21 Actionable SEO Techniques You Can Use Right Now (Updated)

People that succeed with SEO do two things very well:

First, they identify SEO techniques that get them results.

Second, they put 100% of their resources into executing and scaling those techniques.

But you’re probably wondering:

“How do I find SEO strategies that actually work?”

Well today I’m going to make it easy for you.

All you need to do is carve out a few minutes of your day and tackle one of the 21 white hat SEO techniques below.

Free PDF Download: Get access to the free bonus checklist that will show you how to quickly execute these strategies. Includes 2 bonus techniques not found in this post.

1. Find Broken Link Building Opportunities on Wikipedia

Broken link building has it all…

Scalable.

White hat.

Powerful.

There’s only one problem: finding broken links is a HUGE pain.

That is, unless you know about a little-known wrinkle in Wikipedia’s editing system.

You see, when a Wikipedia editor stumbles on a dead link, they don’t delete the link right away.

Instead, they add a footnote next to the link that says “dead link”:

This footnote gives other editors a chance to confirm that the link is actually dead before removing it.

And that simple footnote makes finding broken links dead simple.

Here’s how:

First, use this simple search string:

site:wikipedia.org [keyword] + “dead link”

For example, if you were in the investing space you’d search for something like this:

Next, visit a page in the search results that’s relevant to your site:

Hit ctrl + f and search for “dead link”:

Your browser will jump to any dead links in the references section:

Pro Tip: Wikipedia actually has a list of articles with dead links. This makes finding dead links in Wikipedia even easier.

OK. So once you’ve found a dead link, now what?

Well you could re-create that dead resource on your site and replace the dead link in Wikipedia with yours.

But that would only land you a single link (and a nofollow link at that).

Instead, I recommend tapping into The Moving Man Method.

This post will show you everything you need to know:

Now for our next SEO technique…

2. Discover Untapped Keywords on Reddit

Hit the play button to see how it’s done:

3. Update, Upgrade and Republish Old Blog Posts (This Increased My Traffic by 111.37%)

Last year I get an email out of the blue:

Turns out Emil used The Skyscraper Technique to achieve these impressive results.

Not only that, but Emil wanted to share his case study with the Backlinko community.

That’s when I had an idea:

Instead of writing a new post for Emil’s case study, why don’t I add it to an existing post?

So that’s what I did.

Specifically, I added Emil’s case study to this old post:

(I also updated the images and added some new tips)

The final result?

A new and improved version of the post:

To make sure the new post got the attention it deserved, I re-promoted it by sending an email to the Backlinko community:

I also shared it on social media:

The result?

A 111.37% increase in organic traffic to that page.

Pretty cool, right?

4. Copy Adwords Ads to Make Killer Title and Description Tags

It’s no secret that compelling title and description tags get more clicks in the SERPS.

(In fact, REALLY good copy can actually steal traffic from the top 3 results)

Question is: How do you know what people want to click on?

That’s easy: look at that keyword’s Adwords ads.

You see, the Adwords ads that you see for competitive keywords are the result of hundreds (if not thousands) of split tests.

Split tests to maximize clicks.

And you can use copy from these ads to turn your title and description tags into click magnets.

For example, let’s say you were going to publish a blog post optimized around the keyword “glass water bottles”.

First, take a look at the Adwords ads for that keyword:

Keep an eye out for interesting copy from the ads that you can work into your title and description. In our “glass water bottles” example, we have phrases like:

• BPA-free


• Keep you hydrated


• Durable


• Reusable

Here’s how your title and description tags might look:

As you can see, these tags include words that are proven to generate clicks.

5. Find A+ Link Prospects on AllTop

What if there was an up-to-date list of blogs in your niche that you could use to find quality link opportunities?

I have good news. There is.

And it’s called AllTop.

AllTop is a modern day directory that curates the best blogs in every industry under the sun.

To find blogs in your niche, just go to the AllTop homepage and search for a keyword:

Next, find a category that fits with your site’s topic:

And AllTop will show you their hand-picked list of quality blogs in that category:

Now you have a long list of some of the best blogs in your industry. And these bloggers are the exact people that you want to start building relationships with.

6. Use Benefit-Focused Content Curation

Let’s face it: Most content curation is pretty weak.

I think I speak for everyone when I say that I’ve read enough “top 100 posts you need to read” lists for one lifetime.

So how can you make your content curation stand out?

By tapping into Benefit-Focused Content Curation.

Benefit-Focused Content Curation is similar to most other types of curation, with one huge difference: it focuses on the outcomes that your audience wants.

I’m sure you’d like to see an example.

Here you go:

This is a guide I put together a while back called, Link Building: The Definitive Guide.

This guide has generated over 116,000 visitors from social media, forums, blogs and search engines:

(I should point out that the guide’s design and promotion contributed to its success. But it all started with how the content itself was organized)

What makes this guide’s curation unique is that it’s organized by benefits, not topics.

For example, Chapter 2 is called “How to Get Top Notch Links Using Content Marketing”:

Note that the title isn’t: “Chapter 2: Content Marketing”. And most of the other chapters follow the same benefit-driven formula.

Why is this so important?

When someone sees a list of curated links they immediately ask themselves “what’s in it for me?”.

And when you organize your content around outcomes and benefits, that answer becomes really, really obvious.

In other words, answering “what’s in it for me?” makes the perceived value of your content MUCH higher than a list of 100 random resources.

7. Link Out to Authority Sites

With all the talk about Hummingbirds and Penguins it’s easy to forget about an important Google algorithm update from 2003 called Hilltop.

