The SEO Tree: How to Build Structure That Drives Real Results
You’re here because you want SEO that actually drives business—not just clicks, keywords, or vanity traffic. This is the SEO Tree, the system we use to build authority for brands like Murphy Door, Plumbing Pros, and Anthony’s Lawn Care.
This isn’t theory. It’s a playbook tested across thousands of posts, pages, and campaigns.
What Is the SEO Tree?
Think of your website like a living tree:
- The trunk is your main topic or money page—what already ranks and earns.
- The branches are supporting subtopics that expand on the trunk.
- The leaves are examples, stories, and proof that tie everything together.
When all of those connect properly—trunk to branch to leaf—Google and ChatGPT understand who you are, what you do, and where you’re strong. But when they don’t, you get scattered posts competing with each other, and rankings die off.
Dennis summed it up perfectly in the training:
“When the content is connected—up, down, and sideways—it feeds authority like sap running through the tree. But when you throw random posts out there, it’s like cutting off branches and expecting the tree to grow.”
The #1 VA Mistake: Context Blindness
This ties directly into what Dennis calls “The #1 VA Mistake.”
Most virtual assistants, writers, or editors focus on output instead of understanding. They repurpose videos or transcribe podcasts without knowing why the content exists or where it fits.
Dennis put it bluntly:
“If you repurpose content with no context, you’re not helping—you’re vandalizing.”
That’s what happens when people write without knowing the GCT (Goals, Content, Targeting). You can’t create authority if you don’t know:
- What the goal of the piece is
- What content already exists
- Who the audience is
A perfect example of this was my own experience writing about Travis Reynolds, a professional dunker. I stayed with him in North Carolina, went to dunk camps with him, and recorded podcasts and YouTube videos documenting his story. Because I had that real context—what drills he used, what events he competed in, and what it was like to train with him—the article wasn’t generic fluff. It had depth. It became the trunk, and all those clips and episodes became branches and leaves that strengthened it.
That’s what understanding the context does—it turns disconnected media into a structured, credible topic cluster.
E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust
E-E-A-T isn’t a checklist—it’s proof.
Search engines and users both look for signs that you’ve actually done the thing you’re writing about. That means showing real names, real places, and real moments.
When I wrote about Travis Reynolds, it wasn’t secondhand. I’d stayed with him in North Carolina, trained with him, filmed at Dunk Camps, and recorded podcast episodes about his story. Those real experiences—locations, people, and moments—gave the content credibility.
That’s the “Experience” and “Expertise.” Linking to our Dunk Talk Podcast built “Authority.” Showing footage and ongoing work added “Trust.”
If someone without that context tried to repurpose the same material, they’d miss everything that made it real. They wouldn’t know the events, the relationships, or what professional dunking even is. The result would be hollow, inaccurate, and ultimately useless.
Google rewards lived experience. Real proof beats AI filler every time.
Thinking in Clusters
Once you understand E-E-A-T, you start to see that SEO isn’t about isolated pages. It’s about clusters—a group of related content pieces built around a central topic.
Dennis explained this concept during the section on moving up, down, and across the SEO tree:
“Moving up means higher authority. Moving down means more detail. Moving across means related topics. You need all three.”
When I started outlining my upcoming book, The Ultimate Guide to Getting a Google Knowledge Panel, I didn’t just plan a single article. I built a cluster—draft chapters, training clips, and past posts that all linked back to the same main concept. Each one reinforced the others.
That’s what a true SEO cluster looks like. It’s not random content—it’s a coordinated system that feeds credibility both to humans and search engines.
The Content Factory
Every strong SEO Tree runs through the same process—what we call the Content Factory:
- Produce: Capture raw proof—photos, videos, CRM notes, reviews, field service data.
- Process: Edit, clean, and organize the proof into useful media.
- Post: Publish it to owned channels—your website, YouTube, GBP, and social.
- Promote: Distribute the winners, amplify what converts, and collect more proof.
Now, here’s where most businesses go wrong—they break this flow apart. One person only does video editing. Another only does thumbnails. Another writes the captions.
That sounds efficient, but it’s not.
I used to just edit videos. But once I learned the entire process—from raw clip to post to promotion—I could produce content five times faster and with far more consistency.
As Dennis put it:
“We don’t want thumbnail people. We want people who understand the entire system—because when you see the big picture, you make smarter decisions at every step.”
When one person owns the full pipeline, they can move from idea to post in minutes, not weeks. That’s how real content factories run—tight, fast, and accountable.
Enhance Before You Create
Don’t publish new pages just to feel productive.
Before adding new content, enhance what already performs. Add examples, update links, and strengthen structure. Only create new material when it fills a genuine gap or targets a new query.
Dennis reminded everyone during training:
“Pretty much every topic you can think of is already covered. The opportunity isn’t in starting over—it’s in improving what’s already working.”
Enhancement compounds results; duplication kills them.
Internal Linking That Makes Sense
Although we recommend that each content piece should have at least three internal links, every single one must make sense to actually pass authority and be effective.
Internal links are how power moves through your SEO Tree. You want to direct that power to pages that matter—your trunks, branches, and proof pieces—not to random sites that don’t help you.
We see this mistake constantly in article submissions: someone links out to Google’s homepage, Facebook.com, or Wikipedia just because they mentioned it in passing. Those sites don’t need your help—and you’re not affiliated with them. Linking to them only bleeds your authority instead of strengthening your own network.
As Dennis explained:
“When you link out to those big companies, you’re literally giving your power away. It doesn’t help your SEO, and it doesn’t help the reader. Keep the juice inside your ecosystem.”
So, instead of pointing to those giants, link to your own assets: case studies, service pages, related blog posts, client spotlights, or YouTube videos. That’s how your internal links work like arteries—circulating authority and relevance through your own body of work.
Local SEO Example: Plumbing Pros
This one’s simple—and brutal.
A virtual assistant once created 50+ location service pages for a Plumbing Pros, a plumbing company in Easton, PA. Every one of them said something like:
“We do plumbing in Wind Gap. We do plumbing in Nazareth.”
No photos. No real projects. No proof. Just copy-paste garbage.
We fixed it by adding real E-E-A-T: job photos, staff names, service locations, and links back to the main “Plumber in Eastern Pennsylvania” page. Each page became a genuine proof page, not a filler one.
Now, instead of 50 hollow pages, they have a few strong ones that actually rank—and drive calls.
Measure What Matters
As Dennis says:
“The scorecard isn’t posts shipped—it’s revenue generated.”
That’s where the MAA Framework comes in:
Metrics → Analysis → Action.
- Metrics: Track the data—sales, leads, traffic, clicks, conversions.
- Analysis: Identify which pieces or pages drive those results.
- Action: Double down on what’s working and cut what isn’t.
You should be able to trace every dollar of revenue back to the lead, the click, and ultimately the content that sparked it. That’s how you prove marketing is an investment, not a cost.
Want to Go Deeper?
If you’ve got a family business, a son or daughter helping with marketing, or team members you want trained the right way—send them to High Rise Academy.
Inside, we teach:
- How to build and manage your SEO Tree
- How to process real proof into ranked content
- How to tie marketing directly to CRM, sales, and QuickBooks
They’ll learn to run your own Content Factory, turning every bit of real-world proof into revenue-producing content.
