I’m sure most of you remember Search Guild’s SEO contest from a couple of years ago.
(Search Guild members were given a phrase that produced no results in Google "and the person who ranked #1 after a month won a prize).

It turns out that someone from V7N has decided it would be good for the SEO community if the contest was brought back. Only this time, instead of giving away an ipod, he’s going to give away cold hard cash. ($1000.00 for #1)

But of course, there’s a catch. In order to qualify for the cash, you need to put up a link to V7N.

Now, I think it would be great if all SEO’s would participate. (The last contest only generated about 200k pages). But I also think it is pretty lame to use a contest like this just to build links to your own site. And I also know that there are a lot of great SEO’s who might consider participating, but they aren’t interested in helping V7N out.

So I’ve decided the best thing to do would be to match the offer. I’ll pay the same amount for top 5 positions as V7N. The only requirements to collect the cash will be:

A) Not linking to V7N

and

B) Posting a link to Matt’s blog without using the www. (the non-www version of Matt’s blog is only a PR4, so it needs a little help)

I think this plan will greatly benefit the SEO community by getting far more people to participate. And at the same time, we’ll be able to help out a good friend. :)

I’ll let everyone know as soon as the keyword phrase has been chosen.

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Comments

59 Responses to “ Another SEO Contest ”

  1. Scott on December 29th, 2005 10:58 pm

    I love it!

    It will be interesting to see the breakdown of linkers versus non linkers. And what an act of both charity and irony… helping the Google Engineer improve his placement in the SERPS through a contest that rewards he (or she) who shows the highest proficiency at manipulating them.

  2. Dakait on December 30th, 2005 12:34 am

    Great….I wonder how informative this contest will be. I can think that this contest will be giant like Titanic.

    I am much interested and will participate.

  3. Shawn on December 30th, 2005 12:43 am

    I’m in,…

    Currently holding a #1 spot in Google for a few years running for 1 search term for a site we coded 3 yrs ago,… hold the #4 spot for a 2nd term.

    Can’t disclose only b/c I don’t need people going after those (hope you understand).

    Looking forward to the challenge,…

  4. hagrin on December 30th, 2005 12:52 am

    Haha, that’s a great counter offer. Hopefully, contests like this can shed some light on the ever changing SEO dynamic. Plus, it’s very cool that you’ll front your own money as well making this contest even more worthwhile. Now, I wonder if one SEO will make two pages - one with a link and one without and take home both prizes. :)

  5. BlogContestSite.com on December 30th, 2005 12:57 am

    “..it is pretty lame to use a contest like this just to build links to your own site”..hmmn..But then again you indicate that you want to match the offer but want a link to matt’s blog.

    I’m kind of confused with your statement. Would you mind clarifying? Aren’t you proposing a similar thing with the only difference being “Matt’s blog” in your case?

    Jane

  6. WebGuerrilla on December 30th, 2005 1:43 am

    Aren’t you proposing a similar thing with the only difference being “Matt’s blog� in your case?

    Yes Jane, that’s what I’m proposing. The original contest is being run for the benefit of the person running the contest. My contest is being run for the benefit of someone else. Think of it as ironic SEO charity.

  7. Robert Charlton on December 30th, 2005 2:25 am

    Posting a link to Matt’s blog without using the http://www.

    ROFL….

    Now, Matt could probably fix this on Matt’s blog before Google fixes this in Google. Is Matt perhaps running an experiment too by not trying a local fix? We know how Google prefers system-wide fixes. What does Matt prefer? :-)

  8. IncrediBILL on December 30th, 2005 3:38 am

    Just make the keywords “incredibill darsense” and I’ve already won.

    Anything else is work

  9. Matt Cutts on December 30th, 2005 3:53 am

    WebGuerrilla, I don’t need your brand of pity.. ;)
    I agree that the “have an SEO contest, but you have to link to a certain site” schtick is tired.

  10. בלוג קידו×? ×?תרי×? » תחרות קידו×? ×?תרי×?, $1000 לזוכה!!! on December 30th, 2005 5:24 am

    [...] ר×?×” WebGuerilla ×›×™ טוב, וחשב שכמה שהרעיון יפה, ×?×? הקישור המוזכר, הרבה מקשמי×? יימנעו מלהשתתף. ×?×– הו×? הציע תחרות משלו בה סכו×? פרסי×? שווה, ×?ך ההבדל היחיד הו×? שהדף הזוכה יכלול קישור לבלוג של מ×?ט ×§×?טס, מה שלדעתי יגרו×? לרבי×? להשתתף. [...]

  11. Brian on December 30th, 2005 7:55 am

    See, this is the difference between Greg and the JV SEO Squad who starts a competition like this to garner links. Guess what, JV. Greg just got a bunch of links (in fact, probably better quality links than the contest pages could ever pass) and he doesn’t look like a choad in the process.

    Good on you, Greg.

