White Hat SEO

The Definitive Guide

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This is a complete guide to white hat

SEO in 2019.

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.

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About the Author Share

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)

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4 / 96 And it worked! Share

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.
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 Contents

CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3

Keyword Research Amazing Content On-Page SEO

CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6

Link Building Technical SEO Case Studies
 Chapter 1

Keyword Research

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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…

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Find Awesome Long Tail Keywords Share

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.

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9 / 96 Why is this important? Share

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.

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Copy Competitors’ Keywords Share

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 their SEO.
Then, pop that site into a keyword research tool… like Ahrefs or
SEMRush.

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

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Online Communities Share

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. BACKLINKO.COM
12 / 96 (Especially when asking questions) Share

These questions make GREAT keywords.

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

Public.

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

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Google Search Console Share

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

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

Search Console.

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”: BACKLINKO.COM

15 / 96 Share

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. BACKLINKO.COM
 Chapter 2

Amazing Content

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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:

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Feature #1: Long, In-Depth Content Share

If you want to rank in 2019, 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:

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19 / 96 In other words: Share

Content that ranks well in 2019 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:

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20 / 96 And because my guide shows you EVERYTHING you need to Share
know about mobile optimization, it very quickly climbed up to the
top 3 in Google:

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Feature #2: Satisfies User Intent Share

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.

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 My primary keyword for that page is: “SEO Techniques”. So before
22 / 96 Share
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.
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(Which means more website traffic for me!)
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Feature #3: Great User Experience and Share

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.

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24 / 96 (Want to see a real-life example of this happening to my site? Share
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.

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25 / 96 For example, check out the brief intro from this post on my blog Share
about SEO tools:

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

That means…

Big font (15px+):

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Lots of subheadings:

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27 / 96 And short paragraphs (1-2 sentences MAX): Share

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

in 2019.

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 Chapter 3

On-Page SEO

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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.

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Strategy #1: Descriptive URLs Share

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

about:

That’s why you want your URLs to be:

1. Short
2. Keyword-rich

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31 / 96 For example, my target keyword for this blog post is “ecommerce Share
SEO”:

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

Simple.

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Strategy #2: Internal Links Share

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.

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33 / 96 For example, this internal link helps Google understand that the Share
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.

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Strategy #3: Use Keywords Share

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:

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36 / 96 The beginning of your content: Share

And in H1 or H2 tag:

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Strategy #4: Optimize Images With Alt Share

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:

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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

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 Chapter4

Link Building

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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 links 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.
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Strategy #1: The Skyscraper Technique Share

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.

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(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:

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43 / 96 Share

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44 / 96 And because my content deserves to rank on Google’s first page, Share
it now ranks in the top 3 for my target keyword:

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Strategy #2: Broken Link Building Share

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.

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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)

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Strategy #3: Industry Studies and Share

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.

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48 / 96 Even though this content is only a few months old, it’s already Share
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).

OR

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

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And I recommend you do the same.
 Chapter 5

Technical SEO

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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:

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Speed Up Loading Time Share

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.

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53 / 96 So: Share

How do you know if your site is fast enough?

First, use a Google tool called PageSpeed Insights.

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54 / 96 If you have bloated code or huge images slowing down your page, Share
this tool will tell you about it:

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55 / 96 If you want to dig deeper, try WebPageTest: Share

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56 / 96 Unlike Google’s PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest gives you A Share
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.

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Use a Smart Site Architecture Share

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.

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58 / 96 Why is this important? Share

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).

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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.

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Be Mobile Friendly Share

You might have heard that Google has largely moved to a

new “mobile-first index”:

Let me be the first to tell you:

This is a VERY big deal.

For the first time ever, Google considers the mobile version of
your site the only version that matters.

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61 / 96 That’s why it’s important to use a tool like the “Mobile-Friendly Share
Test” to make sure Google considers your site easy to use for
mobile searchers.

Now that your technical SEO is all good, it’s time for something
cool:

A bonus chapter where I walk you through a real life case study
of someone that used white hat SEO to rank #1 in Google for his
target keyword.

