white hat SEO = do what google tells you to do
black hat SEO = do what you can to rank (even if google - almost always - disapproves of it)
The problem is that google penalizes both WH and BH sites, so if you're using WH (as in, wait for people to link back to you) you'll grow beard and die of old age until google ranks you (and even if they rank you, they'll still target you with future updates, so it's just as unsafe as BH)
And the problem with BH is that your rankings are short-lived (up to 6 months at most), after which you get caught, deindexed, and never rank that domain ever again as google now blacklists domains they don't like. And they probably don't like 90% of the domains...
I think the best option is to go Grey Hat (as in, you still build links manually - which counts as Black Hat - but you do it at a safe pace, to avoid getting picked up by google's spam filters).
grey hat, like I mentioned above
well, this is tricky and requires you to first:
- understand the niche
- analyze your competition's strengths and weaknesses and capitalize on their weaknesses....
Usually, nowadays it comes down to authority. Google loves authoritative sites, which means sites with either high DA / DR scores, or high popularity in their niche, or both.
So, if you're not a big site in your niche (which you probably aren't), then your best bet is to focus on authority, both normal authority (DA / DR) and topical authority (covering your niche - pet food - in great detail).
Of course, there would be a lot more to explain about how to approach the ranking of your site, but it will be time consuming to explain everything here, so you either need to do research yourself, or hire someone to do:
- site + niche audit
- competitor analysis
- niche + keyword research
- site structuring and technical SEO
- content plan and link building plan
You'll have to probably pour $1000s into these things combined if you want to hire an expert, so be ready to spend if you go the paid route! You can hire someone from here to do these for you:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/forums/hire-a-freelancer.76/
If paying is not an option, you can do it yourself by learning more about SEO in general, and about what works nowadays in particular, ie:
on-page SEO:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-full-example-of-how-to-do-on-page-seo.1251425/
link building:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-how-many-links-per-day-week-or-month-should-i-build.1502403/
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/u...t-opportunities-in-just-1-hour-a-day.1588897/
how to do keyword research:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-keyword-research-via-reddit.1577914/
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/how-to-do-keyword-research-for-free.1380646/
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/newbie-guide-find-profitable-niches-keywords.1477998/
how to use expired domains effectively:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-how-to-use-expired-domains-effectively.1223248/
how to improve EAT:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/how-to-increase-websites-e-a-t.1408725/
more SEO tips:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/1...nt-before-building-a-single-backlink.1395692/
technical SEO:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/technical-seo-guide-my-checklist-and-useful-tips.1389710/
how to do 301s:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/how-to-301-an-expired-domain-guide.1358904/
indexing services:
https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/2024-bhw-indexer-study.1572212/
