I’m not going to write a long-winded introduction to build the hype up for this post.
This is something I have been working on for a long time, so without any further delay..
Here are 99 kick-ass SEO tips that you can use to help improve your search presence and overall online marketing results.
1. Make Friends with Bloggers
Every niche has popular blogs, and a handful of authority bloggers that have a large following. Take time to interact with them on social media and comment on their posts. Make friends with them if you eventually want links from them.
2. Comment on Relevant Blog Posts
When you comment on relevant blog posts you not only get a link (usually no-follow but that’s ok) but you also get referral traffic back to your website that can result in social shares, links, and even sales or leads.
3. Don’t Ignore Low Hanging Fruit (Low Search Volume Keywords)
If a keyword has a low search volume, like 40 to 100 searches many people will pass it up. Don’t do that. When you rank for hundreds of these low hanging fruits you can drive thousands of visitors a month to your website.
4. Set Up Google Alerts for Your Industry
When you set up Google alerts you can be notified anytime there is new content posted. This allows you to be the first to comment, which can help you drop relevant links in the comments, pushing traffic back to your website.
5. Find Keyword Ideas in Google Search Console
Sync up your site with Google Search Console and check to see what search terms and phrases cause your website to display in the SERPs. You can find easy to rank long tail keywords this way (that you are already ranking for).
6. Break Up Your Content into Multiple 2-3 Sentence Paragraphs
Don’t write long paragraphs because it can be hard for your visitors to read, especially on mobile devices. Small paragraphs of a couple sentences each are easier to digest, keeping your visitors on your site longer.
7. Mix Long-tail Keywords into Your Articles
Since most content is long-form these days, make sure to work in multiple long tail keyword variations into your content. This will help your pages all rank for more than one search term. This tactic can really help your traffic numbers explode.
8. Avoid “Public” Blog Networks
If you can buy a link on a blog that anyone else can get as long as they pay, then you need to avoid it. These are public links and Google can easily find them and penalize all sites linked. Avoid these public networks.
9. Make WhoIs Information Public
A website that is above board and legit won’t have an issue making their company information public in the WhoIs directory. Even if you are using it as a blog network site, make the info public as it will lessen the suspicion and make Google believe it’s a real website.
10. Speak at Conferences
Almost every industry has conferences and this is a great way to build your personal brand, but in regards to SEO you can usually score a great link in the speaker bio section. If it’s a long standing conference, there is a chance the website will have great authority.
11. Use Short Focused Titles (With KW if Possible)
You want to make sure you use titles that will display correctly in Google. A searcher is more likely to click on your listing if the title is completely visible and to the point.
12. Use Flat & Simple Website Designs
Complicated and confusing website designs are bad for two reasons. They push people away because they give a poor user experience and they load slowly because of complex and clunky code.
13. Don’t Buy Cheap Content
There is nothing worse than $5 articles. Years ago, 500 word articles were standard but today those will do nothing to help your SEO. Purchase content from experienced writers that understand how search engines read content.
14. Duplicate Your Competition’s Links
If you want to beat your competition in the SERPs you need to do what they do and then do it better. Use tools like Ahrefs and SEMRush to find their links and secure them for your own website.
15. Remove Old Thin Content
If you have an older website there is a good chance you have older content posted that is thin and doesn’t provide any SEO value. If you don’t have the time or money to re-write it simply remove it.
16. Target Competitor Brand Keywords
If you have competitors that are slacking on SEO it’s very easy to rank for their brand name. With enough website authority, you can create a page on your website and optimize it for their brand name and outrank them.
17. Share Your Content Multiple Times on Social Media
Don’t just share your content when it’s first published. It will take multiple shares to make sure a large percentage of your followers see it. This increases the chance of additional social signals and website traffic.
18. Re-direct Broken URLs
Use a tool like Screaming Frog to locate broken URLs and fix them. If you are using WordPress there are several free plugins that will automatically re-direct 404 errors, which will help you avoid any issues from reporting in Google Search Console.
19. Network with Influencers
Connect with the top influencers in your industry and ask them how you can help them. By providing value they are going to feel obligated to help you in some way. This can be in the form of interviews, sharing content or linking to your website.
20. Build Brand Name Links
Too many people focus on building links with keyword anchor text. Yes, you need some, but just a few of them will do as long as you are building a lot of authority links with brand name anchors, which are safer.
21. Publish Content Around Popular Topics
If there is breaking news in your industry write content around it. This is an easy way to quickly get indexed and pull in organic traffic. Since it’s industry related new, the traffic is already targeted.
