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Quick Answer: Most so-called "lazy SEO tactics" are either low-impact foundational steps (like creating social profiles) or high-effort strategies (like HARO link building) disguised as simple hacks. The few that can offer a shortcut, like using 301 redirects from aged domains, are expensive, complex, and carry significant risk if not executed by an expert.
Everyone wants a shortcut. In a world where organic search accounts for over 53% of all website traffic, the temptation to find easy, cheap, or free lazy SEO tactics is stronger than ever. We've all seen the viral social media threads promising to transform your business overnight with a few simple clicks. But what if these "hacks" could get you a Google penalty, destroy your traffic, and tank your entire business? That's the risk you take by following bad advice.
Recently, a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter) went mega-viral in the SEO community, racking up hundreds of thousands of views by promoting a list of these exact tactics. In this guide, I'm going to break down these popular claims, tell you what's junk, what actually has merit, and provide much better, sustainable alternatives that will genuinely help your business grow. Let's separate the high-effort reality from the low-effort fantasy. Looking for a powerful way to implement advanced SEO strategies without the manual grind? Create your entire parasite SEO campaign in one go with this software ... try it free here.
"Just because your competitors wrote about a topic and are ranking for it doesn't mean that you necessarily want to either. A lot of these low competition keywords... won't do anything to help your business."
One of the most common pieces of advice is to find low-competition keywords your competitors rank for. The viral thread suggested using tools like Ubersuggest by Neil Patel to find keywords with a Keyword Difficulty (KD) lower than 20 and a search volume over 500. This is a flawed approach, and here's why.
The core issue is how these tools calculate difficulty. A tool like Ahrefs might label a keyword as "medium" difficulty because it only analyzes the authority of the specific page ranking (URL Rating or UR). It often fails to account for the massive authority of the entire website (Domain Rating or DR). You'll frequently see keywords labeled "easy" where the search results are dominated by DR 70+ websites. If you're a new business, you have virtually no chance of ranking, no matter what the tool says.
Instead of chasing arbitrary metrics, focus on business-relevant content first. Most "easy" keywords are informational, top-of-the-funnel queries like "what is a cloud link?". Not only do these rarely lead to conversions, but Google's AI Overviews are now capturing 50-75% of clicks for these types of searches. You could rank #1 and still get almost no traffic.
A better strategy is to focus on Bottom-of-the-Funnel (BOFU) content—topics that address a customer's needs right before they make a purchase. You can use ChatGPT to brainstorm these ideas:
Prompt 1: "What are some BOFU article ideas for a [your business type, e.g., link building agency]?"
Prompt 2: "Write an educational section for my website. All articles should be closely aligned with my business and address things customers might want to know before buying [your product/service]."
This approach prioritizes content that actually generates leads and sales, which is far more valuable than ranking for a high-volume keyword that does nothing for your bottom line. Interested in driving targeted visitors without relying on search engines? Discover how to get Free traffic from Facebook ... Free Facebook Strategy + Entire Toolbox.
The viral thread promoted purchasing expired domains with a Domain Authority of 20-50 from GoDaddy Auctions and using 301 redirects to point them at your main site. This is one of the few tactics discussed that can produce significant results, but calling it "lazy" is completely misleading. It's actually one of the most complex and high-risk strategies in SEO.
First, it's crucial to understand the difference between expired and aged domains.
Domain Type
Status
SEO Value
Aged Domain
Still active and indexed by Google; ownership is being transferred.
Higher. The authority and backlink profile are uninterrupted. This is what you want.
Expired Domain
Owner failed to renew it; it has been dropped from Google's index.
Lower and riskier. Google sees the lack of ownership, and its value is diminished.
The strategy involves redirecting an aged, relevant domain to your website, effectively transferring its backlink authority to your own. This can be a massive shortcut, but it's fraught with challenges. Finding a clean, niche-relevant domain is incredibly difficult and competitive. These domains can cost thousands of dollars, and you need deep expertise to analyze a backlink profile to ensure it isn't full of spam or from a former Private Blog Network (PBN). Unless you're an expert, you're better off paying a premium to a reputable broker.
"Anything where people can go and just push a few buttons and get a backlink, they're not going to give you results... Backlinks cost a lot of money for a reason because good ones are insanely powerful."
Several tactics involved getting "high DA" do-follow backlinks from platforms like Substack, Crunchbase, Medium, and Reddit, or by using "Google Stacking" (creating public files in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, etc.). Let's be perfectly clear: these are not powerful SEO boosters.
These types of links are called foundational backlinks. They are the bare-minimum, step-one links that every new website should build. They help establish your brand's presence online and create a natural-looking initial link profile. However, they carry very little authority and will not move the needle on competitive keywords.
Do they have a place in your strategy? Yes. It's good practice to create these profiles.
Is it a lazy SEO hack? Absolutely not. It's SEO 101.
The best approach here is to outsource it. Go to a platform like Fiverr, pay a freelancer $20-$50 to create 100+ profiles for you, and consider it done. Don't waste your time manually building links that provide such little value.
Some of the recommended tactics aren't bad—they're just the opposite of lazy. They are legitimate, powerful, but time-intensive SEO strategies that were dangerously oversimplified.
