The SEO plays catalog
Which SEO plays actually work
93 tactics that circulate in threads, courses and agency decks, each reviewed on the same card: the problem it claims to solve, the steps, the evidence and a verdict. Moves the needle, marginal or filler.
Browse by category guide
- Authority: Plays that try to earn or build links, mentions and the authority they carry.
- Assets: Things you build or buy that attract links and traffic on their own: tools, data, templates and domains.
- Demand: Plays for finding what people search and choosing which queries to target.
- On-Page: Titles, internal links, schema and content changes made on the page itself.
- Crawling: Plays that decide whether Google can find, render and index your pages.
- Scale: Publishing many pages at once: programmatic SEO, AI content, translation and comparisons.
- Distribution: Getting content and links outside your own site: PR, Reddit, syndication and newsletters.
- Measurement: How you read rankings and traffic without fooling yourself.
Filter by verdict
Filler Marginal Moves the needle
-
Add FAQ schema to win more space in results
Results with expandable questions used to take up more space on the page.
-
Add internal links to pages that are not indexed
Pages you want indexed are hard for Google to reach or seem unimportant.
-
Analyze server logs
You do not know which pages Googlebot actually visits.
-
Annotate every update and site change on a timeline
When traffic moves, you cannot tell why.
-
Answer journalist requests (HARO and its successors)
Links from news sites are hard to get by asking.
-
Audit and fix orphan pages
Some pages have no internal links pointing to them.
-
Believe that fixing cannibalization multiplies traffic
Case studies promise dramatic traffic gains from fixing cannibalization.
-
-
Build a newsletter as a direct traffic source
A site that depends only on Google is exposed to every update.
-
Build the product around a keyword
Most products are launched first and searched for later, if ever.
-
Buy a small site in your niche and merge it
Growing a site’s content and links from scratch is slow.
-
-
Chase Google Discover traffic
Discover can send large traffic spikes to publishers.
-
Check that content loads without JavaScript
Content that depends on JavaScript may not be seen or indexed in time.
-
Check the top 10 results before writing
Pages target a keyword without matching what Google shows for it.
-
Clean up redirect chains
URLs redirect through several steps before reaching the final page.
-
Create “X vs Y” and “alternatives to X” pages
People close to a decision search for comparisons, and competitors own those results.
-
Create link magnets by format
Lists of “link-worthy formats” promise links from any map, quiz or infographic.
Start with the guides
-
Dangerous SEO Tactics That Trigger a Google Penalty
The SEO tactics most likely to bring a Google penalty: what the spam policies…
-
How SEO Works: What Actually Moves Rankings
How SEO works in practice: how Google crawls, indexes and ranks pages, what links…
-
Is SEO Dead?
Is SEO dead in 2026? What zero-click data, Google’s updates and AI answers really…
-
SEO Tips and Quick Wins That Actually Work
SEO tips that hold up against the evidence: quick wins worth doing first, the…
-
White Hat vs Black Hat SEO: Where the Line Is
White hat SEO vs black hat SEO explained without moralizing: what Google’s spam policies…
Get the Penalty Risk Checklist
Join the list and download it straight away: 20 checks against the tactics Google’s spam policies target. After that, one email when a play is added or a verdict changes.