22. Implement Schema Code
This was once a very complex topic, but now there are so many plugins and online code generators that allow you to implement it easily. Having starts and other data visible in the SERPs helps pull a higher click through rate.
23. Don’t Ignore Conversion Rate Optimization
Rankings and traffic is great, but if they aren’t converting all that SEO is useless. Make sure you are testing different aspects of your conversion process. You need to devote time to this if you want to maximize your SEO effort.
24. Donate to (Bribe) High Authority .Org Charities
There are so many local .org domains you can find within minutes of searching on Google. Find them and contact them and ask if they offer any sponsorship opportunities. If not, ask them if you can get a link on their website for a donation.
25. Grab Your Users Attention in The First Paragraph
Your content needs to be interesting. If someone isn’t hooked and wanting more within the first paragraph there is a chance they will leave and you will never see them again. This is why hiring a professional writer is worth the expense.
26. Diversify Your Domain Extension Links
Don’t just go after .com links. You need diversity, so don’t be afraid to get links from .net’s, .info’s and all of the new domain extensions. Keep the mix random and make an effort to be very diverse so there is no pattern.
27. Don’t be Afraid to Link Out
So many people are scared to link out thinking they will lose authority or juice. This is something that naturally happens, and if your website doesn’t link out it raises a red flag. Look at some of the largest websites in the world. They link out multiple times per page.
28. Offer to Update Outdated Information
Most industries and businesses change. You need to be proactive and make sure to update old and outdated information. The last thing you want to do is have someone land on your website only to see you have the wrong information posted. It ruins your credibility instantly.
29. Internally Link Your Entire Blog
Internal linking provides a great SEO value because it passes juice throughout your website and helps push inner pages up in the SERPs but it also helps to keep your readers moving from page to page, rather than leaving your website.
30. Monitor Google Analytics for Content with High Bounce Rates
If you notice particular pieces of content have high bounce rates take note of the topic. If you notice any patterns and certain topics that perform poorly stop writing about them and post more content based around the topics that have the highest engagement.
31. Publish Case Studies
Writing up case studies with a lot of data are great ways to get people to visit your website, but more importantly, link to it, notating your valuable resource. If you publish something epic, spend some money on social promotion and see how many links you can score.
32. Build Quality Links Over Quantity
A half dozen links from top authority websites have more power than hundreds of lower level links or anything that can be acquired through automated software. Always focus on quality over quantity when going after backlinks.
33. Focus on Relevant Links
If you are a financial service company you want to get links from finance blogs. A link from a weight loss website is not relevant, no matter how good the authority is. Link relevancy is an important factor that many ignore as they are only concerned with getting links from any source.
34. Connect with Journalists on Twitter
If you are trying to connect with writers and editors there is no better way than on Twitter. Very few will reply to cold emails and Twitter allows the communication to be quick and brief, which is something they love.
35. Look at PPC Ads for Title Ideas (Think High Click-Through)
If you need some creative and aggressive blog post titles do a Google search for your main keyword and look at the pay per click ads. This is very effective if you are in a competitive industry, as companies spend a lot of time and money split testing ad copy.
36. If a Link is Automatic It’s Not Worth Your Time
If you can secure a link without any work and it is live instantly there is little to no value in it. Just think, if you can get it, anyone can get it. SEO takes work, and only those willing to put in the effort are going to see the big reward.
37. Address Errors in Google Search Console
Take any errors or warnings in Google Search Console seriously. If Google says there is a problem you need to fix it right away, as you know it’s going to impact your search visibility. I would suggest checking Google Search Console daily. It’s worth the 10 seconds you lose.
38. Optimize E-Commerce Product Descriptions
Take the time to write unique product descriptions that are optimized just like regular website content. This will help you rank individual products. When you have an e-commerce store with thousands of products this can help to pull in large traffic numbers.
39. Don’t Take Attention Away from Your CTAs by Placing Ads in Wrong Positions
If you are selling products or trying to get people to fill out a form on your website don’t litter it with ads. They just take the focus away from what you want your visitors to do. Would you rather 50 cents from AdSense or a product sale or lead?
40. Become a Guest Blogger
Find guest blogging opportunities on relevant websites that will allow you to contribute content on a regular basis. You will get referral traffic and a nice author link. If you are smart about it, you can also drop links to your inner page posts, helping to really lift your site in the SERPs.
