There’s no shortage of SEO tips online. Most say the same thing: optimise your titles, get backlinks, and use keywords naturally. That advice isn’t wrong, it’s just very expected.
But SEO has never been about doing what everyone else is doing. The best results often come from unexpected moves, offbeat experiments, or just looking at a common problem from a completely different angle.
Here are six approaches that break the usual mould and might help you unlock something new.
1. Don’t Take Keywords at Face Value
When most people see a keyword, they jump straight to the obvious format. A keyword like “best SEO of all time” shows up, and the instinct is to write yet another list of industry names everyone’s already seen a hundred times. But that’s exactly the problem; everyone’s doing the same thing.
Instead, take a step back. What other angles could you explore? Could you challenge the idea, question the definition of “best,” or spotlight a forgotten moment in SEO history? You can check out this post on the best SEO of all time for a great example. It approaches the topic from a fresh angle, with a mix of satire and expertise.
When you stop treating keywords like rigid instructions and start treating them like themes open to interpretation, you give yourself a better shot at actually standing out.
2. Ranking Without Even Using a Website
It sounds strange, but it happens more than you’d think. SEOs have seen success ranking content through platforms that aren’t their own — think documents on public drives, profile pages on large publishing networks, or even PDFs uploaded to high-authority domains.
Why does this work? Search engines don’t care where the content lives as much as they care about structure, authority, and intent. If that PDF is well-optimised, loads fast, and sits on a trusted domain, it can outrank poorly structured blog content easily.
It’s not a scalable strategy, but it does remind us that the rules are broader than most people assume.
3. Old Content Can Be a Goldmine
Many SEOs get caught up in producing new content constantly, assuming that fresh equals better. But going back and updating old content is often faster and more effective.
Search engines already know the page. They’ve indexed it, ranked it, and possibly sent traffic to it. Small improvements — clearer headings, updated links, better formatting, stronger metadata — can move that existing post up the rankings without writing a word from scratch.
Some of the best-performing pages on long-standing sites are several years old, updated regularly, and continuously refined to stay relevant.
4. Forums, Comments, and the Power of Presence
Backlinks don’t always need to come from guest posts or high-authority outreach. Some of the most overlooked links — and brand mentions — come from consistently showing up in the right niche communities.
A well-placed answer on a forum, a valuable comment under a relevant blog, or a thoughtful reply in a long-running Reddit thread can send quality signals and actual traffic. Even if the links are nofollow, they can drive awareness, relevance, and trust.
Being present in the spaces your audience already occupies is still one of the most underrated SEO moves.
5. Not Everything Has to Scale
Scalability is a big buzzword in SEO, but sometimes the best results come from things that don’t scale. Manually writing outreach emails to ten specific journalists. Creating one custom landing page for a local event. Hand-curating internal links for a small set of pages.
These tactics take more time and don’t always produce immediate results. But when you’re up against automation and mass-produced content, the personal touch stands out.
If you’re in a competitive niche, doing what others can’t automate might be exactly what gets you through.
6. UX Changes That Improve Rankings Without Touching Content
Most people separate UX from SEO. In reality, they feed into each other more than you’d think.
- Faster page loads – Better Core Web Vitals often lead to better rankings
- Clearer CTAs – Lower bounce rates and better engagement help with behavioural signals
- Mobile-first design – Not just responsive, but designed specifically for mobile-first use
There are cases where simply improving the layout, reducing pop-ups, or adjusting button sizes has increased rankings. Why? Because those changes improve how users interact with your content, and Google pays attention to that.
You don’t always need more words. Sometimes, you just need a better experience.
Break the Rules (But Know Why)
SEO has enough checklists. Sometimes they help. Sometimes they hold you back.
The point here isn’t to throw out best practices; it’s to remember that the most memorable results often come from doing something nobody else thought to try. Whether it’s repurposing a keyword in a fresh way, optimising an old PDF, or manually editing five pages until they’re perfect, the edge often comes from the unexpected.
There’s no single path to the top of the rankings. But there are plenty of forgotten shortcuts, weird detours, and clever tweaks that can get you there.
Just don’t be afraid to try something different. That’s where most of the fun starts.
