What is the best SEO secret that you know?

**hyena-ojisan** · 13 March 2024, 4:28 am

What I recommend is enhancing the WordPress category pages. It is common for category pages to display a list of links to grouped articles, but they should include more descriptive text. Additionally, internal links to the category pages should always be inserted within the articles. I believe this elevates the importance of the category pages. Therefore, you should target big~middle keywords on the category pages.

**felipe_mcbr** · 24 July 2024, 9:31 am

Honestly, there’s no secret at all! It's all a matter of trial, error, more trials, and more errors. But of course, I do have a secret for getting my ideas heard and considered by my leaders and decision-makers in the company. It’s all about how you "sell" the idea and the confidence in your speech!

**Vlad_h** · 25 July 2024, 2:44 am

I would say, looking into the content with a magnifying glass as that's what ranks you and not the backlinks or other things.

**AussiePunter** · 1 August 2024, 4:20 am

I think I commented earlier in this thread, which was "once you find something that works, don't tell a soul."

But these days, as well as that, I would add what Google's Matt Cutts was saying in the early 2000's. Make a website that your visitors love, is better than the competition with unique content and try to become an authority in your specific field. Ensure you have a good social media following, natural traffic from many sources, not just search engines and/or advertising networks. Basically, you want a website that you would recommend to a friend if they asked you "what's the best website for X"?

Search algorithms as well as AI, combined with the rare manual human oversight make it way too difficult to outsmart with simple tricks these days.

Edit: Give me PageRank overruling all else any day as an SEO.

**big fish** · 2 August 2024, 2:59 am

Not exactly a "secret", however I created a bunch of great free AI SEO tools (GPTs) that you can find here:
https://aiseo.agency/ai-seo-tools/

**docteurcasino** · 2 August 2024, 8:22 am

Sometimes, to achieve results in SEO, you need to forget about SEO occasionally and just do what makes you happy and will also please your visitors. If you do SEO just for the sake of SEO, you will eventually lose the holy fire.

**tallman** · 2 August 2024, 1:26 pm

When I created an old website, i made sure it covered the basic industry information, with detailed site reviews, but nothing to special. I then researched more into what the target market was searching for, and created a super page with all this information organizes into locations, tables, details etc. I think I had a map at one stage, but removed it due to page speed. After this picked up, site traffic increased dramatically.

Over the last year, Google severley punished that site

I'm now wondering if the page was too big or had to many elements, tables, or related keywords etc.

Would it be better producing a large page with everthing, or breaking the content into seperate region pages and linking from the original page?

Cheers

**gm2891** · 2 August 2024, 3:40 pm

Originally Posted by tallman

When I created an old website, i made sure it covered the basic industry information, with detailed site reviews, but nothing to special. I then researched more into what the target market was searching for, and created a super page with all this information organizes into locations, tables, details etc. I think I had a map at one stage, but removed it due to page speed. After this picked up, site traffic increased dramatically.

Over the last year, Google severley punished that site

I'm now wondering if the page was too big or had to many elements, tables, or related keywords etc.

Would it be better producing a large page with everthing, or breaking the content into seperate region pages and linking from the original page?

Cheers

That's likely the helpful content update. I don't know anyone who recovered from that update. And the funny thing is that Google, somewhere on their blog, has a page where they list a few websites that they reckon tick most boxes, but after the update, they got smashed as well, lol. I don't remember where they list those sites, but if you search, you should find the place.

The only way to recover, i reckon, is to 301 the site to a new domain and:

- Change, improve the site structure
- Keep all URL slugs short and clear
- Update your most important pages and get them indexed.
- Keep all low-quality pages as no-index until you get them sorted

Don't be afraid to put a no-index tag on your low-quality pages! If they don't have impressions, then there is no point for them to be on the SERP.

Make the most important pages as good as you can, and keep all those hype and "best" words to minimum before you let them be indexed. This should give Google a good first impression of the site and hopefully get you into a positive ranking state. Create a unique 'About Us' page, and keep it purely informational, with a focus on how your site can benefit the user.

Your authors - i don't think they matter. This can be faked and made look real by friends from Mumbai. G knows it. There are plenty of sites, and even with proper authors that now sit on pages 3, 4, etc. Essentially, you should convey a sense of authority through the content, but not by plastering the site with those round photos of non-existent people, as many do.

**tallman** · 2 August 2024, 4:24 pm

Originally Posted by gm2891

That's likely the helpful content update. I don't know anyone who recovered from that update. And the funny thing is that Google, somewhere on their blog, has a page where they list a few websites that they reckon tick most boxes, but after the update, they got smashed as well, lol. I don't remember where they list those sites, but if you search, you should find the place.

Thank you so much for your detailed post mate!! I think it must’ve been the helpful content update. I designed the page to be as helpful as possible, maybe there was too much information, or because many were visiting a casino site/ad quickly, perhaps google treated it as a bad user signal?

The weird thing is, afterwards for the same keyword these crappy articles popped up that just scratched the surface, maybe mentioning the keyword a few times and providing a tiny list of locations/options.