Keep reading…

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 Chapter 6

Case Studies

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In this chapter you’re going to see two

white hat SEO case studies.

First, you’re going to learn how Emil

rocketed his site to the #1 spot in
Google.

Then you’ll see how Richard boosted

his organic traffic by 348%… in 7 days.

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Case Study #1: How Emil Ranked #1 Share

Today you’re going to learn how Emil rocketed his site to the #1
spot in Google using ethical, white hat SEO.

(And a good amount of content marketing)

Let’s walk you through the specific steps that Emil used…

Step #1: Find an Awesome Keyword

Emil’s company sells snacks to offices.

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65 / 96 And didn’t take Emil long to figure out that VERY few people Share
searched for healthy office snacks.

For example, a keyword like “healthy office snack ideas” gets only
10 – 100 searches per month.

But here’s the interesting part:

Emil realized that people interested in healthy office snacks are

ALSO interested in the broad topic: “employee wellness”.

So he popped “employee wellness” into the Google Keyword

Planner…

…and voila! — he found this gem of a keyword:

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66 / 96 Step #2: Find Content That Already Ranks for That Share

Keyword

Once you’ve found a keyword, it’s time to get a feel for what’s
already out there…

…so you can destroy it.

(Yes, I let out an evil laugh when I wrote that)

So:

How do you find content that’s already done well?

A simple Google search.

Simply search for your target keyword (and a few closely-related

keywords), and see what comes up.

For example:

Emil Googled “employee wellness program ideas”, “wellness

programs” and “corporate wellness programs”:

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And he noticed a few trends in the results.

(Namely: most of the results were lists of program ideas, they

lacked visuals, and they didn’t provide any details of how to
actually implement each program)

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68 / 96 Step #3: Create Something That Deserves To Rank #1 Share

Here’s the truth:

First page rankings have NOTHING to do with “keeping your site

updated with fresh, quality content”.

Instead, your ability to hit the first page (and stay there long-
term) depends on ONE thing:

Creating something that deserves to rank #1.

Here’s how Emil did exactly that:

1: Emil’s post listed more wellness program ideas than any other
guide

Most of the content that Emil found only talked about 5-10
wellness program ideas:

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So Emil went crazy and listed a whopping 121 ideas (more on that
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70 / 96 2: Emil asked experts to contribute ideas Share

Emil’s company partners with dozens of healthy snack companies.

And Emil guessed that these health-obsessed offices would be

happy to share the wellness programs they used.

And he was right.

Emil got his team to ask their partners to send their best creative
ideas:

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71 / 96 And, as you can see, these partners were happy to lend a hand: Share

3: Emil split up his content into sections

Let’s face it:

Sifting through a huge amount of items on a list can be a real a

chore.

Despite that fact, many of the articles ranking in Google didn’t

organize their ideas into sections:

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That’s why Emil decided to organize his list of ideas into 7

categories:

Not only do these sections make Emil’s content easier to skim, but
they got him nifty sitelinks in Google:

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73 / 96 4: Emil added multimedia to make his content more visually Share
appealing

Like I mentioned earlier, most of the articles ranking on page 1 had

VERY few visuals, like images, charts, or videos:

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74 / 96 That’s why Emil peppered his post with eye-catching images… Share

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75 / 96 …and helpful videos: Share

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76 / 96 And after a few tweaks, Emil’s kick butt post was live: “121 Share
Employee Wellness Program Ideas For Your Office“.

Now that Emil’s post was live, it was time to celebrate right?

Wrong.

I probably don’t need to tell you that hitting “publish” is just the
beginning.

That’s why I want to show you the exact content promotion

strategies that Emil used to get the word out about his new guide.

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77 / 96 Step #4: Promote Your Epic Content Share

Here’s how Emil promoted (and built links) to his content.

Emil Used “Pre-Outreach”

Once Emil put the finishing touches on his post, he knew he had
something special.

