SEO
How to Rank Higher on Google: A Small Business Guide
How to rank higher on Google, step by step: choose the right searches, improve your pages, fix technical problems, earn trust and measure what works.
White hat SEO means improving your search rankings by following Google's rules: useful content, a fast and well built site, clear page titles and links you've earned. Black hat SEO tries to trick search engines with shortcuts such as keyword stuffing, hidden text and bought links. White hat SEO is slower, but the rankings it builds last, while black hat SEO can get a site penalised or removed from Google.
What is white hat SEO?
White hat SEO is search engine optimisation that follows search engines' guidelines and puts the visitor first. The idea is simple: Google wants to show the most useful page for each search, so you earn rankings by making your pages the most useful answer.
At Rock Solid Marketing, we're committed to using only white hat SEO tactics in our clients' SEO work.
What are some white hat SEO techniques?
White hat SEO techniques work on five parts of your website: written content, images, site performance, meta information and site architecture. Each needs to be good quality and optimised for the searches you want to appear in. The most effective white hat SEO methods are:
- Publish useful content regularly. Answer the questions your customers ask, in more depth than your competitors.
- Write descriptive page titles and meta descriptions that include the phrase people search for.
- Use your keywords naturally in headings and copy, without overusing them.
- Make the site easy to use on a phone, with clear navigation and fast loading pages.
- Link between your own pages so visitors and search engines can find related content.
- Earn backlinks from related, trustworthy websites, such as industry bodies, suppliers and local media.
- Add descriptive alt text to images so search engines and screen readers know what they show.
Our guide to setting up your website for SEO on day 1 covers these basics step by step.
What is black hat SEO?
Black hat SEO tries to get the same rankings with less effort, by tricking search engines instead of helping people. The term comes from old western films, where the villain wore the black hat. It focuses on what Google sees rather than what visitors need.
Common black hat SEO techniques, all of which Google's spam policies prohibit, include:
- Keyword stuffing and hidden text full of keywords
- Cloaking: showing search engines different content from what visitors see
- Doorway pages built only to rank, which send visitors somewhere else
- Copying or automatically generating content from other sites
- Buying links, link farms and large scale link swaps
- Spammy blog comments full of links
It backfires. Sites caught breaking the rules can lose their rankings or be removed from Google entirely, and a low quality site doesn't earn the genuine links or customers that keep a business growing. A site that hasn't been caught yet is still at risk.
What are some black hat SEO examples?
A few black hat SEO examples you might come across:
- A plumber's service page that repeats "plumber Mildura" in every sentence, with a list of 50 suburbs pasted in white text at the bottom
- Dozens of near identical pages, one per town, each with the town name swapped and nothing else changed
- A cheap offer of "1,000 backlinks" from unrelated overseas websites
- Blog posts copied from another business's site, or spun by software so they look different
If an SEO offer sounds fast and cheap, ask exactly how the rankings will be achieved.
What is grey hat SEO?
Grey hat SEO sits between the two. These tactics aren't clearly banned, but they bend the spirit of Google's guidelines. Examples include buying expired domains to redirect their links, or publishing lots of thin guest posts mainly for the links.
What's grey today often becomes black hat after the next Google update. If a tactic only makes sense because of how search engines work, and wouldn't be worth doing for your visitors, treat it as risky.
White hat vs black hat SEO: what's the difference?
| White hat SEO | Black hat SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Visitors and their questions | Search engine loopholes |
| Speed | Builds over months | Can rise quickly, then fall |
| Risk | Low | Penalties or removal from Google |
| Links | Earned from relevant sites | Bought, swapped or spammed |
| Content | Original and useful | Stuffed, copied or generated in bulk |
Why do people use black hat SEO?
Mostly because it promises quick results for little cost. Good SEO takes time, and some providers sell shortcuts to clients who can't easily check what's being done. Others don't know the rules have changed: keyword stuffing used to work years ago, and some sites are still written that way.
What we see when regional businesses have been burned by SEO
When we talk to business owners about SEO, a common story is that they paid for it before and saw no return. Often they weren't shown what was done or how it was measured. That leaves good businesses turning away from a marketing channel that works when it's done properly.
Our advice is to ask any SEO provider how they will earn your rankings and how they'll report on them. Our SEO services start from $1,000 + GST a month with no lock-in contract, and clients receive a monthly Semrush report on their rankings and traffic. We don't promise a particular ranking position, because no honest provider can.
If your site has dropped out of search and you're not sure why, start with our guide to why a website isn't showing on Google.
Frequently asked questions
What does black hat SEO mean?
Black hat SEO means using tactics that break search engines' rules to push a site up the rankings. The name comes from the villains in old westerns, who wore black hats, while the heroes wore white.
Is black hat SEO illegal?
Most black hat SEO isn't illegal in itself; it breaks Google's rules rather than the law. Some tactics can cross legal lines, though: copying another site's content can breach copyright, and fake reviews or misleading claims can breach the Australian Consumer Law.
How do you report black hat SEO to Google?
Google has a spam report form in its Search Central help pages. Use it to report a page that uses hidden text, cloaking, paid links or other spam tactics. Google uses these reports to improve its spam detection rather than replying to each one.
Can black hat SEO from another site hurt my rankings?
It's rare. Google says it is good at ignoring spammy links pointing at a site. If you're worried, check your backlinks in Google Search Console and talk to an SEO specialist before taking any action.
How long does white hat SEO take to work?
Expect months rather than weeks. New content and technical fixes can be picked up quickly, but steady rankings for competitive searches usually take many months of consistent work.
Want to learn more? Read our tips for driving traffic to your website, or contact Rock Solid Marketing to talk about white hat SEO for your business.
