White-hat SEO is a practice used to improve search performance that is in line with terms and conditions of a search engine.

So, What is White-hat SEO, Anyways?

White-hat SEO is the opposite of Black-hat SEO. Generally, White-hat SEO refers to any practice that improves your search performance on a search engine results page (SERP) while maintaining the integrity of your web site and staying within the search engines' terms of service. These tactics stay within the bounds as defined by Google. Examples include. Offering quality content and services. Using descriptive, keyword-rich meta tags. Making your site easy to navigate

Why Are White-hat SEO Techniques Important To You?

Not engaging in White-hat SEO can get your site banned from Google and other search engines! As the number one search engine, Google is visited by hundreds of millions of people per day, and each visit presents the potential for your site to be discovered by a new user. Google is an undeniably powerful source of traffic to your web site, and being banned can result in a drastic drop in web site traffic and even business. Consider all the work that goes into your web site and then think about what it would be like to be banned from the internet's most commonly used search engine. What's worse, once you're banned from Google, there is no guarantee that they will ever re-list you. A lifetime ban from Google would have tremendous consequences. Check out a complete description of Google-approved SEO techniques at Webmaster Guidelines.

Should You Implement White-hat SEO Methods?

Definitely! Implementing White-hat SEO practices is the best way to create an ethical, and successful web site and business. Does this mean you can't use automation in your search campaigns? Definitely not!

The 5 primary elements of White-hat tactics are as follows:

Internal links
An internal link is a hyperlink that is a reference or navigational element in a document to another section of the same document or another document on the same website. Generally, a link to a page outside the same domain is considered external.

Reciprocal link
A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two websites for the purpose of the mutual exchange of traffic. Reciprocal linking between websites is an important part of the search engine optimization process. Google uses link popularity algorithms to rank websites for relevancy.

Content creation
Creating unique quality content that will be of interest to your visitors and will add content-rich value to your site. The more content-rich your site is the more valuable it will appear to the search engines, your visitors, and webmasters. Creating content-rich pages can be very time-consuming but it is well worth the effort in the long run.

Creative Writing
Writing articles about your website that is placed on other websites with content-rich and relevant information will make your website more appealing and relevant to the search engines, visitors, webmasters, and site owners. Using keyword links to these articles will give more weight to your articles and make them more relevant.

Site Optimization
The heart of SEO is in the optimization of the content of a given website. The wording of that content and how this information is placed within the site structure is one of the keys to successful optimization. Other elements within the site that are important would be solid effective titles and meta tags all of these things lead to a successful optimization effort. While doing the optimization processes, such as performing research for keyword density remember it is of primary importance that your website's message is not only effective, relevant and informative to the search engines but also to your visitors. It is very important to maintain the quality of your content.