Despite being over ten years old, Hilltop still plays a major role in today’s search engine landscape.

Hilltop is essentially an on-page SEO signal way that tells Google whether or not a page is a “hub” of information.

So: How does Google know which pages are hubs?

It’s simple: Hubs are determined by the quality and relevancy of that page’s outbound links.

This makes total sense if you think about it…

The pages you link out to tend to reflect the topic of your page.

And pages that link to helpful resources also tend to be higher-quality than pages that only link to their own stuff.

In other words, pages that link out to awesome resources establish themselves as hubs of helpful content in the eyes of Big G.

In fact, a recent industry study found a correlation between outbound l/pinks and Google rankings.

Bottom line:

Link to at least 3 quality, relevant resources in every piece of content that you publish.

That will show Google that your page is a Hilltop Hub.

8. Send Juice to Pages Sitting on Page 2 or 3

I’m not sure how else to say this: If you’re on page 2 or 3 of Google’s search results…you might as well be on page 58.

So how can you give those pages a boost so they hit the first page?

Use one of my all-time favorite SEO techniques: throw some internal links their way!

Here’s the 3-step process:

Step #1: Use Google Search Console to find keywords where you rank on the 2nd or 3rd page.

To find them, log in to your Google Search Console account and click on Search Traffic –> Search Analytics:

Make sure to check “position”. That way you’ll see the average ranking for each keyword.

Then, sort the results by “Position”:

Next, look for keywords with an average position of 11-30.

If you’re getting clicks from a keyword on page 2 or 3, you can be pretty sure that it’s a keyword with some decent search volume.

For example, this page from Backlinko is ranking #12 for the keyword “SEO checklist”.

Even though I’m on the second page, I still get 24 clicks and 2,792 impressions per month for that keyword:

Sure enough, according to the GKP, that keyword gets 720 monthly searches with a suggested bid of almost $5.00

Step #2: Identify authoritative pages on your site.

You can easily find the pages on your site with the most juice to pass around using ahrefs.

Just enter your homepage URL into the tool and click “Search”:

Then click on “Top Pages” in the right-hand sidebar:

That will show you the most authoritative pages on your site:

Step #3: Go to those pages and add internal links.

Finally, add internal links from those authoritative pages to the page that needs a boost.

9. Add This One Word to Your Outreach Email…and Increase Your Response Rate by 45%

When someone sees an email pop into their inbox, two questions enter their mind:

“Who is this person?” and “What do they want?”

The faster you answer these questions in your outreach emails, the better your response rate will be.

But how can you do that?

It’s easy: Use the word “because” very early in your email.

Believe it or not, the word “because” has surprisingly powerful effects on human psychology.

Research by Dr. Scott Key of Northern Illinois University tested whether people waiting in line to use a copy machine would let a stranger cut in front of them.

When the stranger asked: “Can I use the copy machine before you?”, only 61% people said “yes”.

But when the stranger asked: “Can I use the copy machine before you because I’m in a rush?”, 89% said yes.

(That’s a 45% increase!)

Why such a huge difference?

It turns out that the word “because” makes a request — ANY request — seem more legitimate.

In the world of outreach, legit messages get better responses.

(Just look at all those lame guest post pitches that flood your inbox. If they actually took the time to look legit, they’d perform a lot better)

Here’s an example blogger outreach pitch that leverages the word “because” early on:

The person receiving that message knows why I’m emailing them after two seconds of reading.

But more importantly, the word “because” cements my reason for reaching out as more legit.

10. Write Mini Blog Posts for YouTube Descriptions

I don’t need to tell you that YouTube video results are dominating Google’s first page.

And considering that Google owns the popular video site, it’s a trend that’s not likely to change anytime soon.

Here’s the best part:

There’s a dead-simple technique that can get your YouTube videos to rank for competitive keywords in both YouTube and Google?

Well there is: write 200+ word video descriptions.

When most people upload a video to YouTube, they mindlessly toss a few words into the description box:

That’s a HUGE mistake.

Remember that Google can’t watch or listen to your video content.

Instead, they rely on your video’s text-based title and description to determine what your video is about.

And this extra text content can help you rank for your target keyword.

For example, check out the description for one of my recent YouTube videos:

That’s a high-quality, 200-word description.

Aborder: 4px solid #cccccc; /http://backlinko.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/keyword-in-google-webmaster-tools.pngpnd this description is one reason that my video rocketed to the first page of YouTube for the keywordWell today IWell today I “link building”:

If you want to learn more about YouTube SEO, check out this step-by-step guide.

11. Reverse Engineer the Results on Page 6

Fun fact: Reverse engineering pages 2-10 will often hook you up with top-notch link opportunities…

…opportunities that you’d miss when you only reverse engineer Google’s first page.

But you’re probably wondering: “Is there really anything good to reverse engineer on page 6?”

The short answer: yes.

The idea that pages 3-10 are littered with low-quality sites is a myth.

In fact, a lot of the results on Google’s inner pages are made up of people that started cool sites…

but eventually gave up when things didn’t work out the way they planned.

Here’s the thing: before they moved on to the next project, they published some awesome resources.

Because these resources tend to be neglected, you can easily improve them and steal their links using The Skyscraper Technique.

For example, I did a quick search for “weight loss tips”.

Sure enough, I found this heavily linked-to resource on the 6th page:

As you can probably see from the screenshot, this site has A LOT of room for improvement.

However, because the author of this page used to care about his site, he was able to land links to his site from authority sites like Livestrong:

Think you could take the content from this old site and make it better?

I know you can .