10 Effective SEO Shortcuts That Actually Work

SEO shortcuts, honestly, have scared me for the most part of my nearly decade-long career. 

I have completed more than eight years in the search engine-dominated digital marketing landscape. And working with shortcuts has never been a good idea. On top of that, SEO isn’t really a sprint – it’s more of a marathon.

And a marathon requires consistency, patience, and showing up every single day without fail if you want to succeed. Moreover, the reality behind ranking on SERPs is time-consuming  – it takes time, consistent effort, and lots of trust from Google.

Having said that, I’m an ardent believer in smart work, not hard work. So, waiting for months without any significant progress isn’t my thing, really. 

And the Search Engine Magazine is a living example – it tanked, thanks to the Google March Update of 2024. Yes, we tanked, and then for 9 months, we sat still at zero. No amount of hard work could solve the problem. 

But I wasn’t ready to give up on this blog. So, from November 2024, I started working on the website alone. And over the next three months, we were able to hit 1.4K in traffic and survived the 2025 March update, and even the October Spam update. 

Today, we stand strong with 33K organic traffic. Of course, my strategy was organic, but needless to say, I did use a few SEO shortcuts to accelerate progress and obtain faster results without cutting corners. 

Based on my experience with Search Engine Magazine, I’m here to share my no-nonsense expertise on using shortcuts effectively without risking damage to your ranking on SERPs. 

Stay tuned. 

Do SEO Shortcuts Actually Work? Are These Even Real?

Yes, they work. However, it is possible that you don’t know which ones I’m talking about. Why? Because the most effective shortcuts are not meant to trick search engines. 

Rather, they are ethical and high-impact. Remember what I said about smart work over hard work? 

For example, I would not call SEO outreach or link building a shortcut. Why? Because it takes some time to start your outreach journey. And sometimes, it might take you months to obtain any real result. 

In this blog, I’ve compiled SEO shortcuts that are actionable (and super quick) – tactics that will not take months to yield results. 

Moreover, my list of shortcuts prioritizes optimizing content and web pages that you have on your website already. Additionally, you don’t really need to create new content for this to work out, except in a few cases. 

Also, these shortcuts work because of their alignment with the core mission of Google: to help users with valuable and relevant content. 

10 Safe SEO Shortcuts That Actually Work:

So without wasting time, let’s check out 10 SEO shortcuts that work without fail:

1. Stop Writing For Robots And Start Writing For Humans:

Of course, you have heard this before. But that is only because it is the most effective SEO shortcut for quick results! 

Yes! You need to create content that adds value and genuinely helps people coming to your website. Moreover, your content has to meet the search intent to perform on SERPs. 

While doing this, you need to understand that Google’s algorithm is very smart and can easily prioritize content that adds value and meets user intent. 

So, if you are creating content that is easily readable, offers real value, and is engaging, then it will definitely perform better in SERPs. Also, the content can appear on AI Overviews and other generative AI platforms like Gemini and ChatGPT. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Always start by identifying search intent: Before you can write, it is crucial to figure out what your audience is looking for. Are they looking for a tool, a special product, or just information? Then, you need to align the content with what is already ranking for the target keyword. 

2. Prioritize readability: Ensure your content has clear headings, simple language, and short sentences. Also, aim for 60 and above on the Flesch Reading to ensure that your content has easy readability. 

3. Always answer user queries: This can create magic for you! You just need to structure the content in a way that it directly answers all user queries on the topic. Moreover, this shows that your content is adding value and wins Google’s trust in the process. 

2. Create Keyword-Rich And Unique Titles:

Your title tag (page title) is the most crucial aspect of your on-page SEO strategy. 

It is literally the first thing that users come across in search results. Moreover, it informs both readers and search engines what your website is all about. 

Also, it has already been proven that adding unique titles can boost your CTR or click-through rates. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Create titles that are short, sweet, and helpful: Ensure your titles are under 70 characters. The point is not to get cut off in the search results. 

2. Incorporate your target keyword in your titles: Add your target keyword to the title. Also, you can add a variation of the main keyword to your title, in case it is difficult to add the actual keyword to the title. 

3. Be unique and descriptive: Create titles that promise value and accurately reflect your content. For instance, ‘10 SEO Shortcuts That Can Boost Ranking’ is better than ‘10 SEO Tips For Faster Results.’

3. Refresh And Update Old Blogs:

This one’s old but gold! All your old blog pages are a major goldmine for gaining some quick wins in the SEO-dominated digital marketing landscape. 

