How the Ryder Cup and SEO are similar…
Posted by Aaron R Stewart on September 19th, 2008
In honor of the Ryder Cup starting this morning, I thought a little piece on the similarities of golf and SEO strategy would be an interesting challenge. I love the Ryder Cup, and I love the match play format, it is much more interesting than the stroke play format found at most other professional golf tournaments, so the Ryder Cup is just grand. 
SEO and golf, so here we go. First and foremost, the online marketplace, like match play golf, is a competitive situation, and you must perform better than your competition does to win (visitors for your site, or a better position in the SERPs). We don’t have much control over what our competitors do, but we can perform in a way which gives us the best opportunity to win. My philosophy on SEO is probably a bit more practical than most, but so is the way I play golf.
There are so many golf teachers, gadgets, philosophies, and techniques out there, it is rather confusing to figure out which golf swing to learn or which equipment to buy. Much the same can be said about SEO. Many SEO pros will give us quips about their little tricks and tips, many will cheat or be black hat, and there are others that just white hat it and are good at what they do. However, I don’t think any technique, on the golf course or in SEO is worth much if it doesn’t work well for you in your situation. In my mind knowing your competitor is where SEO must start.
If you don’t understand your competitor’s online strategy, then you have a greatly reduced chance of doing well online. Every business owner, or potential business owner should/must take a long hard look at what is out there in their market, and then make a decision as to if they are going to enter and how they are going to compete once launched to succeed.
SEO shouldn’t be about finding as many Keywords, creating as much Content, and rounding up as many Links as possible, that isn’t a smart SEO strategy, and can eat up all kinds of time. As small business owners, time is our most precious asset. SEO is about seeing what is working in your online marketplace and then implementing those SEO strategies and performing them better than everyone else. None of us will ever know exacly how Google or Yahoo really evaluate our sites, and rank them accordingly, but I don’t think it is important information anyway. Like golf, everyone has their opinions what makes a good golf swing, and there are many who will claim they know what a good site is, but for both golf and SEO the proof is simply in the results. If you are starting to score better in golf, or if your site is doing better in the SERPs, then you have found something that works for you, stick with it, and hone it, make it yours. One thing in SEO, if it is working for your competitor online, you can be sure it will work for you. Save time and focus on those items first.
In one of our businesses, we are going after a rather large (Fortune 500) account, and we needed to understand more about the client, and the vendors the are currently using. So we called the vendors up and got price quotes for their services, and asked them their businesses and their philosophies. The information was/is very valuable as we move forward. Sam Walton, of Walmart fame, used to go into his competitor’s stores and look around, he would copy the techniques that he thought worked well, and ignore the rest. This also is where he learned the pricing strategies of his competitors, and we all know the Walmart philosophy on pricing… (go to the bottom of the Walmart home page, and see the running total of the money “they have saved American families.”) I wonder how many American jobs that savings equates too? Interesting question… At one time, probably 7 years ago, we were wholesaling a product Walmart wanted to put in their stores, it was a total nightmare dealing with them, but that story is for another day. If nothing else Walmart is an excellent example of knowing your competition and just out-competing them head to head.
In golf as in SEO, know your competition, then find out what’s works for you, and you will improve in both.
SoloSEO has some of the greatest online SEO tools to know how your competition is performing online. Once logged into your SoloSEO account you can set up to have reports about your competition created periodically, and then adjust your SEO strategy once you know what they are up to. It really is that simple.
Now, it has been 6 years since the USA has won the Ryder Cup, they are getting ready to tee off here in just a few minutes. Go USA, bring the cup home!!! As a final note to family, friends, associates, and all others, please don’t try to get hold of me today, I will be unavoidably detained.
Add comment Visited 538 times September 19th, 2008 Aaron R Stewart
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