Origins of the Whitecap Name: What Is White Hat SEO?
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Whitecap SEO was founded with the mission of using proven SEO tactics to help ecommerce businesses outrank their competitors, boost their organic traffic, and ultimately, drive sales.
What many of our clients don’t realize is that our name is actually a play on the phrase “white hat SEO.” But for those in the know, this name paints a strong image of our values and methodologies as an ecommerce SEO agency.
The Wild West of Search Engine Optimization
There is a spectrum of SEO "hat" strategies, pulled from hacker types, referred to as white hat, gray hat, and black hat SEO methods. These refer to how ethical specific actions taken are and define the risks associated with performing implementing them.
The color of each hat is a reference to old wild west films where the good guy wore a white hat, the bad wore a black hat, and the gray was somewhere in between.
Before we dive deeper into these techniques, let's quickly define what it means to optimize content for the search engine results page.
Any attempt to research, organize, modify, or tailor content to appear higher up in the search engines is considered SEO. Likewise, the professionals who perform work related to content marketing strategy, keyword research, link building, filling out meta tags, etc., are also considered SEOs.
There is a spectrum of methods one could take to increase a site's appearance in organic search results. Some of these include curating quality content full of relevant keywords (ethical SEO) based on a user's intent, to producing low quality content, not designed for human readers, in an attempt to game the Google algorithm and spoof the search rankings. Other methods fall somewhere in between.
Let's talk about white hat SEO strategies.
What Is White Hat SEO?
White hat SEO refers to search engine optimization tactics that stay within the rules and guidelines set by Google and other search engines. In other words, white hat SEO is SEO practiced in good faith, relying on honest and approved tactics.
Not only do websites that utilize white hat SEO methods tend to stay on Google’s good side by adhering to their terms and conditions, they also generally offer a better user experience. That’s a win-win situation from an SEO perspective.
Given the nature of playing by the rules, white hat SEO methods, while often time-consuming, are the foundation for website owners to build reliable organic traffic streams, and is considered a long-term investment.
Historically, websites that rely on white hat SEO techniques, tend to perform better over the long haul, when compared to sites that rely on what are considered black hat SEO strategies.
Let's get into the differences next.
White Hat SEO vs. Black Hat SEO
As our name implies, Whitecap proudly practices white hat SEO. But this isn’t the only approach to search engine optimization; some other agencies use gray or black hat SEO techniques.
Black hat SEO is the opposite of white hat SEO. This approach relies on loopholes and deceptive practices, such as:
Keyword stuffing (inserting a large volume of keywords, over and over again, in an attempt to manipulate a page’s ranking)
Purchasing backlinks
Blog comment spam
Content automation / auto-generated content
Article spinning (rewriting content from another website just enough to make it appear unique)
Rich snippet markup spam
Cloaking (presenting content to search engine crawlers that is different from what users see on the site)
Click-Through Rate manipulation (using bots to spoof Google and pad common metrics like on-page time, bounce rate, etc.)
Many of these tactics were popular in the early days of SEO digital marketing, and were touted as the keys to quick SEO wins. But as Google and other search engines have developed their algorithms over time, they have begun to crack down on these black hat techniques.
Not only is black hat SEO less effective than it once was, but it can actually hurt your organic rankings and traffic in the long term. Search engines have become highly adept at recognizing these deceptive and unethical practices, and they regularly penalize sites and web pages that use them.
What about Gray Hat SEO?
Gray hat SEO attempts to do the right thing most of the time, but occasionally dabbles in an unethical process here or there. In our eyes, gray hat IS still black hat SEO.
Very few people can effectively push and maintain a site featuring black hat SEO techniques. Even when white hat SEO methods are used most of the time, using ANY black hat SEO techniques can poison the well.
There are no meaningful shortcuts with sustainable results utilizing these methods, and all grey hat SEO tactics eventually phase out.
So, unless you are willing to risk tanking your traffic or even being removed from the SERPs altogether, it's in your best interest to avoid gray hat and black hat SEO tactics at all costs. Instead, utilize white hat SEO techniques to win the battle for search rankings long-term.
White Hat SEO Techniques
We have discussed what not to do when it comes to winning the search engine results, so now let’s dive into what good SEO practices — in other words, white hat SEO strategies — actually look like. SEO agencies that use white hat techniques will rely on a number of methods and practices, including:
Creating unique, high quality content. This serves a dual purpose: when you create content that users want to read and engage with, you build an audience that returns to your site again and again — and Google will reward you for it. Publishing a company blog is a Google-approved practice for demonstrating your expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T), which search engines take into consideration when determining how a site should rank.
Using keywords strategically. Keyword analysis is an important part of search engine optimization, but there is a definitive line between using keywords organically and keyword stuffing. Most keyword research tools do not take into account website visitors or user intent. As a general rule, user experience should always be at the forefront of your content creation goals. That means you should use your target keyword naturally, and it should not feel forced or overly repetitive.
Prioritizing technical SEO. All of the practices that help your site run smoothly and efficiently so that search engine spiders can crawl your site — site architecture, page speed, sitemaps, schema markup, canonical links, redirects, and more — fall under the umbrella of technical SEO. Both users and search engines prefer sites that are fast-loading, easy to navigate, and easy to understand.
Building quality links. While seedy techniques such as purchasing links or link farming can result in Google penalizing your site, earning quality backlinks from other websites is a tried and true white hat SEO tactic. The best links come from sites that are relevant to your own, and that use varying anchor text. While guest posts and guest posting can be natural ways to build links, writing content specifically for this purpose may backfire. Use caution when building links, and always focus on writing relevant content for a human audience.
White hat SEO takes more time to achieve results compared to its black hat counterpart, but the payoff is well worth the extra effort and investment. What makes white hat SEO important for ecommerce businesses in particular, is setting a stage for less volatile results. As a store owner, you have enough fires to put out as it is. Do not make your online store vulnerable to penalties. For businesses who want to protect their brand image, traffic, and sales for the long haul, it’s non-negotiable. White hat methods win over black hat methods every time.
The Whitecap SEO Name Story
When founder Michael Salvo set out to build Whitecap, his days as the in-house SEO at Custom Ink served as inspiration. The popular online custom apparel company is well known for its wide range of customizable clothing and accessories: t-shirts, sweatshirts, uniforms, bags, and yes, hats.
“Back when I was in-house at Custom Ink, I noted how Google treated the terms ‘custom hat’ and ‘custom cap’ the same,” explained Michael. “So when it came time to branch out on my own, to my surprise whitecapseo.com was available, and I scooped it up as a play on ‘white hat seo.’”
In a sea of SEO agencies, our name is a promise to always do SEO the “right” way. We never utilize shady tactics or cheap tricks to (temporarily) boost our clients’ traffic. Instead, our team of SEO specialists stays up to date on the latest from Google and uses their years of experience to create sustainable, measurable results.
Final Thoughts
In summary, there is no shortcut to white hat SEO success — after all, that’s exactly what separates it from gray hat and black hat tactics that try to outsmart the search engines (which is never a good idea).
It takes a genuine investment of time and resources to improve or maintain your position in the SERPs, and to ensure that you’re reaching the right target demographic who will become loyal customers.
If your brand is serious about leveling up your organic search performance and conversions, it’s critical to partner with an ecommerce SEO company that operates within Google’s terms and conditions.
Still have questions about white hat SEO, or want to learn more about how our services can benefit your business? Contact the ecommerce SEO experts at Whitecap to learn more.