If you search for “self-help” on Google, nearly three billion websites pop up.

With so much competition, it can feel nearly impossible for website owners in this niche to find their way to the top of the search results.

In this post, we’re going to take a look at some of the top self help websites and look at what they’re doing right so you can take a page from their books.

Keep reading to find out more.

1. Steve Pavlina

This self-help site is devoted to “personal development for smart people.”

What we’re going to focus on here that this website does right is social media. A number of visitors to this site came from YouTube, Facebook, and other social media sites.

By not relying strictly on organic search, you can expand your reach through social media.

2. Mental Help

Covering a wide variety of subjects, this website is doing quite well.

What they do best is rank for a wide variety of keywords focused on mental health, including depression and mental health. Both of these are huge drivers of traffic as many people search for them frequently.

This underlines the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) for your website.

3. Relationship Talk

This self-help website and forum helps visitors improve relationships with romantic partners, family members, and friends.

The forum is what this site is doing right. It allows it to rank for a number of long-tail keyword phrases such as “get my girlfriend back at any cost” and “I can’t accept my boyfriend’s child.”

These keywords can be nearly impossible to rank for in blog format because of the personal pronouns, so having an active forum allows this site to thrive.

4. Craig Beck

Here, you can find information about everything from cryptocurrencies to how to deal with difficult people.

What Craig Beck has done right is to create a memorable personal brand. One of the top search queries that lead to his site, it uses his name. Building a personal brand allows people to connect with an individual rather than a company.

While this may not work for everyone, it rings true that people want to connect with a real person.

5. Motivate Us

As you can imagine, this website is filled with motivational quotes to inspire people.

In addition to ranking for some highly-competitive keywords, this site does one other thing well. It has a number of quality backlinks. A backlink is like a thumb’s up from another site which Google takes note of.

If you’re not already working on building up backlinks to your self-help site, now is a good time to start.

Check Your Site’s Score Against These Self Help Websites

Now you’ve seen a few ways that these self help websites rank with Google and drive traffic to their sites. They use social media, SEO, forums, personal branding, and backlinks to keep their content in front of people.

If you want to see how your website measures up, you can click here to learn more about our site report card.