41. Focus on One Keyword Per Page
You want to focus on one main keyword per page. This allows you to really fine tune your on-site optimization, giving you a better chance of ranking. When your website authority is strong you will start to rank for long tail keywords with little to no SEO other than on-site work.
42. Target Keywords with Purchase & Conversion Intent
Don’t just look at search volume. If the keyword has research or “tire kicking” intent you should ignore it and focus on multiple keywords with lower search volumes that will actually attract buyers.
43. Use Images in Your Content
Using images in your content helps to make your articles more appealing to your visitors, and it also gives you the ability to rank in Google Images, which is a popular search function. The alt-image tag you assign to each image helps it rank.
44. Disavow Spammy Links
Don’t be afraid to submit a disavow file to Google. A lot of people get scared, but guess what? Sites get spammed with low quality links all the time, so it is natural to want to ask Google to ignore them. It happens to the biggest websites in the world and I promise you they are updating disavow files daily.
45. Create a Viral Video
Look at how many links and press mentions Dollar Shave Club received when they released their video. They did it on a shoestring budget, but it went viral. The links they got just from that one video gave them the authority to own the organic search results for shave clubs.
46. Include Your Keyword in Paragraph Number One
You want to always include your keyword in the first paragraph, as early as possible. This tells Google what the page is about and it increases the chances of it being displayed at the top of the results.
47. Write 1,000+ Words for Your Infographic Posts
So many people have great infographics but they post them with little to no content. This makes it very hard for them to rank organically. Write a long blog post to accompany the infographic of 1,000 words to help Google rank it higher.
48. Host a Podcast
Podcasts are hot right now. They are a great way to build brand awareness and drive relevant users to your website. You can also get a nice link to your website on authority websites. Anyone can start a podcast and the investment required for equipment is very minimal.
49. Offer Coupon Codes for Social Shares
There are a lot of plugins that will allow you to offer a reward for social shares. This can be a free download or a coupon code. If you make the offer appealing enough you can see your social shares go through the roof, helping you attract visitors and earning links back to your content.
50. Include Video in Your Posts
Start to include video in your content. This will get you to start making more videos, which you can rank in YouTube. It’s the second largest search engine, so you need to start pulling traffic from there. It’s easy to rank videos, especially when you are working with long tail keywords.
51. Use HARO
Help a Reporter is a free service that allows you to answer media queries. They send out opportunities three times a day. It takes dedication, but if you stick with it you can score links from top websites.
52. Make Sure You Write Unique Blog Post Titles
Before you decide on a blog post title search for it in Google. The last thing you want to do is re-use a post title that someone else already has. It will be harder to rank for it. If you do see it is taken, make a slight change to make yours unique.
53. Convert Blog Posts to YouTube Videos
If you need ideas for YouTube videos, just convert your blog posts into video. There are a lot of video creation software that allows you to make text based videos.
54. Use Responsive Social Sharing Buttons
There are a lot of outdated social share plugins being used, which results in pages breaking on mobile because they aren’t responsive. Make it easy for your visitors to share your content. There are plenty of free responsive share tools.
55. Donate to Schools (for a Link)
So many SEOs drool over the possibilities of securing.edu links, and try to buy them on forums and it doesn’t have to be that hard. Round up your local schools and educational sites and then ask them if they have a donor page. They will often link to your website for a small yearly donation.
56. Diversify Your Anchor Text
Anchor text isn’t as important as link quality. If your page is optimized perfectly, you will rank for your terms even with generic anchor links like, “click here to find out more.” Over optimizing anchor text can get you in trouble.
57. Trade Link Opportunities & Network
Every business wants links. So, analyze your network and approach other business owners with a trade. Some will pass but quite a few will bite. Rather than have one dedicated links page (looks spammy) find ways to link to them within your blog content.
58. Email Your List Offering Interviews
If you have been building your email list for a long time you never know who is on there. Send out an email offering to provide an interview on a particular hot topic in your industry. This is an easy way to get a handful of quick relevant links.
59. Build Links on High Traffic Websites
So many people just think about website metrics. I don’t care what Moz says the Domain Authority is. If the site doesn’t get real visitors, it’s not a great link. Look for link opportunities that will give you referral traffic as well.
60. Use SSL (HTTPS)
This is a ranking signal, and even if it’s just 1%, it’s still shouldn’t be ignored. Also, it makes your website more trustworthy, especially if you accept payments on your website. It doesn’t take long and the cost is minimal.