Thanks for all the info on 301’s for a new site @gm2891 That’s a solid tip about no indexing low quality pages, I’ve never thought of doing that, I’ll need to look into this.

My site tanked heavily sine Aug/Sep last year, and I’ve been trying everything to revive it. I’ve considered setting a 301, but I always thought Google would be able to tell and maybe penalise new site?

Sorry for the ramble, I just have a few more questions if that’s cool?

If I move over to a new one and set a 301, should I backup and delete the old site first, then setup the new one afterwards? And should I remove it from GSC/Analytics, and maybe add to another one?

In Google’s eyes will they think the content on the site is unique? Even if it may be indexed elsewhere?

Would it be better to keep the URLs exactly the same, or is that a huge red flag. And changing them + setting redirection is safer?

Thanks again, I really appreciate your time to help and share your tips with this.

**oncasifun2024** · 3 August 2024, 2:31 am

Write articles in a syntax that google likes, and increase the number of high-quality inbound links.
SEO in Japanese is very difficult.

**gm2891** · 3 August 2024, 6:00 am

Hey, i'm not a tech guy, just pure experience. Here are some things i can share publicly. For specifics, feel free to DM me.

I’ve considered setting a 301, but I always thought Google would be able to tell and maybe penalize the new site? Would it be better to keep the URLs exactly the same, or is that a huge red flag?

If you redirect all URLs with identical structures and the same content to a new domain like oldsite/casinos to newsite/casinos, then that's, I think, a pointless practice. Because everything is the same but on a new place, and Google would likely realize it right away.

I would do it selectively and start placing redirects to my core pages and those pages that still had impressions after the penalty hit. I would also check if i had some good backlinks pointing to some of my pages and create 301s for them too. I wouldn't care much about redirecting the rest, because in Google's eyes it's just rubbish. I would publish them on the new site only when i improve the content.

The main goal of redirecting the site, i think, should be to get it re-crawled and re-ranked with improved site structure and content.

---

If I move over to a new one and set a 301, should I backup and delete the old site first, then set up the new one afterward?

I don't know where you're hosted, but I used Siteground migrator; it does it in 10 minutes and your oldsite.com becomes newsite.com with all your images, texts, etc., on the new site. This way you have two identical sites. The new one you block so nobody can access it, and your old one stays alive. Once you've done all the necessary changes and improvements on your new site, you can start placing 301 redirects from the old one.

---

Should I remove it from GSC/Analytics, and maybe add it to another one?

Keep the GSC on for your old site as it will let you see all your page URLs, keywords, and backlinks. But don't use their Change of Address tool. For the new site, create a new GSC account.

---

In Google’s eyes, will they think the content on the site is unique? Even if it may be indexed elsewhere?

I don't know how they would treat it. From some of my pages, i removed 1-2k words, fine-tuned all, and they went to top spots for keywords i want. After you put 301s, those old pages will gradually disappear and your new ones replace them.

**gm2891** · 4 August 2024, 2:23 am

Originally Posted by tallman

Thank you so much for your detailed post mate!! I think it must’ve been the helpful content update. I designed the page to be as helpful as possible, maybe there was too much information, or because many were visiting a casino site/ad quickly, perhaps google treated it as a bad user signal?

The weird thing is, afterwards for the same keyword these crappy articles popped up that just scratched the surface, maybe mentioning the keyword a few times and providing a tiny list of locations/options.

Thanks for all the info on 301’s for a new site @gm2891 That’s a solid tip about no indexing low quality pages, I’ve never thought of doing that, I’ll need to look into this.

My site tanked heavily sine Aug/Sep last year, and I’ve been trying everything to revive it. I’ve considered setting a 301, but I always thought Google would be able to tell and maybe penalise new site?

Sorry for the ramble, I just have a few more questions if that’s cool?

If I move over to a new one and set a 301, should I backup and delete the old site first, then setup the new one afterwards? And should I remove it from GSC/Analytics, and maybe add to another one?

In Google’s eyes will they think the content on the site is unique? Even if it may be indexed elsewhere?

Would it be better to keep the URLs exactly the same, or is that a huge red flag. And changing them + setting redirection is safer?

Thanks again, I really appreciate your time to help and share your tips with this.

Hey mate, i should've replied with a quote - see above, it's for you.

**Niko** · 5 August 2024, 5:04 am

We have been using organic social traffic for the last 4 years to boost our rankings. The method is called "Viral SEO", and rankings go up in a matter of hours if everything from the tech/on-site perspective is okay

**AussiePunter** · 18 August 2024, 6:58 am

From my readings, Google have become quicker to penalize, penalties are harsher and longer lasting and there is no foolproof way to get a legit site unpenalized without access to people on the inside. As usual, it comes down to who you know in every business in the end.

As gm2891 said, if your domain is indeed penalized and you know it - it isn't just a normal fluctuation or your competitors are much stronger than you - starting again; not just a carbon copy of your old site but really starting again, isn't a bad option. Use 301 redirects to get some of the link juice of your old site to the new, but try and prevent making the same mistakes. Unless of course, it was a malicious competitor who got you penalized in the first place.

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