How to Rank on Page 1 of Google FAST (In-Depth Case Research)

Today you are going to see one of my favorite SEO strategies in action.

(“Guest data”)

Specifically, I’ll show you how Perrin used this technique to get Google first page for a number of his target keywords.

Let’s dive right in.

The gastographic method:
An SEO strategy that gets results

Guestographics work for one simple reason:

They make your content MUCH easier to share.

I published a post a while ago that describes the whole process: How to get backlinks with Guestographics.

So if you haven’t read this post, check it out.

In this post I reveal how the Guestographic Method increased my organic traffic by more than 175%:

And Guestographics are one reason why Backlinko is on the first page of “On Page SEO”:

Does that sound like something you’d like to try?

Continue reading…

How Perrin and David used Guestographics to boost their rankings (and traffic)

I just showed you how well Guestographics works for me.

Now is the time to reveal Perrin and David’s results.

First up, we have Perrin Carrell.

Perrin recently ran a pet blog called. started HerePup.

Why did Perrin create this blog?

A few months ago, Perrin picked up a cute little black puppy from an animal shelter (Chewie).

Like most new dog owners, Perrin was looking for the best dog food for Chewie …

… but he did not find any content that would have blown him away.

That’s when Perrin realized he had a HUGE opportunity to stare into his face:

There are no dog blogs with overwhelming content. Why not do the first?

In Perrin’s own words:

After dozens of late night writing sessions, Perrin’s website went live:

(Note: Perrin’s original name for the blog was Chewie Says. But he recently changed it to Here Pup)

That’s the good news.

The bad news? The dog blog space is dominated by a handful of massive authority sites.

That means Perrin is on par with mega-sites like PetMD.com and Cesar “The Dog Whisperer” Millan.

You could even say it’s a dog-eat-dog world (sorry, I couldn’t resist?)

In order to have a fighting chance against these massive sides of authority, Perrin had two options:

Option 1: He was able to work on his blog, publish on a set schedule, and HOPE it got traffic (“The Publish and Pray Approach”).

Option 2: He could create (and promote) some amazing content.

Fortunately for Perrin and his new blog, he pulled the trigger on Option 2.

And he decided to get started with Guestographics.

How did it go?

Guestographics increased its organic search engine traffic by 963% in just 6 weeks:

And thanks to placements on a handful of popular pet blogs …

… and the Huffington Post …

… he also directed over 1000 targeted referral visitors to his website:

Not bad for a brand new blog.

Note: His secret was NOT a $ 10,000 infographic. As you’ll see in a moment, design had very little to do with Perrin’s success.

After that’s done, it’s time for me to walk you through the process, one step at a time.

Step 1: create and publish a (really good) infographic

This is the deal:

Despite what most content marketing gurus would have us believe, design does play a VERY small role in the success of an infographic.

In fact, choosing the right theme is 90% of the game.

And here’s Perrin’s infographic 22 Ways Dogs Make Humans Healthier hits a home run:

Sure, his infographic looks really nice.

But without a topic that dog lovers care about, things ALMOST would not have gone so well.

Now:

Perrin had a hunch that dog owners would want Mr. Fluffy Pants to improve their health.

So he looked for “dogs and human health”.

And he came across this slide show from the WebMD ranking on the first page:

(Yes it really looks like this)

As Perrin puts it:

While the WebMD site leaves a lot to be desired, it has attracted backlinks from over 300 referring domains:

In other words, Perrin saw that there was a proven demand for content on “how pets improve human health”.

But not just any information …

… demand for visual content.

So Perrin decided to create an infographic on this time-tested topic.

First, he spent a day researching content for the infographic.

Then he hired a freelance designer to create his bullet list …

… and turn it into a professional infographic.

Looks good, doesn’t it?

As you probably know, posting something of value is not enough to generate high quality backlinks and targeted traffic.

If you are serious about getting results from your content, then you need to promote it strategically.

What leads us to step 2 …

Step 2: Find people who are interested in your infographic

Once your infographic is ready, it’s time to make a list of people who might want to try it out.

The easiest way to do this? Look for keywords that describe the subject of your infographic.

For example:

Let’s say you just published an infographic about the Paleo Diet.

You would use keywords like “Paleo Diet”, “Paleo Diet Recipes”, “What is the Paleo Diet?” google. etc.

And Google will show you a list of blogs covering this topic:

You can even use Google Suggest to get even more keyword ideas:

This is how Perrin found his guestographic brochures:

As I just described, Perrin searched Google for keywords like “pets and health”.

But he didn’t stop there …

He also searched for keywords like “Top 50 dog blogs”.

These “best of” keywords brought Perrin together with hand-curated lists of popular pet blogs:

Once you’ve found a quality blog in your niche, here’s how:

Step 3: see if they’re interested in your infographic

Most people pitch bloggers the completely WRONG way.

Instead of measuring interest with a feeler message, go straight to hard sell.

You’ve probably received some of those pesky emails yourself.

Have you ever replied to any of these?

I didn’t think so

That’s why you want to start the guestographic outreach process with a short email …

… a quick email simply asking if you’d like to see your infographic.

Here is a tested script that you can use:

And here is the exact feeler email Perrin sent:

See how Perrin’s message differs from most intrusive outreach emails?

He just asks if they’d like to see the infographic … which is easy to sell.

In other words, you don’t want to link to anything in your first email.

Why not?

When someone sees a link in an email from someone they don’t know, they think, “That person must want something”.

And they hit the delete button.

But when you send an email simply asking if they’d like to see your content, it’s usually received with open arms.

In fact, Perrin sent 92 emails …

… and he has 5 conversions (that’s a 5.4% conversion rate).

Fixed.

Now:

Once you get a “Sure, Submit” reply like this …

… it’s time for step # 4.

Step 4: make sharing your infographic a breeze (AKA, “the bribe”)

If you want another website to point you, there is one thing you need to keep in mind:

The more barriers you remove, the more successful you will be.

(This applies to everything in marketing … not just email inquiries)

Well what’s the ONE thing stopping people from sharing an infographic?

The fact that you have to write a unique introduction to do it!

Well, the nice thing about Guestographics is that you are remove this barrier.

As?

By writing this introduction for them.

This is the template I’m using:

And here is the email Perrin sent to the people who liked his infographic:

And because you make their lives easier, your response rate will be MUCH better than an intrusive pitch:

If someone says, “Sure, send me an introduction,” send them a high quality 200-250 word intro.

Oops. I nearly forgot that.

Here is the script you need to use when sending your intro:

And here is the email Perrin used to send people his unique introduction:

Step 5: add a link to your introduction

This is important:

The unique introduction not only makes it easier to share your infographic.

It also makes your link MUCH more powerful.

As?

Unlike most infographic backlinks that automatically show up when someone shares your infographic with an embed code, like this one …

… Gastographic links are surrounded by unique content in the introduction.

Links in the intro increase your referral traffic and are better for SEO.

In total, Perrin’s Guestographics campaign brought in 8 niche-relevant white hat backlinks.

(5 came from Guestographics. The other 3 were natural placements that came after his infographic was distributed on the internet)

That’s a total cost of $ 25 / link. Not bad.