Of course, content has its own expiry date. And the worst part? Outdated content can impact your ranking on SERPs – your article can fall down in ranking, losing organic traffic in the process. 

So, by refreshing content, you can regain lost traffic quickly and boost its authority in the process. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Look for declining pages: Use any keyword tracking tool or GSC to identify web pages that have gone down in ranking and lost clicks over the past six months. 

2. Filter pages with high-quality backlinks: Use a research tool for backlinks and check out the link profiles of the pages. It is best to focus on modifying and updating the pages with good link profiles. 

3. Update information: Refresh all the outdated stats, add new sections that are relevant, and replace all the broken links. 
4. Expand your content: Expand the content to make it more helpful, comprehensive, and valuable, especially if the topic has evolved. 

5. Republish your content and promote it: After updating the content, change your ‘last updated’ date on the blog and promote it like a new blog. 

4. Use AI To Identify SEO Gaps:

AI tools are excellent weapons for anyone trying to analyze huge amounts of data at the drop of a hat. Moreover, it can help you spot ranking opportunities that your competitor has used to rank. 

With the help of AI tools, you can do keyword research, identify gaps in the content, and suggest tactics for improving existing pages.

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Analyze the content gap: Use AI-powered tools like Gemini or Chat GPT for comparing your top-performing pages with those of your competition. Also, ask AI for keywords and topics covered by your competitors that you have overlooked.

2. Find opportunities for long-tail keywords: Use AI to generate a list of related long-tail keywords. Also, you can group long-tail keywords using AI based on search intent. 

3. Analyze on-page SEO of blog pages: Paste your content into ChatGPT or any other AI and ask how to improve readability, structure, and keyword placement.  

4. Use AI to create content clusters: Use AI for grouping keywords into content clusters. This makes it easy to create content hubs targeting multiple related search queries. 

5. Add An FAQ Section With Schema Markup:

Adding an FAQ section to your blog pages and website is one of the best SEO shortcuts on this list. Why? 

Because it is perfect for anyone trying to capture organic traffic via long-tail keywords and getting mentions in AI overviews. 

Moreover, when you use an FAQ schema markup, it improves the visibility of your page and increases the CTR. 

Also, adding Schema.org code is a shortcut that you can make the most of – and not just for Google SEO, but most importantly for Generative Engine Optimization.

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Look for relevant questions: You can use Answer The Public or a similar tool to find frequently asked questions related to any topic. Also, you can check out the ‘People Also Ask’ and ‘People Also Search For’ sections in Google. 

2. Add a dedicated FAQ section under each blog: Create a mandatory FAQ section for all your blogs. Also, if you have service pages, they will need a dedicated FAQ section as well. 

3. Add schema markup: With the help of any schema generator, you can create the required code and then add the same to your content’s HTML. This will help Google to understand and show your FAQ sections as rich snippets. 

6. Optimize Internal Linking:

Internal linking is super important. With internal linking, you can link your blog posts to one another, creating a map for visitors to navigate related queries and guides. 

Moreover, internal linking helps a search engine understand your website’s structure, pass authority between pages, and discover new blogs. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

So, how to practice internal linking without any penalty? 

1. Find opportunities for internal linking: Search your website to find topics related to your keyword. Of course, if you have been actively working on creating content for the site regularly, you won’t even have to look for opportunities – you will automatically create them while writing. 

2. While adding internal links, use anchor texts with keywords in them: Ensure your anchor text is relevant and descriptive. Avoid using vague anchor texts like ‘read more,’ or ‘click here.’ 

3. Link only important pages: Ensure your high-value or cornerstone pages receive more internal links. Why? Because these pages usually drive more revenue or traffic. So, giving them more internal links will significantly improve their visibility in search results. 

7. Compress And Rename Images:

Large media files can significantly slow your website’s loading speed. This, in turn, hurts your ranking in SERPs and overall user experience.

As a result, you should consider optimizing images on your website. This is a quick technical fix with a major positive impact. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Compress your images: You can use image compression plugins or tools like TinyPNG to compress or reduce the size of media files without compromising on quality.

2. Rename your files: While renaming your image files, use names that are keyword-rich and descriptive. And do this before uploading the images. 

3. Add a descriptive alt text: Ensure you are adding alt text to all your image files. This will help a search engine to understand your image files and improve accessibility for all visually impaired visitors. 

