Why do some pieces of "10X" content make the leap while others languish in obscurity? Rand examines the common elements that make for success vs. failure in this analysis of 99 unique pieces of extremely high quality content pieces.

1. Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
The Paradox of “Great Content”
Why Some Pieces Make the Leap While Others Languish in Obscurity

2. A Tale of Two
“10X” Content Investments

3. Source

6. Yikes. #10. Behind many far
lower-quality, less-investment-
heavy results 

7. Source

12. #1 for this and dozens
of other keywords

13. For 2.5 years, I’ve
maintained a list of
remarkable content from
across the web…

14. Analysis of 99 10X Pieces

15. Links, Shares, & Ranking KWsAnalyzed

16. Avg. Linking RDs:
Avg. Ranking KWs:
Avg. Facebook Shares:
919
2,834
77,990

17. Correlation Shares->KWs:
Correlation Shares->Links:
Correlation Links->KWs:
-0.014
0.069
0.386

18. What Separates 10X Pieces
That Perform vs. Those That
Don’t?

19. Keyword Research
& Targeting#1

20. Google made an immense investment in this resource.

21. If only they’d done any SEO at all…
Not blocking your own crawler might be a start 

22. This piece may not look like much…

23. But, sweet Christmas, does it rank…

24. AStrong Investment in KW Research Clearly Paid Off
IFixIt knows what
searchers want,
and delivers

25. WhatYou Call Your 10X Content MattersALOT!
Sadly, Polygraph titled their excellent analysis unwisely, &
missed out on lots of extra search traffic

26. Failure to Optimize
for SERP CTR#2

27. The Economist’s college rankings (which are, IMO, vastly
better & more scientific than others) can’t compete in featured
snippets b/c of the chart embed 

28. FiveThirtyEight
made the same
type of mistake
w/ their piece on
gun deaths.

29. Domain/URL
Segmentation#3

30. Many folks shoot themselves in the foot, creating unique domains
or subdomains for their 10X content 

31. Building on
Another’s Platform#4

32. Why Put a Phenomenal,Traffic & Link-GeneratingArticle on
Medium & Not Your Own SiteToo?!

33. Github seems like an even
more peculiar choice as
one’s only publishing
platform…

34. Some folks use 3rd-party
platforms wisely – for
distribution, not the primary
home

35. Accessibility
#5

36. 1,540 linking RDs
60K+ FB Shares
Ranks for only 24
keywords 

37. No, Frinkiac, you really don’t deserve this
shabby lack of an internal link structure.

38. Delightful,
But Not Useful#6

40. It’s hard to justify 10X
investments that don’t
provide ongoing value…
unless you’re an ad
agency 

41. Ignores the
Searcher’s Intent#7

42. Content that fails to
answer searchers’ goals
can have a brief ranking
“pop,” but usually falls
thereafter

43. We observe this w/ time-
sensitive content, too. E.g.
This amazing NYTimes
graphic was a snapshot in
Curry’s 3-point history, and
thus, didn’t rank for long.

44. Creates No Incentive
to Link#8

45. Made Reddit’s Front
Page w/ 6568 upvotes
600+ Facebook
Shares in a Week
42 Links

46. IcelandAir made a
big investment w/
this piece on the
Northern Lights, but
got only 5 links…

47. A Few Additional
Patterns & Observations

48. There’s Subtle Evidence that Social VisitsAre
Connected to Google’s Rankings
Source

49. I Observed This Same Phenomenon:
Source

50. In 10X Content,
Data >Almost Everything Else
Source

51. Interactivity isAlso Powerful
Source

52. Media Companies Dominate
FiveThirtyEight
New York Times
Bloomberg
Other Media
7
7
7
19

53. Brand ROI Can Be Outstanding, & Isn’t Just
About Links or Rankings
Source
515 Linking RDs
Ranks for 92 KWs
Worth it just for the
positioning

54. Source
248 Linking RDs
Ranks for 47 KWs
Shows off the UVP
brilliantly

55. Source
225 Linking RDs
Ranks for 465 KWs
Worth it for the
brand awareness

56. The Three Most
Successful* Pieces
*from an SEO perspective

57. #3: Timelines of Geeky Fiction
Source
96 Linking RDs
Ranks for 9,616 KWs!
585 FB Shares

58. #2: US Election Odds
Source
7,180 Linking RDs
Ranks for 22,723 KWs!
344 FB Shares

59. #1: Zillow’s “Digs”
Source
834 Linking RDs
Ranks for 2,630 Insanely
High Value KWs
8570 FB Shares

60. Rand Fishkin, Wizard of Moz | @randfish | rand@moz.com
bit.ly/contentparadox