7 Tips That Will Help You Survive a Zombie Outbreak and Get You a Top Ranked Website

Whether it’s their night, their dawn or their day, the living dead are constantly haunting movies, books and the related media. The idea of the long-ago and recently departed rising up to eat us is the stuff of nightmares–and billion-dollar entertainment franchises..

Should the day when the dead actually do walk, you’ll need to know what to do to survive…just so happens that these things will also help you get a top ranked website.

Here’s how you can survive a zombie outbreak AND get your site to the top of the search engines.

1. Keep Yourself Armed

A gun is a good thing to have in a zombie apocalypse, just like SEO weapons will help your site survive and thrive.

Firearms and other explosives are your best bet as far as weaponry goes as you can keep some distance between yourself and advancing zombie hordes.

If firearms are nowhere to be found many common landscaping tools can be quite effective. Axes, hatchets, pitch forks and hell even garden weasels can be used to crack undead cranium.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: Read up on the latest SEO updates and advances (like you are doing right now).  Some other good resources is Keith Baxter’s  AffiliateRadio.com, SEOmoz.org, and SearchEngineWatch.com. Your mind is your best weapon, so you have to train it constantly with the latest info and techniques.

You should also engage in daily activities to encourage link building. If you are running a business, you probably want to outsource some of this task.  I recommend Instant Linkerati’s 60 day special being offered right now (pretty shameless plug, huh?).

You can also do press releases, participate in forums, upload Youtube videos, write guest posts for other blogs (see bloggerlinkup.com and myblogguest.com…these are just 2 of several that you can, and should, participate in).

2. Avoid Heavily Populated Areas

This is not the place you want to be when zombies are roaming the earth. Similarly, you don't want to only get links from sites that have tons of outbound links.

If the zombies can spread their virus, curse or disease, a densely populated area will be more of a breeding ground than a safe haven.

On the other hand, avoid being totally isolated, in case you have to face a horde of undead yourself.

You want a moderately populated area that affords quick exits and good protection.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: Try to get links from sites/pages that aren’t full of links to other sites. The “link juice” passed by that page will be distributed evenly among the links on the page. So, the less links on the page, the greater distribution of “link juice” you will receive. 

Now, it’s not a BAD thing to get a link from a “crowded” page at all.  But, it would be much better to be one of a few links on a page.  

So, do what it takes to get noticed and get a good link from a strong page not full of other links. You can join my LinkHijack Coaching Club for just $10 a month to get strategies specific to this type of link building (it was an upsell to another product, but you can still get it from that link).

3. Beware of your fellow survivors

Don't trust all your fellow survivors (but I might still have to trust her)...and don't trust all the "SEO Experts".

Did you run into them while escaping a group of hungry ghouls?

More importantly can you trust them?

The safe answer is no. Other humans who want your supplies or who have lost their minds in the disaster could try to kill you.

Never let everyone know about all of your supplies, and never let your guard down completely. If someone is acting mysterious or weird, consider leaving immediately.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: Don’t take anyone’s advice on SEO before you make sure they know what they are talking about.

Just because they say they are an “SEO Expert”, doesn’t mean they really understand the complexities of this rapidly changing industry.

I still see banner ads, and even come across an article or blog posts from time to time, that state that submitting you site to 1000 different search engines will magically make your site pop up to the top of the search results.

4. Secure Necessities

Necessities like water and food are required to survive a night of the living dead, but a reliable host and a way to monetize traffic is required to survive on the Internet.

Make sure to secure any food or water when ever possible.

You’ll need to keep your energy and wits about you. Carry with you bottled water, juices, trail mix, breakfast bars, canned goods, dry goods and other non perishable items.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: Since we are talking about your website, having it up and running is the main “necessity”, right?

Get a reliable host. Don’t go cheap.  Shared hosting is OK start out with, but graduate to VPS (virtual private server) as soon as you can. You don’t want to be sharing a server with some spam site that causes it to crash.   

The other necessity is to make money with your site. Have a clear and easily identifiable call to action (CTA) on each page. This doesn’t have to be to buy something, or even to optin…you may just have an Adsense site and the goal is to drive repeat traffic. Just identify what the goal of the page is, and move toward that goal.

5. Start growing your own food.

You will have to learn to grow your own food...and you need to develop the skill to "grow" your site's content.

Why do I have to work on my f***ing gardening skills while the walking dead are terrorizing the earth?

You need to eat right? Canned food and Twinkies will only last so long.

Keep some seeds in your pocket or in your “go bag” in case you have to evacuate your current location.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: You need to continually plant seeds to grow your site. Develop and add content on a regular basis.

Just like gardening, you’ll develop better skills the more you do it.

If you don’t have time to write it all yourself, get guest bloggers to write it for you in exchange for a link to their site.  Just make sure that they aren’t direct competitors of yours, and that their site is something you don’t feel bad about linking to (if you are a family friendly site, you wouldn’t want to link to a porn or gambling site).

6. Fortify your home base

Try to dress as strategically as possible.

If weather permits thick leather jackets can provide some protection from potentially lethal bites. While the thick cowhide may be effective with larger groups of walking dead masses it can also hinder movement.

If you find yourself in an arid climate this may not be practical due to overheating.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: Strengthen your own site with internal linking. If a blog article on one concept mentions a concept you cover in another post,  make sure to link to that post.

There are several plugins that can automate this process for you (if you are on WordPress).

7. Stay prepared.

Don't get caught out in the open with a bunch of the walking dead...and don't get caught leaving your site open to hackers either.

It’s important to know you’re surroundings if you find a good place to hold up and defend yourself.

Come up with at least 3 good escape routes in the event that you’re over-run by a zombie horde.

Make sure to secure any doors and windows.

If possible create a watch tower; possibly in a second story window.

From here you will be able to see any advancing marauders and pick them off from a distance before they become a real problem.

How SEO Teaches Us This Lesson: Protecting a website or web server is possible only by continued efforts. Use open source scripts and update them constantly. use strong passwords and a secure admin email address

Use security plugins for that extra layer of security.

So..did I miss anything?   Leave your thoughts, so any other zombie survival techniques…or SEO stuff I missed.