6 White Hat SEO Strategies You Should Abandon Now

As you may know, black hat SEO strategies are something that you should avoid at all cost. Whilst they can provide you with results faster than when using white hat SEO strategies, the results they offer are rather short-lived. What’s more, they can put you at risk of receiving harsh penalties from Google. 

Indeed, black hat SEO is bad news. This is why you should stick to only white hat strategies when optimising your website for search engines. But did you know that there are white hat SEO strategies that can hurt your search rankings, too? 

White Hat SEO You Should Avoid

The following white hat SEO strategies are not illegal by any means. The reason why they can hurt you is that they are outdated and often too simple and easy to produce any substantial long-term results. If you want your SEO campaign to succeed, you must abandon these strategies forever: 

1. Using the same SEO strategy over and over again

Most businesses that own multiple websites often use the same SEO strategy for everything. This is fairly understandable since using the same strategy across all websites is convenient and less time-consuming. However, just because it’s easy and convenient, it doesn’t mean that it’s the best. Whilst this strategy can give you good results at first, your websites could become stagnant later on. 

Instead of using a “one-size-fits-all” SEO strategy for all the websites you own, what you should do is identify the unique ways you can provide value to the audience of each website. If you run out of ideas, research your competitor’s strategy and look for any gap that you can take advantage of.  

2. Blaming algorithm updates for the decline in your performance

Google’s algorithm updates can cause your search rankings and organic traffic to drop. However, performance drops can occur for a variety of reasons. More of than not, they are caused by technical issues found on your site. 

If you suffered a performance drop and you want to determine if it’s caused by an algorithm update or a technical issue, here’s what you can do:

a. Open Google Search Console and check the coverage report.
b. Check for structural changes and crawl traps on your site by running a Screaming Frog or Sitebulb crawl.
c. Look for any hidden errors through automated auditing.
d. Check robots.txt for new disallow directives.
e. Find out how Google renders your site by running a fetch and render. 

3. Using the same text for your location pages

Whilst you may be tempted to use the same copy for your location pages because it is fast and easy, many SEO experts like us are against such a strategy. Instead, it would be better to create a unique copy for each location page on your website. Not only does it provide you with better results when it comes to local SEO, but it also enables you to make your web pages more relevant to your target audience.

4. Using automated auditing tools

SEO professionals, particularly the beginners, tend to use automated tools when conducting SEO audits because it is convenient. However, the problem with automated tools is that they don’t “ask questions.” Asking questions is essential in running a successful SEO campaign because it allows you to create a holistic strategy designed specifically for your website.

Instead of using automated tools to audit your website, a good alternative is to use visualisation tools to analyse the structure of your website. Then, identify content gap opportunities and ensure that your website has a solid technical structure. When you have a good technical foundation, it will be easier for Google and other search engines to discover, crawl, and render your webpages. 

5. Paying for links

Paying for links is a great way to get a specific number of backlinks for your website every month. However, this method of link building (which is actually grey hat SEO, not white hat) doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get quality and relevant external links every time.
Instead of employing this strategy, what you can do is submit guest posts to authority websites to get quality backlinks. If you cannot create your own content, a good alternative is to invest in some PR partners and ask them to help you create excellent content that you can publish on popular and trustworthy websites. 

6. Being too afraid to ask questions

Instead of simply Googling the answer to some questions you might have about SEO, you can just reach out to us and ask for help. In fact, many SEO experts like us recommend this practice because it is a great way to discover SEO strategies that you don’t know. Because you cannot always count on Google to give you the solutions you need, you should talk to an actual SEO professional to learn something new and useful. 

Conclusion

Always remember that just because an SEO strategy is easy, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the best and most effective solution there is. As such, if you’re still using the tactics discussed above, it’s best to discard them now to ensure SEO success. success.

Having trouble with SEO? We can help. Contact Springhill Marketing today to get the latest SEO solutions that will take your website to the next level.