The Star Trek-Guide to SEO
SEO: the final frontier.
These are the lessons of search engine optimization.
SEO can be difficult to understand, but all hope is not lost. You can learn how to best optimize your site, and we can help you.
Here are a few tips for you, taught by examples taken straight from Star Trek.
Relevant Information
One of the first rules to building good SEO is to provide relevant content on your site, based on your business and site topic.
This is similar to the Enterprise’s ongoing mission, which is about the bold exploration of new worlds and peoples. Their mission statement isn’t full of idle words—they stick to what they say, seeking out new life and exploring strange new worlds. It defines who they are and what they do.
Your site is like your mission statement: it’s one of the first things potential customers will see. Make sure that they know exactly what your site is about, from the first glance at the homepage.
If your site is for your auto shop or car dealership, make it clear to all your visitors. If you spread the news on any and all things nerd, show it all across your site. Provide relevant and quality content, so everyone who visits knows the point of your site.
Be crystal clear what each page is about.
Honest Activities
When Kirk was still just a cadet, he took the Kobayashi Maru test and failed.
The third time he took the test, he was more successful, installing a subroot in the computer and giving him a way to win by cheating. In response, Starfleet put him on academic suspension, and, if not for Bones’ interference, he would’ve missed out on the events on Vulcan and with Nero.
As Kirk discovered, cheating doesn’t help—especially not when you get caught. Be honest in your link-building and other SEO practices. When you’re dishonest, you’re practicing what is called Black Hat SEO, and search engines like Google really don’t like when webmasters try to get better results by circumventing the algorithms they’ve worked hard to create.
When search engines catch sites buying or selling links, using cloaked and hidden text, or any number of other dishonest optimization techniques, they punish those sites, just like Starfleet punished Kirk.
Here’s an excerpt from Google’s webmaster guidelines:
Practice honest White Hat SEO tactics, so you can keep your site on Google’s good side.
Widespread Tactics
The crew of the Enterprise is highly-skilled, with knowledge in many different areas.
- Uhura is a master linguist, with the ability to speak any number of languages—including Klingon—like a native.
- Sulu is not only a great pilot, but he has some mad fencing skills.
- The other crew members have similar dual skills.
By working together with all of their combined skills, they are able to accomplish much more than if they only had the requisite skills for their positions.
Just as the Enterprise is comprised of many different areas of knowledge, you need to have an understanding and knowledge of more than just one area of SEO.
The most efficient way to rank high is to use multiple techniques. You might guest blog or reaching out via social media sites like Stumble Upon or Pinterest. There are lots of good tactics you can use to build your SEO, but the best way to get a high rank is by implementing as many of those techniques as you can.
Even if it doesn’t put you to the top of the first page, it will make your rank stronger. Then when Google updates their algorithm, you’ll either stay at the same rank or increase, while everyone else drops.
SEO isn’t as difficult as some people think. You don’t necessarily have to go to an SEO firm to acquire the high rank you want (although they can help you). You can master SEO yourself, and when you do, you can be the one to boldly go where no optimized site has gone before.
About the author: Theo Schmidt has an interest in computer science and engineering, and he uses that interest to fuel his blogging as well as his consultation work for business like Click.com. Theo also enjoys spending time in the outdoors, and he is passionate about protecting the environment.