Author | Lightnews

Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, this is exactly it!

Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

I love Brendan Hufford’s “Checkbox Marketing” language to describe this exact problem. Although I don’t think it was him that came up with it originally.

Lots of marketers are still pushed to check boxes (links, blog posts) because stakeholders “think” it’s that work that moves the needle.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

I actually unpack this (and more) in the launch episode of the Beyond SEO Podcast from Growthack.io! It's now ranked 168th in Apple's Top 200 Business Podcasts!

Here's the link: youtu.be/5P1OrrXzHf4?...

The Testing Mindset: Inside SaaS Growth & AI Search with Ryan Jones | Beyond SEO 01

YouTube video by Growthack

youtu.be

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

3️⃣ Turn proof into conversation.

Collect and showcase real results.

Add a simple "Where did you hear about us?" to your onboarding flow.

You'll be surprised at how often Slack, LinkedIn, or a "friend" shows up.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

2️⃣ Lead with usefulness.

Give them something worth sharing. Tools, templates, frameworks, or data they can use.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

Here's how to turn passive goodwill into predictable growth:

1️⃣ Create brand advocates, not just users.

Give them insider perks, affiliate links, or ready-to-share decks that make it easy to talk about you.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

You can have:

✅ A great product.
✅ Solid onboarding.
✅ Killer customer results.

But if you're not treating word of mouth as a marketing channel, you're missing a scalable growth lever.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 2d

Most SEO pros think word of mouth just... happens.

It doesn't.
It's not luck.

It's a channel. And it's a channel that quietly converts higher than anything you'll ever see in GA4.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

That's a successful test! Then they can roll that change out to all SKUs and be confident in that change.

That's the Build --> Test --> Scale model in action.

🚀 Build smart.
🔬 Test everything.
📈 Scale what works.

Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

They might see an increase in clicks of 17% and a 12% lift to organic revenue.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

Let's say an ecommerce store tested rewriting 200 product titles to include size and intent.

They can create a control group of 200 SKUs and a test group of 200 similar SKUs. Make the change to the test group and monitor data for 28 days.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

Here's a quick example of how you can put the Build --> Test --> Scale model to work:

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

3️⃣ Scale

Once you've got proof, deploy it at scale.

This is where compounding growth happens because you're no longer gambling. You're multiplying known wins!

When you skip the "Test" stage, you're not scaling success. You're scaling uncertainty.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

2️⃣ Test

Run controlled experiments.

Split test your ideas if you can.

Track your results.

Prove what actually works BEFORE you roll it out sitewide.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

1️⃣ Build

Create based on insight, not guesswork.

Use data, search intent, and competitor analysis to shape your hypotheses.

Think: "We believe doing X will improve Y because Z."

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 3d

Most "SEO wins" aren't wins.

They're accidents that never repeat because nobody proved what worked.

The truth is, every successful SEO strategy follows one model:

Build --> Test --> Scale

Here's how it works! 👇

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 4d

Because when you learn faster than everyone else, you win faster than everyone else.

Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 4d

Here's the hard truth...

If you don't know what works, you'll keep wasting time (and money) on what doesn't.

To get off the wheel, you need proof.

✅ Test your changes.
✅ Measure their real impact.
✅ Keep a record of what works and what doesn't.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 4d

It's when constant action replaces actual insight.

You're busy, but you're not progressing.

You're working hard, but not learning fast.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 4d

But when traffic DOES move, we can't explain why.

So we keep guessing. We keep tweaking. And we keep running.

That's the SEO Hamster Wheel.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 4d

Almost all of the SEOs I know aren't short on effort.

They're short on learning.

Every single day, we're tweaking titles, updating content, fixing internal links, maybe even improving Core Web Vitals. All in the hopes that something moves the needle.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 4d

Hard work doesn't guarantee SEO growth. Learning does.

Most of us forget that, and end up trapped on the SEO Hamster Wheel.

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 5d

Increase in dwell time, yes! Which probably helped with the increase in clicks!

And a slight increase in conversions, but nothing too major! :)

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 5d

All from focusing on clarity, not just keyword density.

Sometimes, less content communicates more value. Especially when it aligns better with what searchers actually want.

Curious. Have you ever seen traffic improve after cutting down a blog post instead of expanding it?

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Ryan Jones @ryanjonesseo.bsky.social · 5d

And the results?

🚀 Clicks per day up 90%
🚀 CTR up 47%
🚀 Average position improved from 25 → 13.5
🚀 Impressions up 29%

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