61. Use Exit-Intent Offers to Keep Users on Your Website Longer
Exit popups are great because they stop someone from leaving your website. You can present offers for them to read another related post, or offer them a free download, or even a coupon code. Get creative and split-test exit offers.
62. Publish Industry Resources
If you take time to publish a very valuable industry resource it can be a great way to get other websites talking about you and linking to your resource. Rather than create a downloadable guide, publish a detailed blog post so they have to link to it rather than just repurpose your download.
63. Don’t Avoid No-Follow Links
The whole do/no follow link debate will never end. Yes, do-follow links pass juice and are always better, but there are some amazing no-follow links that Google definitely takes into consideration like Huffington Post and Wikipedia.
64. Make Sure Your Entire Website is Mobile Friendly
It still baffles me that some companies haven’t converted over to a responsive website. There are even SEO agencies that still have old school HTML websites that break on smaller screens. If you are low on budget use a pre-made responsive theme for the time being. Your website must be mobile friendly and optimized.
65. Constantly Check Your Website in All Browsers
There are so many browsers these days, and they are often updated, so you need to make sure you constantly check your website in all of them. Ignoring this can end up providing bad user experiences across an entire browser.
66. Properly Format Content with Bullets, Headers, Etc.
You need to make your content look pretty. Not only is it more appealing to your visitors, but by formatting it correctly you break it up into easy to read sections. Your message is delivered and your readers engage more.
67. Be Active in Your Comments Section
If you allow comments on your posts (and you should) make sure you take the time to reply to all comments. This shows your audience that you care about their opinions and it will encourage more participation. This makes your website look popular.
68. Spend Time Sending Out Cold Emails
You need to always be prospecting for links, and there is a good chance you don’t have all the connections needed. So, spend time daily sending cold emails to influencers, website owners, bloggers, etc. You never know what a cold email can lead to.
69. Stroke Ego’s for Links
If you write a nice piece of content about a company or an individual, make sure you let them know about it. If done right, they will often mention it on social media and link to it on their own blog.
70. Put More Effort into Keywords on Pages 2 and 3
Use a tool like SEMRush to find out what keywords you are ranking for and put extra effort into the ones on pages 2 through 3. With a little on-site optimization and some links, you will see those hit page one fast.
71. Seek Out Broken Link Opportunities
There are several tools that will seek out broken links related to certain topics. This can be time consuming and best suited for a virtual assistant, but it’s a way to secure links on hard to get sites.
72. Allow Guest Posts on Your Blog
When you allow guest posts it not only provides you with free content that can rank and pull organic traffic, but it also leads to free links. Authors will link to your website bragging about how they are a featured contributor.
73. Conduct Round-Up Posts
Publishing round-up posts is a great way to get a lot of niche related links. Come up with a topic and ask a handful of industry people to provide their input. They just want a link from your website, so both sides know why they are doing it. Once published, send it to them so they can share it and link back to the post. Everyone’s a winner!
74. Use Your Keyword in Page Descriptions
While the meta description won’t impact your SERP results, including your target keyword in the description helps connect your page with the person searching. If they see what they just typed into the search in your description it will make them naturally gravitate to your listing.
75. Create an XML Sitemap
Every website should have an XML sitemap. It helps to notify the search engines of new content and makes it easy for them to index your entire website. If you want to be found in the SERPs a sitemap is mandatory.
76. Proof Read Your Content
Always proof read your content before publishing it. A simple grammar mistake can make your business look really bad. Spellcheck is not always right and if you always listen to its suggestions your content will be full of grammar mistakes.
77. Give Testimonials
Put together a list of all the vendors you work with and offer to write them a testimonial. They will typically link back to your website, so it’s any easy brand anchor link and if it’s a popular company the metrics are going to be strong.
78. Run Boosted Facebook Promotions for All Blog Posts
You should be sharing all of your content on social media anyway, so spend a few dollars boosting all of your posts on Facebook. This is an easy way to get social shares and attract website traffic.
79. Focus on Long-Form Content (2,000+ Words)
Stop with the 500 word posts. They don’t work like the used to. If you look at the top search results for popular keywords you will see that the first page is full of results that have in-depth content. I would keep everything above 2,000 words.
80. Don’t be Afraid to Pay for Links
I sell links. A lot of them. Guess what? It will never stop because it’s the fastest way to acquire the best links in the world. The links that actually help you rank. Every major business buys links, regardless of what they say. That’s a Fact.
