Presentation from State of Search in Dallas, Texas.

1. How to Not Go Viral and Grow by
500,000+ Monthly Visits
Ross Hudgens, Founder, Siege Media
@RossHudgens | siegemedia.com

2. Stop me if you’ve heard
this one before...

3. SEO agency starts a
presentation on
content and links.

4. They show
you a fancy
interactive
you can’t
replicate.
@RossHudgens |

5. Then they
list a ton of
publications
it got
covered in.
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6. Then they show
another fancy
$10,000+
interactive you
can’t replicate.
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7. Then they list
a ton of
publications it
got covered
in.
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8. Then you see
another one
of those
presentations.
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9. And another.
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10. And another.
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11. They’re cool.
But do they
work? What’s
the value of
the talk or for
the client?
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12. Here’s the
problem.
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13. Viral topics
aren’t on
brand.
a
Brand
voice
Topics
that can
go viral
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14. Giant link
spikes aren’t
natural
“brand”
activity.
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15. Would you
want to wait
a full year for
the next link
spike?
@RossHudgens |

16. For many
reasons,
these linkbait
assets fail to
deliver
measurable
results.
@RossHudgens |
http://bit.ly/linkbait-failure

17. Instead, let
me propose
something
novel.
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18. Content that
generates
five links.
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19. Content that
generates
seven links.
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20. Content that
generates
nine links.
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21. And doing that
several times a
month,
over and
over again.
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22. With content
that’s
on-brand.
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23. And delivers
something
more than
a link.
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24. And doing it for
less cost per link
than those other
companies would
charge for their
average “swing”
at virality.
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25. We’ve been in
business five
years, and we’ve
only had two
assets
go “viral.”
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26. But we’ve
helped ten
businesses grow
by 200k+
monthly search
visits, including
five by 500k+.
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27. And seven by
monthly traffic
value
increases of
$240,000
or more.
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28. Here’s a
secret:
Virality is
overrated.
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29. Virality and
large,
interactive
linkbait is shiny
and fun to talk
about.
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30. But sustained
quality content
and links, done
over and over
again... is what
drives
sustainable
business value.
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31. And you can
do it yourself!
For less. And
you can learn
from it without
breaking the
bank.
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32. They are
Barry Bonds.
Steroids and
out of the
league.
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33. You can be
Adrian Beltre:
.387 on base
percentage and
future Hall
of Famer.
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34. How can you consistently
create effective, linkable
content?

35. Here’s our
playbook for
doing it.
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36. First, make
your business
invest in at
least one sunk
cost
differentiator.
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37. What are
examples of
sunk cost
differentiators?
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38. A
photographer
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39. A
videographer
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40. An animator
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41. Best-in-class
website design
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42. Industry-best
graphic
designers
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43. If you can’t
invest in any
of these,
stay home.
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44. First, find
top/middle funnel
search topics that
have 30 LRDs
each on average
and build those,
first.
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45. In B2B spaces,
make an effort
to build data
studies that
get cited.
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46. And even if you
do that, always
curate the go-to
“KEYWORD
statistics” post,
too.
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47. In B2C (or
B2B), build
the things
people
curate.
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48. Make sure
they tie back
to search and
drive real
business
value.
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49. Slot that content
in a folder,
ideally one word
that
deoptimizes/still
signifies what it’s
about.
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/blog/
or
/reviews/best-air-conditioner/

50. Then, make your
content exactly
the highest
volume version
of the keyword,
unless the folder
repeats it.
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/ideas/home-decor/

51. Do some
targeted
outreach. Use
the following
template
framework:
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Subject: ASSET TYPE for WEBSITE: POST
TITLE
Hey name,
Custom sentence about what about their site
made us reach out, without being fake. Second
sentence on what our content is about.
You can see it here: http://www.website.com/url
If you like the post, we’d appreciate if you
considered sharing it with WEBSITE readers.
Thanks and looking forward to hearing what
you think!

52. Maybe
generate
10 links.
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53. Use that content
promotion to
generate
bottom-funnel
value through
follow-ups.
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http://bit.ly/link-followups

54. And then,
watch that
asset (and its
bottom funnel
connectors)
rank.
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55. Rinse and
repeat...
forever.
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56. You’ll soon
build a
marketing
flywheel.
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content
links
promotion
generate
rankings

57. Your link
velocity will
naturally
increase
without more
cold
outreach.
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58. Virality, as it
turns out,
rarely
generates a
flywheel
effect.
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59. You should
still apply the
“leans” of
virality in
your content
ideas.
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60. Validate
concepts with
1. average links to
those concepts
2. search volume
3. social proof in
terms of sharing on
social networks.
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61. Ideally, the
intersection of
these three means
you are building
things that have
search demand,
but also link
opportunity, too.
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Links Search
volume
Social
proof

62. For bonus points,
always include
the outreach
market/shareable
format you will
include when
ideating for max
linkablility.
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DIY Flower Crown for Parties and Weddings
(SV 2,400) How to Make a Flower Crown - 2x
Custom photography/video how-to. This has 53
LRD’s. Confident we could rank for this query. We
could include a shareable featuring different styles
of flower crowns similar to the flower chandelier
infographic to make the piece more shareable and
capture the winter wedding market for outreach.
• Outreach Market: lifestyle, wedding
• Format: photography how-to

63. Going to bat
with these five
levers, one or
more
sunk cost
differentiators,
and a work
ethic to do it for
years…
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64. …means
you will
win, even
without
going viral.
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65. Here’s to
eight links.
@RossHudgens |