimization strategy.

Here are the best white hat SEO techniques you must use in 2022, and how to do them right.

1. Ensure all content are of top-quality

Now, more than ever, the fact that content is king in the SEO world cannot be emphasized enough. A website’s content is, was, and always will be the most important ranking factor that search engines look into. It’s imperative to note though that quality content isn’t just about writing relevant content. Google and other search engines have a few criteria for what makes content great.

• Topic
• Length
• Keywords distribution
• Backlinks
• Age

The best content is relevant, well-researched, and appropriately long. This is why it’s important to plan your content. You need to ensure that your content offers valuable information to readers. It should also be interesting and engaging. More importantly, it must authoritative enough to draw backlinks, which are a huge ranking factor.

2. Match user intent

This is an important technique because everything you do online must be geared towards user intent, which tells you what your target audience is looking for. However, understanding what the searcher’s intentions are is not a walk in the park. It will feel like going into a user’s head and dissecting all the information that they are offering to fully understand what they are trying to say. Identifying every user’s intent may be hard but it is extremely important to be able to create content according to their wants and needs.

The first thing you need to identify user intent is to look into your site – where does it belong in the customer journey? Are users trying to make a purchase now? Or are they just looking to be informed or to be convinced? By answering such questions, you’ll be able to develop your site in a way that meets user intent.

3. Use a mobile-first approach

Keep up with the competition by using a mobile-first approach. As mentioned above, Google has emphasized mobile search results since 2016. This means that your pages must be easily accessible to mobile users to rank higher in search engines. You can check your site using Google’s mobile-friendly test app to know the changes you need to make in terms of design.

When it comes to mobile-first design, content is still key. Because of the space restrictions on smaller screens, web designers must make sure that the most important elements of every content are prominently displayed to ensure that users will easily find them.

4. Prioritize local search results

Prioritizing local search results is another way to match user intent. Users who look for establishments or sellers nearby only want search results that are relevant to them. Research shows that an estimated 82% of smartphone users have made “near me” searches.

In other words, prioritizing local search results makes your website more visible. One way to do this is to claim your Google My Business (GMB) page. When claimed, a GMB appears in a separate box above or in the middle of other search results, which are collectively referred to as the Map Pack. This shows users your business’ physical location, contact information, opening hours, and website links. Through the Map Pack, users are able to easily find important information on a business they may be looking for, which ultimately improves user experience.

5. Make keyword research on top of your list

Keyword research ensures that you are using the right terms appropriately and with consideration for user intent. The point of using keywords is to use them all naturally and make sure that they fit the articles into which they are being injected to. This is where keyword research tools come in handy.

Ahrefs, SEMRush, and other SEO analyzing tools will help you take a look at how keywords are being used and track their effectiveness in certain niches.

Final thoughts

There are lots of other white hat SEO techniques that you should be using starting now. By doing so, you’ll be able to future-proof your digital marketing strategy and keep your business afloat for a long time.