I am a very competitive person when it comes to many different areas including athletics, games and even sports teams. The fact that I work in the SEO industry is no different. I am pushing myself both in learning what is relevant to their market and keeping abreast of the changes in the industry as a whole. So, seeing that the Olympics is starting soon, I see a very relevant correlation between triathlon and SEO.
A triathlon is an endurance sports event consisting of swimming, cycling and running over various distances. As a result, proficiency in swimming, cycling, or running alone is not sufficient to guarantee a triathlon athlete a competitive time; trained triathlon athletes have learned to race each stage in a way that preserves their energy and endurance for subsequent stages. In most modern triathlons, these events are placed back-to-back in immediate sequence and a competitor’s official time includes the time required to “transition” between the individual legs of the race, including any time necessary for changing clothes and shoes.
source – Wikipedia
Unlike the athletic triathlon, this online event doesn’t really have an end, however, like the race you have to be mindful of each event as one slip any any of the areas could mean second place (or even second page) but either the athletic or online competition, it’s all about endurance.
The events of the athletic triathlon are:
- Swimming
- Cycling
- Running
The events of the SEO triathlon are:
- Keywords
- Content
- Links
Each event will equal results. If you are the best distance swimmer, cyclist or runner, you have great chance of posting a good time and being competitive. The same can be said for SEO, you can perform well in SERPs with targeted keywords, content and lots of links, but it is the seasoned SEO professional that “have learned to race each stage in a way that preserves their energy and endurance for subsequent stages.”
I am not saying that if you are an effective link builder or have created extremely effective link bait campaigns that these efforts shouldn’t be continued, however, don’t forget about understanding your targeted audience and the keywords they use to find similar products or information. Always remember the user, getting to the targeted page is the first (and arguably the most important step), but when they get to your page that is keyword focused and well linked, will they leave for something more?
Another important thing to remember, don’t focus too intently on the website at your side or above you, look to the finish line (1st position in the SERPs). Keep improving your endurance by working on honing your Keywords, Content and Links and your competition may be #2 but they might be miles behind in the race.
Do you have anything to add? Do you relate SEO to any other sport or athletic activity? Feel free to share!
Cheers
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seens like that. but seo may have some difference.
What a great analogy! You’re quite right, that a (semi) holistic approach is the only way to be successful. I speak to many people who put way too much emphases on links, without spending enough time on their content and what, at the end of the say, is the purpose of their site – serving their visitors. On the other hand, I visit sites every week with awesome content, updated every day and obviously create with passion, but with absolutely no thought about keywords. Sure, they pick up some backlinks because of the content, but the site massively under-performs.
It’s like rowing with one oar, you just go around in circles if you only concentrate on one thing. I have to admit that I am certainly stronger in some areas than others, but when I’m working on promoting a site I always try to spend time on each.
Great analogy and a very easy way to understand the concept of SEO.
I have been racking my brain to think of another sport that could relate to SEO but nothing I came up with is as good as the Triathlon.
What about Gymnastics? When you watch the sport it seems so easy, effortless and smooth but we all know it takes years of training and lots and lots of hard work.
This is much like a well optimised website… To the untrained eye a website should look easy, effortless and smooth but we all know the work that goes into it.
wow, a great analogy. I am a beginner for SEO industry, this can be a golden words for people like me. SEO is like never ending race,