This post is Linky Love ’s answer to the conversation that went on here. Thank you Linky for sharing your knowledge on SEO with us all

Nothing better than the Olympic games and the Guinness Book of Records to illustrate what SEO is all about:

• it’s supposed to put the best on top and
• it’s not supposed to be about money…

May the best win

You will hear everybody say that to rank number 1 in the search engine, your “content is king“. Just like in the Olympic Games: “the best athlete is king.”

Unfortunately that’s only a big part of the story.

• Why is so much money spent on Speedo swimsuits using NASA technology if we would truly believe that “the best athlete is king“?
• How could Marion Jones win five medals at the 2000 Summer Olympics and succeed in passing all doping tests? Only to admit afterwards that she took performance-enhancing drugs and got stripped of all her medals.

Same with “content is king“. A lot of SEO technology is used to make sure weaker content makes it to the top. Some SEO techniques are allowed, some are not (bye bye PayPerPost services), some are dirt evil and some evil performance-enhancing techniques are still not being detected …

The 3 secrets of SEO

1. NASA technology is only used in the Olympic Games and not in the Guinness book of Records. Same goes for SEO technology: if there is no money for grabs, you most likely don’t have to fight against SEO technology and you can truly win with “content is king“.
2. I once wrote a post about How to rank 1 in Google in 10 minutes for 10 cents. All you have to do is pay Google using their Adwords system and you will be listed as a “sponsored link” on top of all other websites… Up to you if this will be cheaper than paying for SEO services.
3. The less competition, the easier to rank number 1. It’s much easier to rank number 1 in the Guinness Book of records than in the Olympic Games.

For more SEO questions: please do ask in a comment and include which FMB member should answer your question