That’s why he decided to promote his post…

…before he even published it.

(This is known as “Pre-Outreach”)

Here’s how it went down:

First, Emil found blogs that wrote about employee wellness. And
he sent them this message:

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78 / 96 Because he didn’t beg for a link or share, they were happy to hear Share
from him:

In fact, one of the people that Emil reached out to linked to him
later that day:

(And several people shared his blog post on social media)

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79 / 96 Emil Promoted With “The Content Roadshow” Share

Next, Emil promoted his content with “The Content Roadshow”.

Let me show you how The Content Roadshow works:

First, Emil searched for bloggers that wrote about employee

wellness, human resources and other related topics.

And when he found a piece of great content like this one…

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80 / 96 …he emailed the author: Share

In this case, Kristi asked Emil to submit his content to her roundup:

He did… and got a sweet backlink in return:

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81 / 96 Emil Emailed Brands Share

Next, Emil emailed the other companies that he referenced in his

post.

For example, Emil mentioned Authority Nutrition here:

And sent them a message to let them know that they’ve been
featured:

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82 / 96 As you can see, they happily shared his post: Share

Emil Built Backlinks

Now that Emil had some social proof going, it was time to get down
and dirty with link building.

Here’s the exact process that Emil used:

First, he searched for his target keyword in Google…

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83 / 96 …and popped the top 50 results into a spreadsheet: Share

Next, Emil found out who linked to the top 50 results.

He popped each URL into a backlink analysis tool:

And went one-by-one through the results.

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84 / 96 Then he emailed each of those people to let them know about his Share
new, superior resource.

Let’s take a look at a real life example of Emil’s outreach in action…

Here’s his first email:

Her response:

His second email (with a link to his content)

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Boom! A link:

All of these links led to a solid uptick in traffic:

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86 / 96 All of these links led to a solid uptick in traffic: Share

And a #1 Google ranking:

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87 / 96 And a #1 Google ranking: Share

(Because Emil didn’t do anything shady, these rankings should last

over the long run)

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88 / 96 Case Study #2: How Richard Got 348% Share

More Traffic
Now it’s time show you how Richard boosted his organic traffic by
348%… in 7 days.

The craziest part? Richard got these results in a SUPER

competitive niche (digital marketing).

Here’s what went down:

Step #1: Richard Found a Keyword

As an SEO newbie, Richard wanted to know which white hat SEO

tools the experts used (in other words, not automated black hat
tools).

And when he typed “link building tools” into SEMRush, he noticed

that this keyword got a decent amount of searches every month.

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89 / 96 Step #2: Richard Sized Up The Competition Share

When Richard went through the first page results for “link building
tools”, he wasn’t super impressed:

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90 / 96 Most were lists of tools, like this: Share

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91 / 96 Sure, a list like this can be pretty helpful. Share

But lists like these don’t answer the fundamental question: “Which
link building tools should I use?”

That’s when he decided to create something that DID answer that

question.

Step #3: Richard Created an Awesome Piece of Content

Like I said, Richard was brand new to SEO.

So he wasn’t about to write a post like: “Here’s the best link

building tool on the planet”.

Instead, he emailed 115 influential people in the SEO space…and

got 47 replies (that’s a 41% conversion rate).

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92 / 96 The end result is Richard’s expert roundup post, 55 SEO Experts Share
Reveal 3 Favorite Link Building Tools:

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93 / 96 Step #4: Richard Promoted His Content With Email Share

Outreach

Specifically, he used Broken Link Building (which I outlined in

Chapter 4).

First, he found pages with broken links.

And he sent the author of that page this script:

When they replied saying “What’s the broken link?”, he sent them
this email:

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94 / 96 When they replied saying “What’s the broken link?”, he sent them Share
this email:

And he was rewarded with a handful of high quality backlinks:

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Including links from:

• SearchEngineLand.com (DA92)
• An authority resource page
• A popular digital marketing firm’s blog

And those links led to a HUGE spike in organic traffic (an increase
of 348% to be exact):

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