Google doesn't want you to know the secret sauce behind its ranking algorithm recipe. So, most SEOs rely on gut feeling when using certain SEO methods they think should work. However, there are ingenious SEO among us who don't mind working their fingers to the bone and digging up hard-won SEO facts in (usually time- and resource-consuming) field experiments. http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

1. 10 SEO Experiments
THAT WILL CHANGE
THE WAY YOU DO SEO

2. 1. Backlinko’s Skyscraper
Technique

3. Brian Dean of Backlinko…
 Found a top-notch content piece
(the skyscraper)
Bested it with his own content piece
(an even taller skyscraper)
Pitched his post to the right people
(those linking to the skyscraper)

4. The Result?
…
a 110% surge in
search traffic!
Find out how he did it at
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

5. 2. Dejan SEO’s outgoing
links test

6. Dan Petrovic of Dejan SEO
created 2 similar sites, and…
Pointed 0 links to site A
Pointed 1 PR-7 link to site B
from a page with tons of outgoing links
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

7. The Result?
…
site B catapulted from
#70 to #3 on Google
in just weeks!
Learn more about this experiment at
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

8. 3. Matthew Woodward's
Zero SEO experiment

9. Matthew Woodward said
he’d promote his blog with 0 links and…
Helpful video tutorials
Postings at niche blogs & forums
Realized promo opportunities from
Google Alerts
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

10. The Result?
…
MatthewWoodward.co.uk
now has 9,608 backlinks!
Find out more about how he did it at
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

11. 4. Bill Sebald’s test on
internal link power

12. Bill Sebald of Greenlane SEO got busy
playing with internal links…
 First, he
pointed a link
from his second-best page
to his Homepage ->
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

13. The site jumped
from #11 to #10
on Google
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

14. As tweak #2…
 He
pointed a blog-wide link
to his second-best page ->
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

15. The site shoot up
to #9
on Google!
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

16. 5. Bill Hartzer’s title length
experiment

17. Bill Hartzer of BillHartzer.Com…
Made up a fictitious title tag with
non-existent words that
was 95 characters long and 448 pixels wide
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

18. Google displayed
the title tag
entirely!
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

19. 6. Cyrus Shepard
disavowing links to his site

20. After Google Penguin 1.0, Cyrus Shepard
of Moz…
Used Links Disavow Tool
to disavow all 35,000 links
to his site (cyrusshepard.com)
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

21. After Penguin 2.0,
traffic to the site
crippled by half!
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

22. Did removing
the disavow file help?
…
No, site traffic didn’t
recover post-Penguin 2.1…
Read more about this experiment at
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

23. 7. Dan Petrovic hijacks
Rand Fishkin's blog

24. With Rand Fishkin’s consent, Dan Petrovic
of Dejan SEO…
Outranked Rand’s own blog
in the search results!
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

25. The conclusion?
…
Hijacking is possible if :
 The copycat page has higher PR
 There’s no canonical tag set
 The original page has fewer +1 signals
 The original page has no Google
Authorship
Read more at
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

26. 8. Eric Enge plays with
Facebook signals for SEO

27. Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting…
Blasted his 6 pages
with 800+ Facebook Likes
(some real, some from Fiverr)
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

28. The webpages
did not even get
indexed in Google !
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

29. 9. Jason Noel’s case-sensitive
search test

30. Jason Noel of Maven Websites noticed
that…
 “curt gowdy state park”
returned 15,300 Google results
but
 “Curt Gowdy State Park”
returned 41, 400 Google results
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

31. Is Google search
case senSitiVe?
…
Could be…
Find out at
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

32. 10. Neil Patel’s TechCrunch
job

33. Neil Patel & his team were called in to
help TechCrunch with SEO & social. They…

Reduced on-site duplicate content

Created a proper XML sitemap

Keyword-optimized title tags & alt texts

Interlinked CruchBase &TechCrunch.com

Worked with social media influencers
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

34. and…
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

35. Search traffic
to TechCrunch doubled…
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

36. and overall traffic grew
by 30%!
http://webmeup.com/blog/seo-experiments.html

37. Read about all
10 SEO experiments
in detail at...
http://webmeup.com/blog/seoexperiments.html