What the One Armed Man From The Fugitive Taught Me About SEO
While doing a routine checkup of my website analytics, I noticed a strange uptick in traffic. After digging deeper in the Google Search Console, I found the shocking truth. More shocking than the murder of Helen Kimble. Somehow, human beings were ending up on ChrisCantz.com via the following search terms:
Sykes the fugitive
Frederick sykes the fugitive
The fugitive sykes
Frederick sykes fugitive
One armed man from the fugitive
Yes ladies and gentleman, the internet is directing people searching for the one armed man from The Fugitive to MY website.
WHO IS FREDERICK SYKES AND WHY IS HE ASSOCIATED WITH CHRIS CANTZ?
Back in the hell that was known as COVID lockdown, my good friend Mike was making custom action figures in his garage. He knew The Fugitive was one of my favorite movies, so he wanted to produce a custom action figure.
Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble would have been too predictable, as would have been one of Deputy Samuel Gerard, played by Tommy Lee Jones. So he decided to go with Frederick Sykes - the one armed man.
After seeing his art, I thought it would be cool to design a package for it to make it look like a legitimately produced toy and the end result was figure below, featuring a cardback with loads of references to The Fugitive. The end result is pictured below.
When it came time to assemble my online portfolio, I decided to add this project. It didn’t necessarily fit in with my professional work but it fit in with me and my personality. Little did I think it would drive web traffic.
WHAT TO DO WITH THAT INFORMATION?
When I was sketching out a new website last month (before I ran my analytics check) I debated if Frederick Sykes should make an appearance. After the one-armed revelation, I would have been foolish not to include him.
But why stop there?
The perfectly logical, totally normal next thing to do was to build a full landing page dedicated to Frederick Skyes from The Fugitive. What sane human being WOULDN’T do that? I always believe the search data. Always. I am not in the business of questioning the universe so if it’s telling me that amputees are the key to my success, I am going to run down that road and through a drainage tunnel if I have to.
You can view the “Frederick Sykes: The One-Armed Man From The Fugitive”Web Page by clicking that blue text.
WHY BUILD A LANDING PAGE DEDICATED TO FREDERICK SKYES FROM THE FUGITIVE?
Look, (almost) all publicity is good publicity. All it takes is that one person/client/customer to visit your site and potentially change your life. So if life hands you lemons, or one armed men, make lemonade.
I am NOT telling you to blow up your business model over a few random key words. I’m telling you two things:
WORK ON FUN PROJECTS OUTSIDE OF WORK. Like making action figures from your favorite move, The Fugitive. You never know where those projects might lead.
MONITOR YOUR DATA. You don’t need a dedicated Google Analytics guru to do a deep dive on your website data. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials, or feel free to reach out to me directly. But don’t discount traffic coming to your site.
If a custom action figure of a one-armed hitman from a 1993 Harrison Ford movie can drive traffic to a brand marketer's portfolio site, imagine what an actual SEO strategy could do.
