In the previous post I compared SEO to fishing for on page optimization. In this post, I’m going to show you how building links to your website is like voting for a Presidential Candidate. Props to Tommy from ClickMinded for inspiring this post, and he was the one who talked about it in his class, which I highly recommend.

Hah.

via Propaganda Times

Your Site is A Presidential Candidate

And just like in the presidential elections, you want to make sure that you’re running a good campaign. You want to make sure that you are meeting lots of people and you are presenting yourself in the best light possible.

Your Votes are Links

The person that gets the most votes gets bumped on Google.

The reason why Google is the site that won over Yahoo and Bing is that Google didn’t just focus on whoever paid them the most, but Google focused on quality.

And how do you determine quality online?

If lots of people share the opinion that a site is high value, they would be linking to that site, right?

So the way to determine if a site was good would be to measure it with backlinks.

So, the more votes you get, the more you win, right? Well, technically…

The Most Popular Wins..or Not?

Here’s where it gets a little trickier.

Say you have 2 scenarios.

Scenario 1: Site gets 10 links from relatively unknown websites

Scenario 2: Site gets 1 link from CNN.com.

Which one do you think wins?

If you guessed Scenario 2, you are correct. Because Google weighs sites differently through a metric called ” Page Rank”, the higher authority that a website has, the more likely that Google is going to rank your content highly.

This is a bit like the electoral collage in the United States. It’s not that the average person’s vote doesn’t matter, it’s just that the electoral collage’s vote matters much more.

So when you are building up your website, it is best that you are getting links from authority sites with your industry.

How would you interpret link building in SEO?

via HikingArtist

SEO is like fishing.

Credits to  Aaron Wall for inspiration.

I’ve read my share of programming/technical books and I’ve found that the best ones make the best analogies.  They do it in a way that is totally relatable in real life and keeps the audience’s attention enough to get their point across.

So here’s how SEO is like fishing:

1. Your Visitors Are Your Fish

You are the master fisherman.

There are plenty of fish in the sea, and there are plenty of fish in different pools.

You can go big, and go after keywords like car insurance and personal injury lawyer.

You can also cast a wider net with the smaller mackerel.

So Before you start fishing, you should think about where you want to fish.

• Do you prefer fishing at a small, quiet pond with more certainty?
• Do you prefer fishing at more turbulent waters with higher risk and reward?

There’s no right or wrong answer, just as in SEO.

You might be in a highly competitive industry such as credit cards or insurance or law.

You might be in an industry where it’s incredibly easy to dominate your niches. This typically happens with the less sexy industries, but there are a lot of opportunities there.

2. Your Hooks = Your Keywords

If your visitors are your fish, then your keywords are your hooks.The right hooks get the right fish.

If someone is in pain, they are looking for the solution.

If the fish are hungry enough, they are going to take your bait.

This is why keyword research is so important. You might think that words are just words, but they are extremely powerful online, it’s how your visitors are connected to your business.

You’d be surprised at how different singular and plural keywords show up online. Some may even show several times in difference. Getting the right hook is getting the right keyword and getting it targeted to the fish that you want.

3. Match the Right Fish to the Right Bait

Not every fish is going to like your bait.

Not every fish will respond to the same tactics.

But if you have the right bait and the right fish at the right time..magic happens.

And even though the closest thing I’ve done to fishing was gathering water fleas at the Suzhou River when I was 10, I know that fishing takes a lot of patience.

SEO takes a lot of patience. It’s not something that you will see results for immediately, and there are no guarantees.

However, for the amount of time that you put in, you will get your rewards and it can be a journey that is very challenging yet satisfying.

And it’s better if you’re experienced, but the smarter ones that are more creative will often win.

What are your best analogies for SEO?