81. Compress Images Site-Wide
Use an image compressing plugin on your website. Imagine a website with thousands of pages and multiple images on each. This helps your load time, which is an important factor. Google wants to list the best performing websites, not ones that take 10 seconds to load up.
82. Ignore Useless Metrics
Since Google’s Page Rank was hidden from public eyes, everyone turned to Moz’s Domain Authority. Guess what? It’s is a made up metric that has NOTHING to do with Google. They just leveraged the buzz to sell subscriptions to their crappy tools. It’s better to look at a sites link profile properly, monitor everything!.. not just what MOZ tells you to.
83. Build Links at a Believable Pace
Google will not believe 100 sites linked to you in the same day unless there was some major news. If 100 authority news sites linked to you there better be a viral video or some kind of amazing news to back it up.
84. Go After Your Competition’s Keywords
If you are having trouble finding keyword opportunities, spy on your competition and try to outrank them for everything. Let them do the hard work (researching terms that convert) and then duplicate their effort and then mix in some authority links to pass them in the SERPs.
85. Avoid Alt-Image Tags That Are Just the Keyword
The days of just putting your main keyword as the alt-tag on images are long gone. Instead, write a descriptive paragraph explaining what the content is about. This will help you get a lot more image search traffic.
86. Develop a Free Tool
Look at how many links webpages that offer free tools like a mortgage calculator receive. Something so simple (but useful) can really attract a lot of attention. Think of something clever and then leverage it to attract free links.
87. Co-Publish Content
Find an influencer or company in your industry to co-brand content with. Offer to create an infographic and slap their logo on it if they promote it and publish it, linking to you. This is a great way to receive a lot of referral traffic and additional links when it’s republished.
88. Use SEMRush to Find Keywords Your Rank for Already
SEMRush searches deep in the web, and you can often find a handful of keywords you are already ranking for. With a little work they can easily be pushed up in the SERPs.
89. Start to Edit Wikipedia Pages
Want Wikipedia links? Then start editing pages and build up trust as an editor. This is a long-term play but one that can pay off. Don’t add links for a long time. Edit for 6-12 months and make good changes within pages related to your industry. Then go for the kill: your own Wikipedia link.
90. Offer to Design Exclusive Infographics
If there is a website that you want a link from but they don’t offer guest posting and you can’t seem to find a way in, offer to create an exclusive infographic for them. Tell them you will brand it in their company colors and logo and that it will be just for their website. Easy link.
91. Use Google Auto-Complete to Find Keywords
Enter in your main keywords into Google and see what other auto-complete suggestions show up. This is a fast way to find other related terms people are searching for.
92. Don’t Use Cheap Hosting
Cheap shared hosting slows down your website and if someone on the shared server is doing shady stuff it can cause your site to underperform and experience down time. Get a VPS or dedicated server.
93. Perform Infographic Outreach
After you publish an infographic (make sure you have HTML share code under it) reach out to every possible niche related site and offer them the infographic. Most sites will bite because it’s free content and people love infographics.
94. Evaluate the SERPs Before Deciding on Keywords
Before you start doing SEO on a particular keyword see who is already ranking for it. If Amazon and Walmart are dominating the first page you might as well save your money. Outranking them will be hard and you can put the money and effort to better use.
95. Build Your Own Truly Private Blog Network
The top SEOs and affiliate marketers all have their own blog networks and they are truly private networks because nobody knows they exist. This can get expensive and it takes time but if you are serious about ranking this is a must.
96. Include Your Target Keyword in Your URL
Simple URL structures are best, and including your keyword is the best practice. You can even experiment with some pages that just feature the keyword in the URL, not the entire page title.
97. Fix Speed and Load Time Issues
Run your website through GTMetrix and Google Pagespeed Insights and pay attention to the reports they generate. Fix all of the suggested changes and your load time and speed will greatly increase.
98. Publish Numbered List Posts
List posts always perform well, especially when it’s an option in the SERPs. “Top 10” of “the 15 Best” titles will pique the interest of the searcher and pull a click through. Look at the popular websites like Forbes and Inc. and you will see this trend.
99. Re-Write Old Blog Posts
If your older blog posts are a bit thin or outdated take the time to re-write them and make them more appealing and relevant. It’s much easier to add to an existing post rather than starting a brand new one.
Conclusion
SEO isn’t going to just happen. You need to put in the work, so use these tips to help your online business thrive. If you have some additional tips or want to share your experience, please use the comments section below. I will try my best to reply to everyone.
