I can’t believe I am going to use a video game comparison here, but SEO is exactly like a MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). There are a hundred different players in each of the many sections of the game at one time, and you can move up levels and become a wizard!
There are many similarities between SEO and such a game. You have the playing arena, which includes basically the whole world. You have your character, (your website) who is a good guy struggling both against the forces of evil (black hatters) and all the other good guys trying to fight their way to the top of the pack (the # 1 spot on Google).
You can use your weapons (content, links) to climb up the levels (the SERPs). You can find special help along the way in the form of other secondary characters (bloggers, SEO experts, fans) and useful tools (keywords, deep links, advertising).
The main goal is to get to the top of the heap and stay there, so you have to keep learning new skills (SEO tactics), replenishing your life force (PageRank) and increasing your band of followers (customers). If you succeed, you win the most points (conversions) and your player ID goes to the top of the list!
Gamers should make great SEOs. They have the skills and the know-how, they just have to apply it in a slightly different setting. We could learn a lot from gamers’ dogged determination, and the willingness to retry a level over and over again refining their skills until they achieve victory.
As SEOs we have to have the same determination and resolution or we will be beaten out by some assassin kid in Akron who only sleeps two hours a night and subsists on chips and soda. (Wait, I just described my kid brother.) Most of the best SEOs are the ones who learn from their mistakes, try again and ask for help when necessary.
Fortunately, if you get stuck at the door to the fourth chamber of the palace in the sixteenth level, a code cheat book exists to tell you where the magic key is. Your SEO can walk you through the steps needed to chat up the Wizard hiding in his invisibility cloak outside the third chamber and trick him into giving up the key. See how simple it all is?
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Tags: conversions, Linking, SEO
Perfect analogy, really puts this work in perspective. Thanks!
~Jim
It is said someone is on top of their field when they can use analogies to describe their skills, well done!