Before Stuart Brown was an SEO specialist, he was an infantryman in the Australian Defence Force. This combination of experiences has given Stuart a different and unique insight into being visible on search engines. Although at the time he was training to go to war, Stuart learned many concepts which he has been able to apply to his work with search engines, to great effect. One of the key concepts was the importance of the 1%. Meaning it’s the small things you do as a soldier that can be the difference between life and death. At Localsearch, our online directory receives millions of pageviews every month which small businesses rely on to capture new customers. This means the smallest changes can have massive consequences for a lot of people. In such a high-stakes environment, Stuart uses his military concepts and tactics to ensure search engine objectives are achieved, while minimising the risk competitors represent. In particular, he: Plans an SEO project like a military operation Identifies and exploits competitor weaknesses Gains the initiative on a motivated opponent Uses deception tactics to misdirect competitors who are watching Predicts and mitigates the most likely/most dangerous reactions of competitors

1. Stuart Brownstuart.brown@localsearch.com.au
HEAD OF DIGITAL STRATEGY
LOCALSEARCH
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA ~ AUGUST 22 - 23, 2018
DIGIMARCONAUSTRALIA.COM | #DigiMarConAustralia
DIGIMARCONNEWZEALAND.CO.NZ | #DigiMarConNZ
Tactical SEO –
Conducting SEO As Though
Lives Depend On It
KEYNOTE

2. History
 2006 enlisted in the Army & prepared to deploy
 I learned about infantry tactics
 2016 started at Localsearch
Enlistment day 2006.
Feeling excited!
Start of pre-
deployment.
Feeling pumped!
During pre-deployment
training: No sleep, no
showers, no food, heat
exhaustion, hypothermia…

3. Why combined military tactics & SEO?
 Localsearch.com.au attracts millions of
pageviews
 Tens of thousands of businesses depend
on those leads
 Any change will impact many people
 Our competitors are:
 Large & well resourced
 Highly motivated & aggressive
 Quick to copy (anyone)

4. To win we need to be…
Smart
Creative
Strategic

5. Using a military mindset enables
you to find more creative
solutions to difficult problems.

6. 3 military concepts to overcome a
highly motivated opponent.
I need 100 backlinks
if we’re gonna get
this traffic…
Rel=nofollow?
PR1?

7. 3 key military concepts
Military mission planning Gain & retain the initiative Monitoring & deception

8. 1. Plan SEO
like a
military
operation

9. Mission Planning: SMEAC
1. Situation
2. Mission
3. Execution
4. Admin & Logistics
5. Command & Signals

10. Situation: Friendly
 Current situation
 “XYZ company is new to market and
attempting to attract organic traffic to
generate leads”
 Desired end state
 “XYZ company will attract 1000 organic
visitors per month”
 Assets, resources
 “Large content team, strong industry
relationships.”
 Wider strategic goals
 “This is the first stage of a plan to double
website traffic by October 5th 2018”

11. Situation: Enemy
 Assets, resources
 “They have a large development team, are well
financed, and have a big youtube channel”
 ENMLCOA (Enemy most likely course of action)
 “Historically they have been known to copy our work,
and the work of other competitors.”
 ENMDCOA (Enemy most dangerous course of
action)
 “In 2014 they filed a lawsuit against [company]
because they released a widget which they believed
was a threat to their market dominance”

12. Mission Statement
“Who + what + why + when”

13. Mission Statement
“XYZ Company will release [thing] in order to
capture 1000 organic visitors/mo, no later than
5pm on Friday the 3rd of May 2018.”

14. Real Example
“Localsearch will release a new
META description format, in order
to improve CTR no later than
February 24th, 2018.”

15. Execution
 Who, what, where, when
 “Content team will publish article by
dd/mm/yy”
 “Marketing will send emails by dd/mm/yy”
 “Sales will finish closing leads by dd/mm/yy”

16. Execution
Risk mitigation: How does this method…
 Maximise our strengths, minimise our weaknesses
 “Leveraging our large content team, we will release content at twice the rate and
and be twice as thorough. We will also use our strong industry relationships to
generate links and maximise rankings.”
 Exploit enemy weakness, mitigate their strength
 “Even though ABC Industries are very slow to release content, and their content is
thin. This means we will be perceived as the more responsive, thought leaders.”

17. Execution
What do we do if we experience…
 ENMLCOA (they copy our work)
 “We will also post their version on our social media (highlighting the date
difference) and ask our audience what they think of this alternate content
(knowing that ours is vastly superior).”
 ENMDCOA (they try to sue us)
 “We have located a legal precedent which demonstrates that our work does
not infringe on their IP. We can also demonstrate evidence that our content
was derived from original research from our own data sources.”

19. 2. Gain &
retain the
initiative

20. Be different &
difficult to copy
 Do specific research
 Case studies
 Leverage strategic partnerships
 Create custom widgets
 Release content more quickly (if they are slow)
 Release more in-depth content (if theirs is thin)
 Release more entertaining content (if theirs is dull)
 Release video content (if theirs is all text)
 Solve a more specific problem (if theirs is generic)
 Target keywords which they have overlooked.
 Add bonus content to add value

21. Retain the initiative
 Be unpredictable
 Always add unique value & innovate for your user
 Have 2 or 3 more releases ready to deploy before
you publish the first
 Have a roadmap in place

22. Monitoring &
Deception

23. “If you know the enemy
and know yourself, you
need not fear the result
of a hundred battles.”
– Sun Tzu

24. Monitoring & deception plans
Spying has been used in
wartime throughout history.

25. Monitoring
 Google alerts
 Facebook’s page monitoring
features
 Download their free guides
 Test trial accounts
 Interrogate their chatbots
 Subscribe to their newsletters
(with fake emails)
 Use keyword tracking which
monitors your competitors

26. Create an ongoing program of work
designed to actively deceive your
competition.
Deception

27. Deception plans
 Find key email addresses with
Hunter.io
 Send fake newsletters about
upcoming features
 Send “accidental” emails which
appear to be internal company
memos detailing future plans
 Leak strategy documents
 Create fake landing pages using
Unbounce or Leadpages with fake
information
(remember to no-index/no-follow)

28. If you behave as though absolute success is the ONLY option,
you will explore every possibly option to ensure it happens.