Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Flipboard 3 You already know how important search engine optimization is, but how do you actually employ it on your website and blog? And with all of the SEO tips rolling around the internet, how do you find the ones that actually work and bring more traffic to your website? Here are the SEO techniques that work best in 2014. 1. Find keywords on Reddit. If you are looking for new keywords, there is a place on the internet where users are discussing just about everything under the sun and you can easily see how many people are talking and exactly what they are talking about. That’s right, Reddit. All you have to do is find your industry, find your product, and then scan the topics, finding what people want to know about and what they are already interested in. Then, you can tailor your content to fit those keywords. 2. Use Delicious to find potential back-linkers and bloggers. Like on Reddit, start by looking up topics on Delicious that are similar to your business. For example, if you do dental implants, search for dental implants. Then, find the content that has been bookmarked the most and look at the list of people who have bookmarked that content. Now, start looking over the profiles themselves. Chances are, some of them will have a website attached — often indicating that they are bloggers or webpage managers. Click through to that website, and if it is still applicable to your needs, contact the blogger or manager to see if they would be interested in working with you. 3. Draw inspiration from Pay Per Click Ads. While looking for good content for your page titles and description tags, the best place to look for examples is the Google results page for whatever keyword you are working with. Once there, look at the pay per click ads? Why? Because this content is the result of extreme testing. The content that you eventually see when you search a keyword has been run through so many tests, that it is almost guaranteed to draw visitors. Of course, you already know that straight copying and pasting won’t work, but don’t be afraid to draw inspiration from Adwords. 4. Make your blog or webpage a “hub.” With all of the new developments that Google has been rolling out in recent years, it can be difficult to remember that some of the most tried and true SEO practices are still the best. For example, you can make your website into a hub of information. Google still partially measures how authoritative your website appears by how many relevant links your pages contain. Start including relevant and high-quality sources in your content and making it easy for readers to share — it’ll do wonders for your blog. 5. Tell your readers why they should click on your blog. Just pumping out quality content is rarely enough to grab and hold the attention of new readers. You need to tell them why they should click on your link, whether it has arrived in their inbox, in a forum post, or in the search results. Give them a reason. Don’t just ask them to click on it, tell them how they will benefit from clicking onto your webpage. When there is a legitimate reason to click through, people are far more likely to actually do it. 6. Make the most of your YouTube titles and descriptions. If you’re not filling your YouTube video titles and descriptions with keywords and blog-like content, you are missing out on a serious SEO resource. Wait, you are doing video content right? That video title and little description box that you might be overlooking can be the perfect place to insert some keyword-rich content that encourages readers to click back onto your blog. Not only does Google now sprinkle its search results with YouTube videos, few people are using their titles and descriptions as effective SEO tools. Get on top of yours before the word gets out and it becomes more difficult to rank. 7. Use Wikipedia. After being told so many times by teachers that Wikipedia wasn’t a legitimate source of information, we’re here to tell you that it actually is. It’s a goldmine of keywords and topics, which is exactly what you need if you find your blog tank is running dry. While all of your competitors are still using Google’s Keyword Planner, you’re branching off and finding high-search, low-competition keywords on Wikipedia. To mine Wiki’s keywords, look at the contents box of an industry-relevant article. All of those titles are prime keywords and topics. Don’t forget about the “See Also” section, and any relevant in-article links. 8. Reach out to blogs that curate “lists”. You know the blogs. They write some original material, but mostly they just collect lists of links for their readers. Find one that curates lists in your industry—for example, “Twenty Best Blogs about Invisalign”—and drop them a line to ask if your blog could be included in the next rendition of a relevant list. You’re doing a little bit of their work for them, and they are sure to be appreciative, as long as your blog actually meets their needs. 9. Lengthen those posts. While it might be easier to cap yourself at 300 or 500 words, longer blog post do better for SEO. Of course, don’t stretch a thin topic just to meet a word count, but the more words you have, the more chances you have to include keywords, links to sources, and deep analysis of your topic. Instead of skimming over the surface, a longer post gives you the chance to delve deeper into the topic and really share some insight. While this might seem counter-intuitive—longer posts are more engaging! While consumers are in fact becoming less willing to read a long post—how much attention a long post is given has less to do with how long it is and more to do with how it is formatted. Which is why you should break it down into small chunks. Twitter Tweet Facebook Share Email This article was written for Business 2 Community by Adam Roseland.Learn how to publish your content on B2C Author: Adam Roseland Follow @adamroseland Adam Roseland is the founder of 814 Interactive, a leading digital marketing firm for small businesses that specializes in Automotive SEO. Adam has been working in the advertising industry for the past 10+ years, primarily in the digital space helping local businesses. Follow Adam here: Twitter Google+ … View full profile ›More by this author:How SEO Can Economy-Proof Your Small BusinessHow To Beat Writer’s BlockHow To Make Good Content Marketing Great