There’s not much that surprises me in SEO anymore, but this hack and its quick results shocked me.
I was looking through my last several weeks’ Google ranking data and saw:
My page – which had been unable to rank for years – shot up to position 1 on Google – after 10 minutes of changes which I never thought would work – 2 weeks after implementing the hack.
If you have a page which isn’t ranking on Google at all and you believe it should be (for example if it is targeting a keyword that is not competitive) this is worth a try.
SEO Glossary for this article BTW:
Keyword = what people search on Google
Ranking = what number your page shows up on Google Search. #1 means you’re at the top of GoogleSearch under the Sponsored results (which are paid ads).
Page = the unique page of your website (example: edwardsturm.com/compact-keywords/)
Page of Google = Google’s results. Page 1 is the first page of Google for a search. Page 2, page 3, etc.
My page
In March 2023 I made a thorough page targeting an easy keyword.
I submitted it to Google Search Console – which, among other things, tells Google your page exists – I expected my page to rank fast. It didn’t.
In fact it only started to rank over a year later – #1 on Google – for a week – then it stopped ranking again. It just was not ranking at all.
March 25th, 2025 I implemented the hack – which I read on the SEO subreddit and never expected to work – but it sounded interesting plus, as a marketer, I believe you should always try to challenge your preconceived notions.
The change I implemented took 10 minutes.
April 9th, 2025 I went from not ranking at all to ranking #1. Today is May 4 and I’m still ranking #1.
The 10 minute changes made
- I cloned the not-ranking page to a new page.
- I spent 5 minutes adding/removing words in the:
- URL
- Page title
- Meta description
- Opening paragraphs
- I want to stress – these changes were minor – I only made them so this new page would not be a 100% copy of the previous page.
- I 301 redirected the old page’s URL to the new page’s URL.
- A 301 redirect tells Google a page has been moved permanently and it transfers any/all link juice to the new page.
- The old page was linked to in one spot on my site. I changed that link to reflect the new URL.
- I submitted to Google Search Console:
- The old page – so Google could see it is being 301 redirected to the new page.
- The new page – to make sure it is crawled.
What happened
The Reddit comments that caused me to try this:
March 2023
I create my page BUT the website it is on had not been updated in a while and is making a pivot in terms of the topics it covers.
The page is for the new topic – which is why it doesn’t rank fast like I expect.
2023 - 2024
Every couple of months I make small further optimizations to the page. I always submit the updated content to Google Search Console. Nothing happens – click-through rate testing phase had ended.
And I’m in the “year period” mentioned on Reddit where the page isn’t reindexed and reassessed.
October 2024
The page is tested once again.
I have more authority for the topic (because I’ve been active marketing in the topic for the past year) – but the page is still judged with the topical authority the site had in 2023.
The page gets tested at position #1 because it’s perfectly optimized for an easy keyword.
The keyword doesn’t get enough searches for that single week to validate Google’s test (it’s a low-search-volume keyword) – so I go back to not ranking at all for it.
March 25th 2025
I make the changes previously mentioned.
The new URL gets reassessed with all the topical authority I have gained since March 2023. My site is a lot more related to the topic than it was when the old page was first published.
April 9th 2025
I begin ranking #1 for the keyword with the 99% cloned content on the new URL.
I stay ranking because the page is perfectly optimized for the keyword.
If this wasn’t an issue of completely misaligned topical authority – I would have been ranking on Page 1 or 2 of Google with the old page. Since I wasn’t ranking at all, that tells me the “click-through rate test phase” had ended and my old page was “languishing.”
If you…
If you have a page that you think should be ranking, and it isn’t ranking at all, give this a try.
You may be surprised, just like me.