HARO Link Building: The suggestion to use services like PressPulse (a HARO alternative) to get free PR mentions is solid advice. HARO (Help a Reporter Out) is a great way to earn high-authority backlinks from news publications. However, it requires you to answer dozens of journalist queries daily with speed and expertise, and even then, your success rate is often low. It takes a dedicated effort, which is why agencies charge hundreds of dollars per link acquired this way.
Building Topical Authority: The idea of using a tool like AnswerThePublic to find questions and create content around them to build topical authority is the core of content marketing. Yes, if you write dozens of high-quality, expert articles covering every facet of your niche, Google will see you as an authority. But the key part is "high-quality," which involves hours of research, writing, and optimization per article. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
Internal Linking: The post claimed adding internal links and a table of contents could "increase session duration by 37%." This is a made-up, oddly specific number. While internal linking is crucial for distributing authority and helping Google crawl your site, its impact isn't a magic bullet. It's a fundamental on-page SEO practice, not a lazy hack.
Focus on Business Value, Not Vanity Metrics: Ignore arbitrary keyword difficulty scores and search volume minimums. Prioritize creating bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) content that solves customer problems and drives sales.
There Are No "Lazy" High-Impact Backlinks: Easy-to-get links (social profiles, directories, Google Stacks) have low value. High-value links (HARO, aged domain redirects, guest posts) require significant investment in time, money, or expertise.
Shortcuts Are Often High-Risk & High-Cost: The most effective "shortcut," a 301 redirect from a powerful aged domain, is an advanced, expensive, and risky tactic that should only be attempted by seasoned professionals.
True SEO is a Long-Term Strategy: Building topical authority and earning quality links are fundamental pillars of SEO that require consistent effort over time, not a series of one-off "hacks."
Forget the shortcuts. Here is a step-by-step checklist for building a sustainable SEO strategy that actually delivers results.
Prioritize BOFU Content: Before anything else, create the core pages and articles that answer your ideal customers' final questions before they buy. Use ChatGPT and competitor analysis to find these topics.
Build Your Foundational Links (and Outsource It): Spend $50 on a service like Fiverr to get your initial set of social profiles and directory listings created. Do it once and move on.
Analyze Competitor Sitemaps: Find your top competitor's `/sitemap.xml` file. Analyze their blog content to see what BOFU and MOFU (Middle-of-Funnel) topics they cover successfully and use it for inspiration.
Develop a Real Link Building Plan: Commit to a real, high-effort link building strategy. This could be HARO, guest posting on relevant industry blogs, or creating link-worthy content assets. This is where real ranking power comes from. For more details, see Moz's Beginner's Guide to Link Building.
Implement Smart Internal Linking: As you build out your content, strategically link from high-authority pages on your site (like your homepage) to pages you want to rank. Use descriptive anchor text. Refer to Google's own documentation on best practices.
"We are in the attention economy and people have gotten really good at getting attention with not really too much substance. Be aware that a lot of it is total BS."
In the end, the allure of lazy SEO tactics is understandable, but it's a dangerous distraction. The viral posts that promise incredible results with minimal effort are selling a fantasy. Real, sustainable growth in organic search comes from understanding your audience, creating valuable content that solves their problems, and earning genuine authority through high-quality backlinks. These fundamentals aren't lazy, but they are what actually works.
Instead of chasing shiny objects and worthless shortcuts, invest your time in the proven strategies that build a long-term asset for your business. The truth is, there are no secrets. The real work is focusing on what matters and executing it consistently. Want to stay ahead of the curve with proven strategies? Join my Group on Facebook for the latest insights about affiliate marketing and product creation.
Foundational backlinks are the first set of links a new website should acquire. They typically come from social media profiles, business directories, and forum profiles. They help Google identify your brand but provide very little ranking power. They are a necessary first step but not a strategy for growth.
It's considered a grey hat tactic. While not explicitly against Google's guidelines if done carefully with a highly relevant domain, it can be easily abused. If the redirected domain is irrelevant or spammy, Google may see it as a manipulative scheme and penalize your site.
BOFU keywords often include terms like "best," "vs," "review," "alternative," "pricing," or solution-specific phrases. A great method is to analyze your top competitors' sitemaps to see what content they've created that targets customers close to purchasing.
These are metrics from the SEO tool Ahrefs. Domain Rating (DR) measures the overall strength of a website's entire backlink profile on a scale of 0-100. URL Rating (UR) measures the strength of a single page's backlink profile. A page can have a low UR but rank well if it's on a website with a very high DR.
Yes, HARO (Help a Reporter Out) link building is still a very effective way to earn high-authority backlinks from reputable news and media sites. However, it is extremely competitive and requires quick, high-quality responses to daily queries. It is not a "lazy" or passive strategy.
A table of contents primarily improves user experience on long articles, which can indirectly help SEO by increasing engagement signals like time on page. It can also help you win "jump-to" links in Google search results. However, simply adding one is not a magic hack that will boost your rankings by a specific percentage.
High search volume keywords are almost always highly competitive and targeted by authoritative websites. A new site has little chance of ranking. It's a much better strategy to target lower-volume, highly relevant keywords (especially BOFU keywords) that you can actually rank for and that will drive qualified traffic.
No, not really. Creating public files on Google Drive, Docs, and Sheets and linking to your site is a very low-impact, old-school tactic. Like other foundational links, it won't hurt, but the time spent is better invested in activities that build real authority, like creating great content or pursuing guest posts.