8. Fix All Broken Links:

Broken links make the overall user experience poor. 

Also, it is not good for SEO. And this includes both outbound and internal links. In case you didn’t know, broken internal links lead to 404 pages on the website. 

As a result, fixing pages that have broken backlinks is perhaps one of the easiest and most effective SEO shortcuts in this list. 

Moreover, you need to regularly audit and fix broken links to ensure your website remains healthy. 

Also, this will improve crawl efficiency, helping you obtain value from your existing backlinks instead of waiting for organic link growth. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. First, find the broken backlinks on your site: With the help of Screaming Frog, you can scan your website for pages with 404 errors, but continue to have backlinks pointing at them. 

2. Prioritize valuable links: Screaming Frog will display all broken URLs. Also, the tool will show you where the backlinks are from. That way, you can prioritize valuable backlinks. 

3. Restore or redirect: After identifying broken links, you can either restore the web page or redirect it. FYI, 301 redirects send both search engines and users from broken links to live, relevant pages on the website. This is perfect if you want to intentionally remove the page but retain its link authority. Similarly, if you had deleted a page mistakenly, then restoring it will ensure that the content is live again.

9. Prune Low-Quality Content:

Underperforming pages with low-quality and thin content can dilute the overall authority of your website. And that is precisely where content pruning comes to save the day! 

Moreover, you can look at content pruning as a way to improve or remove dead weight (A.K.A low-quality content) from your website. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Identify the underperforming pages on the website: These are generally pages with outdated content, no backlinks, and little or no traffic. With the help of tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console, you can identify low-quality content pages quickly. 

2. Decide whether to improve or consolidate these pages: You can improve the content by adding value and ensuring it meets current search intent. Moreover, if you have multiple content pages on the same topic, then merge them into a single comprehensive blog that will perform better in SERPs. 
   
3. Delete the page if it is broken beyond repair: If the content is outdated, irrelevant, and fails to add value, consider entirely removing it. However, to retain link equity and a good user experience, delete pages using 301 redirects to related pages.

10. Ask People You Know For Links:

Building backlinks, especially high-quality ones, is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in the SEO landscape. It takes a lot of time, trust, and persistence. 

Moreover, if you are trying to do it for free due to a lack of budget, then it is almost impossible. 

Also, for smaller or new websites, it gets difficult to even compete against established websites that already come with strong link profiles. 

As a result, one of the simplest (and easiest) SEO shortcuts is to ask people you know for links. 

How Can You Implement This Shortcut?

1. Get in touch with business partners, friends, clients, and industry contacts: Just ensure all these people are running sites relevant to your website. And if they genuinely like your content, they will most likely share links. 

2. Before contacting people, check domain quality: Early backlinks help search engines recognize your website’s credibility. Plus, these help increase your website’s domain authority. Also, remember that you need backlinks from relevant and high-quality domains. Quality always outperforms quantity in this case. 

Common SEO Shortcuts That You Should Avoid:

I have listed 10 SEO shortcuts above that have proven to be very effective for me, especially while revamping Search Engine Magazine. 

However, there were three shortcuts that can further penalize your website, making it difficult for you to obtain any results. 

On that note, here are three common SEO shortcuts that you must avoid – and that too at all costs! 

1. Buying Links At A Large Scale:

Purchasing backlinks on a large scale is a complete violation of Google’s policies on SEO guidelines. 

While buying links at a large scale will boost your website temporarily, the search engine giant’s algorithm is too good at detecting unnatural linking. 

And once caught, it is possible to obtain manual penalties. This will cause your rankings and traffic to drop overnight. And we have faced this during the 2024 Match Update. It is very real and frightening. 

As a result, always try to earn links through genuine outreach and good content. 

2. Keyword Stuffing:

Stuffing your content with keywords is extremely harmful. Please understand that stuffing your articles unnaturally with keywords to manipulate ranking in search results will not yield any results. 

Instead, it makes your content unreadable. Moreover, Google can easily detect what you are trying to do – and trust me, because I’m not talking from personal experience. 

Also, Google will end up penalizing websites for doing this because it makes the overall user experience poor. 

3. Publishing AI Content:

AI is an excellent tool for both assistance and research. However, using AI to generate low-quality content at a large scale without any human intervention will get flagged as spam. 

Also, AI-generated content hardly ever offers any real value to the users. More importantly, it ends up going against the helpful content guidelines of Google.