As a fan of video games, I often compare real-life scenarios to similar elements in games. These elements offer a parallel way to approach many of the same types of challenges that we face in everyday life in a fun, unique way. After all, real life challenges shouldn�t necessarily be unpleasant; if they can be stimulating and entertaining, productivity will improve, and improved productivity usually translates to higher revenue.
Growing up, the first genre of video games I fell in love with was the RTS (real-time strategy). While RTS games usually pit warring factions against each other with an assortment of units involving infantry, armored vehicles, and air and sea-borne vessels, to me, SEO is actually a lot like an RTS; it even has its own versions of those classes of units. Let�s take a deeper look at why SEO is like an RTS game and how you can leverage this idea to benefit your SEO initiatives.
The battlefield
A basic element of any RTS game is the top-down view of the battlefield. From here, commanders have complete control over their campaign. They can devise a strategy, build a base, get real-time information and updates, upgrade technology, and take tactical control over their units to lead them into battle.
An Excel or Google Doc spreadsheet may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about a battlefield, but in essence, isn�t that what your SEO dashboard (or collection thereof) is? Many SEO professionals use dashboards to manage the various components of their SEO campaign(s), including:
- Blog content calendar
- Ranking and traffic monitoring
- Competitor intelligence and monitoring
- Guest post content calendar
- Backlink profile monitoring
- Brand mention and social media monitoring
- Onsite optimization monitoring
Years ago, one of the revelations I had that led to vastly improved success as an RTS gamer was simple; increase my screen resolution so I can see more of the battlefield at a time. This change increased information flow to me, allowing me to react quicker and smarter to enemy threats, more effectively monitor my enemies, and control my units for offensive purposes more efficiently.
I had the same revelation one day when I was working in one my SEO dashboard spreadsheets. I had accidentally decreased the font and cell size of the spreadsheet, bringing more information into view at a time. I immediately started drawing new correlations that I hadn�t previously seen; that�s why this page isn�t ranking well. That�s what my competitor did that caused that page to have so much success in the rankings.
This idea extends beyond simply increasing the viewable area of your dashboards, though. Adding a second and third monitor on which you can constantly access dashboards containing information about the state of an SEO campaign, as well as those of your competitors, can allow you quickly detect opportunities for offensive strategies, weaknesses in competitors� strategies, and tactical advancements being made by competitors.
It all comes down to this: information is intelligence, and what isn�t measured isn�t managed. Here are some of my preferred tools for measuring and monitoring my SEO campaigns:
- Rank monitoring: MySEOTool
- Traffic monitoring: Google Analytics
- Competitor intelligence and monitoring:ajmalseotips.blogspot.com
- Backlink profile monitoring: ajmalseotips.blogspot.com
- Brand mention and social media monitoring: Sendible
- Onsite optimization monitoring: SEOmoz �On-Page Optimization� tool
The offensive weaponry
In RTS games, success is usually achieved by destroying your enemies completely, and battles are fought with land, air, and naval units. Things aren�t usually so brutal in the world of SEO, but offensive tactics can and do result in harm to your competitors.
For instance, moving ahead of a key competitor in the search engine rankings for a highly-trafficked search term will not only increase traffic to your website, but also decrease traffic to that competitor�s website. Repeating this across many keywords will result in significantly decreased traffic for your competitors, as you effectively consume more of the fixed �traffic pie� that exists for your niche or industry.
Similarly, while SEO battles aren�t fought with military units, they are fought with different classes of weaponry that can be compared to air, land, and sea: onsite content, inbound links, and social media signals.
Onsite content represents the foundation of any SEO initiative�s arsenal; it provides numerous benefits that strongly impact overall search visibility while supporting each of the other types of weaponry (by helping to acquire inbound links and providing discussion content for social media feeds). Onsite content is like the assortment of land units in an RTS game, and consists of text-based blog posts, press releases, infographics, video, images, responsive design, proper optimization of internal pages, and much more.
Inbound links are like the air force of an SEO campaign. They provide unparalleled power, and whomever wields the most and best of them generally has superiority on the battlefield (i.e. the best rankings and website traffic). However, getting good inbound links is time-consuming and can be expensive.
Social media signals are like the naval force of an SEO campaign; depending on the battlefield, they may not be needed or useful. However, in the right scenario they can be the force that wins the battle. Social signals currently play a significant role in search engine ranking algorithms, though I believe it�s less than that of onsite content or inbound links. Nonetheless, I expect the importance of social media signals to continue to rise, eventually overtaking or matching inbound links in terms of importance in the ranking algorithm.
Developing an SEO strategy in which you think about each of these three pillars of SEO as your offensive weaponry is key to a winning battle plan (and a successful SEO initiative). Each facet should be analyzed, actionable conclusions should be drawn, and tactical plans with clear milestones should be developed.
Just like a good battle plan, your SEO campaign needs careful and strategic thought and execution. Necessary resources should be calculated and acquired, and the campaign should be monitored and managed by a commander with an expert knowledge of the tools and weapons available (ie, an SEO professional), with a mind for strategy and an aptitude for swift tactical execution.
Follow these seven steps to ensure victory:
1. Start with keyword research
Performing good, informed keyword research is like building your base. In an RTS game, without a strong foundation from which to launch your attacks, you won�t win the battle. In the game of SEO, without proper keyword research, all your future efforts could be wasted.
2. SEO-optimize your onsite content
Optimizing your onsite content is like building your base defenses. In an RTS, your defenses are what will allow you to withstand enemy attacks. In the game of SEO, optimizing your content from an SEO-perspective will patch up any weaknesses in your strategy, making you more resilient to holding your rankings as your competitors engage in their campaigns.
3. Set up Google Authorship
Setting up Google Authorship is like enhancing the attack power of your offensive units. When Authorship is set up, your content will show up with visual representation in Google�s search results. Here�s an example:
