SEO Contests, A History
TheSulumits RetsambewSEO contest might be using a whole new(and rather funny) keyword, but the concept itself of a competition onSEO is far from novel. In fact, the first official SEO contest will soon becelebrating its tenth anniversary. Before you and get busy with yourown domains, here’s a quick look back at the history of SEO contests.Did you know that the first SEO competition wasn’t even in English? AGerman group on Usenet started the first ever competition forwebmasters on November 15, 2002. Incidentally, the keyword used inthat contest –
Schnitzelmitkartoffelsalat
, or ‘schnitzel with potatosalad’ – came to refer to search queries that weren’t on Google yet.
For the rest of us, though, the first SEO contest we could understandcame two years later. May 7, 2004 was the genesis of
Nigritudeultramarine
, the first and arguably most popular SEO contest in thehistory of the industry. Sponsored by the affiliate network Dark Blue,the contest had fabulous prizes like iPods and flat panel LCDs.That competition prompted the use of almost the whole spectrum of SEO techniques, from Googlewashing and spamdexing to perfectlylegitimate methods. Over 200 competitors battled for the top position,which was eventually won by Six Apart VP Anil Dash. That competition(and Anil Dash’s win besides) proved some of the basic concepts of SEO that we know and practice today.From the
Nigritude ultramarine
contest came many others in theEnglish-speaking, SEO-practicing world. There was the 500,000-result
Seraphim proudleduck
contest, which was controversial becausenobody won; the organizer sold its domain right before the contestended. There was also
the four required words
contest, the first toexplicitly target search engines.If you’d like to get tips for the Sulumits Retsambew contest or theforums.seo.com competition later this year, you might want to take alook at all those previous contests. You might just pick up a tip or two.After all, many of those people used SEO methods that are stilleffective today.You could also turn to Anil Dash’s post-
Nigritude
pearl of wisdom: “realcontent trumps all the shady optimization tricks that someone canfigure out.” Well said, Mr. Dash.
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