The majority of website owners are aware that they need to implement a host of white hat SEO tactics on their sites in order for them to rank well online. Although there may be thousands of SEO tips and tricks that can be applied, not all of them are approved by Google. In order to ensure high rankings, it is crucial to engage in a range of safe SEO practices that will help see your site soar to the top of search rankings.

Provide Top Quality Site Content

While quantity used to trump quality with regards to website content, this is no longer the case. Among the best safe SEO practices to use is providing high quality and readable content for site visitors. If you are unsure about the quality of your site content, it often helps to stop and ask yourself if the content is something that you would be willing to read if you were looking for that type of information online. It also helps to ask whether your content would be instrumental in helping readers to understand something that they were not able to understand before.

Do Not Overuse Keywords

While most safe SEO practices recommend the use of your chosen keyword in your website name and Meta description, its use throughout your content should not be overdone. In most cases, SEO experts recommend that keyword density throughout an article not exceed 2%. For example, in a 500 word article or blog post, your chosen keyword should not appear more than 10 times in total. Overuse of keywords is referred to be Google as keyword stuffing, and sites can be heavily penalized for this practice.

Optimize Images

It’s a known fact that content which is accompanied by images is read and shared far more than that which isn’t. Part of optimizing your site’s images involves resizing them in order to substantially reduce the loading time on a reader’s computer. It is also important to ensure that the correct alt tags and picture titles are used. If possible, it is highly recommended that you incorporate your post’s chosen keyword into the photo titles as well. It is crucial to only use photos or images which are your own or that you have obtained permission to use.

Interlink your Site Content

In order to increase the number of organic visits to your site, it is recommended that you place links in your content to other posts on your site or posts that you have written and placed elsewhere online. However, it is important to link to content which is relevant to a particular post. No more than two to three links should be placed within a particular post or article, as this can become distracting for readers as they try to navigate your site or blog. When done moderately it also allows for a good user experience because the reader could potentially reader other important content stemming from your website.

Link to the Correct Sites in your Niche

Another way to gain higher rankings in Google search results is to exchange back links with other sites in your particular niche. However, of late, Google has become more particular in this regard by only boosting a site’s rankings if they have linked to other sites that provide high quality content and who are willing to engage only in white hat SEO techniques. Exchanging links with sites that are stuffed with keywords and irrelevant content could see your site being heavily penalized when it comes to search engine rankings.

Using Obsolete SEO Practices

Failure to use safe SEO practices could result in disastrous consequences for your blog or website. You could find that where your site may have previously enjoyed being ranked on page one or two of search engine rankings, it may have been demoted from these positions. If you are a Google AdSense publisher and you engage in outdated or banned SEO practices, you could find your AdSense account being blocked or even permanently deleted.

Although black hat SEO practices may seem enticing and easier to engage in than their white hat counterparts, the potential risk involved for your site is simply not worth it. Engaging in safe SEO practices will ensure that your site remains online and in favor with Google.