Without further ado, here are my 11 favorite advanced SEO hacks.
SEO Hack #1: Discover Untapped Keywords on Reddit
Hit the play button to see how it’s done:
SEO Hack #2: Build Backlinks With Link Reclamation
Link reclamation is simple:
First, you find mentions of your company and products that don’t link back to you.
Here’s an example:
Then you email the person with a friendly reminder to add your link.
Very simple…but very, very powerful.
See how the author of that article mentioned backlinko.com….but didn’t link to it?
That’s where link reclamation comes into play.
Instead of saying “oh shucks, I wish they linked to me”, you proactively reach out and ask them to link.
You see, when people mention you in an article, they (usually) like you.
(That’s true even if they didn’t add a backlink to your site)
A simple friendly reminder email is usually enough for them to log into WordPress and add your link.
Here’s the step-by-step process:
1. Find Unlinked Mentions
Use a tool like BuzzSumo and Mention.net to find mentions of your brand.
When you do, you’ll get a heads up whenever someone writes about you online:
2. See whether or not the person that mentioned you linked back to your site.
If they linked to your site, you’re set.
If not, move onto step #3…
3. Reach out and get your link
Finally, send them this script:
Hey NAME,
I just wanted to reach out and say “thanks” for mentioning YOUR BRAND in your excellent article yesterday.
We really, really appreciate it.
I’m reaching out today to ask if you could add a link back to our site. That way, people can easily find us while reading your article.
Either way, thanks for the shout out and keep up the great work!
Thanks,
YOUR NAME
I can tell you from experience that these are some of the easiest — and most powerful — links you’ll ever get.
SEO Hack #3: Use LSI Keywords
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are a fancy way of saying: “synonyms and closely-related terms”.
And when you include these in your content you help Google understand what your page is all about. You can find LSI keywords at the bottom of the SERPs:
SEO Hack #4: Publish Long Content (at least 1,000+ words)
Several industry studies (including ours) have found a correlation between long content and higher rankings. That’s not to say that publishing longer content will skyrocket you to the first page. But there’s plenty of data out there to show that publishing 1000+ word content helps.
SEO Hack #5: Use Title Tag Modifiers
Title tag modifiers are words and phrases that tend to get tacked onto the end of search terms. For example, someone searching for a credit card might search for things like: “best credit cards”, “credit cards 2016”, “credit card reviews” etc.
And when you add these modifiers to your title tag you’ll show up at the top of the page for those terms.
Here are a few modifiers you can use:
- “best”
- “reviews”
- the current year
- “checklist”
- “PDF”
- “guide”
- “course”
SEO Hack #6: Use HARO and MuckRack for Link Building
You want to get mentions from news sites like the Huffington Post. Reporters want quotes from experts. HARO and MuckRack bring these two groups together.
It definitely takes some grinding to get a journalist to use your quote. But each link you do get is worth its weight in gold.
SEO Hack #7: Test Two-Step Email Outreach
Most people send their link pitch in their first email.
But I’ve found that a two-step email outreach process converts MUCH better. In fact, Mike doubled his conversion rate with a 2-step approach:
Hit “Play” to see how you can use link roundups to build quality backlinks:
SEO Hack #9: Copy Adwords Ads for Highly-Clickable Title and Description Tags
Google has stated that they use click-through-rate as a ranking factor. But HOW do you improve your organic CTR? Adwords.
Google Adwords ads are an untapped goldmine of words and phrases that you can use in your page’s title and description tag.
(After all, these ads are super-optimized for clicks)
And when you use proven ad copy in your title and descriptions, you’ll have an organic listing that stands out from the pack. Check out this video for a step-by-step guide to executing this SEO hack.
SEO Hack #10: Reduce Your Bounce Rate (And Improve Dwell Time)
Google pays very close attention to “dwell time”: how long people spend on your page when coming from a Google search. This is also sometimes referred to as “long clicks vs short clicks”. If people spend a lot of time on your site, that may be used as a quality signal.
This video will show you how to reduce your bounce rate and maximize dwell time:
SEO Hack #11: Create Linkable Content Around “Shoulder Niches”
In a boring niche? Then you might think that there’s no way you can create content that people will link to.
Fortunately, that’s not the case.
“Shoulder Niches” are closely-related topics that you CAN create awesome content around.
Just look at how Mike Bonadio used Shoulder Niches to boost his client’s organic traffic by 15%:
Enjoy these hacks?
Then make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more actionable SEO tips, strategies and case studies.