  12. » WebGuerilla matches the $1,000 SEO Contest @ Ambot ah! [ technology news and reviews ] on December 30th, 2005 7:56 am

    [...] source: WebGuerilla [...]

  13. Marketing Guy on December 30th, 2005 9:32 am

    “I agree that the “have an SEO contest, but you have to link to a certain siteâ€? schtick is tired.

    So is “links as an indicator of quality” but you don’t hear us complaining! ;)
    MG :P

  14. John Scott on December 30th, 2005 10:46 am

    WebGuerrilla said:

    I also think it is pretty lame to use a contest like this just to build links to your own site.

    I said:

    the link can be JavaScript. Or it can have a nofollow attribute. It just has to be human-clickable

    Seems you be confused, Greg.

  15. Jim Westergren on December 30th, 2005 10:56 am

    Lol

    It seems like this contest is getting bigger for each day. Next is probably Cutts blogging about it … nice that he commented here. What if you link to both ?, hehe.

    BTW, thanks for the radio talks Greg.

    PS: Are you trying to persuade Cutts to throw a www-301 up with this?

  16. Bill Hartzer on December 30th, 2005 11:12 am

    WebGuerrilla, it’s about time someone stood up for principles.

    [quote]I wonder how informative this contest will be.[/quote]
    I’m sure it will be very informative for the engineers at Google and the other search engines–all they have to do is analyze the results and find all the ‘tricks’ SEOs are using. Furthermore, I’m sure it will be fairly easy to identify all the SEOs out there involved in the contest. Needless to say, I won’t be participating in this contest.

  17. Search Engine Journal » SEO Contests : Win $1,000 for Google Ranking on December 30th, 2005 11:27 am

    [...] We’ll have more on the v7n SEO Contest on January 15th after they announce the terms, but in the meantime, Greg Boser at Web Guerrilla has issued a contest which counters the v7n prize and linking requirement with the same prize money and new requirements: [...]

  18. SEOrefugee on December 30th, 2005 11:41 am

    Great idea! I cant wait to get started!

  19. Michael Allison on December 30th, 2005 2:24 pm

    So, this new contest that passes PR to Matt’s blog will greatly benefit the SEO community by getting far more people to participate. How is it going to do that?

    I’m sorry, I don’t see how that will benefit anyone but Matt. Did I miss something? I’m new to all this, so maybe I’m missing something somewhere.

    From my perspective, here’s how it looks:

    Greg got wind of this contest and checked it out, in his fashion. But, he didn’t read the rules that were clearly stated in the first post of the thread and he made a mistaken assumption. Then, he posted a counter-offer, of sorts, in what can only be described as a knee-jerk reaction. However, in the final analysis, his rules have more strings attached, so to speak, because I don’t see him saying that a no-follow is ok.

    Besides that, It seems to me that anyone giving away prize money can stipulate whatever rules he or she wants. Why would anyone have a problem with that? After all, it’s their money and their contest. The fact that John isn’t after PR is irrelevant, really. Even if he was, who cares? Apparrently, Greg does. He cares so much and he’s so outraged that he decided he’d have his own little contest. But, being the benevolent guy that he is, he’s gonna give the PR to Matt, rather than just say that no links are required.

    Huh?

    If the link requirement is so offensive, then why have one, at all? And if going after PR, in the form of a contest like this is such bad form, why is it better to add PR to someone else’s page, rather than your own?

    Seriously, I don’t get it.

    Have I missed something somewhere? Please, fill me in, because I’m confused. From what I see, there is some pretty convoluted logic at work here.

    To say that Greg is merely inconsistent would be generous.

    By the way, Greg, I don’t know you, but I would think that an apology or an explanation to John is in order. He’s a personal friend of mine or I would have never posted here. He won’t say what I will, though, because he doesn’t want to make a scene.

    I have no qualms with saying what should be said, myself, though.

    None at all.

  20. Brian Mark on December 30th, 2005 2:49 pm

    If I had nothing better to do, like continuing to dominate the SERPs for my sites, I’d be all over this contest. However, I can make $1000 with much less effort by working on my own site. I do that daily. Even the refersmart.com contest that was $10,000 didn’t attract my interest.

    The time spent on these things don’t make any serious cash, so I’m not going to waste the hours involved just to prove that I’ve got some knowledge and not enough work to keep me busy.

  21. Mike Dammann on December 30th, 2005 2:58 pm

    When a site enters a contest, what is wrong with having the info listed on that site to help others find the contest thru that site/page? I think a lot of people here suffer from seo tunnel vision and had their minds made up long before they even got to the details of the contest. btw nice copycatting, Greg :rolleyes:

  22. Cameron Olthuis on December 30th, 2005 3:04 pm

    Haha, that’s great what you’re doing to v7n!

    I think you should make it mandatory that the anchor text for the link to Matt is something like…

    “black hat seo”

    For the actual contest I think it’s quite unfair. It heavily favors those SEO’s that personally own authoritative sites.

  23. Oilman » Nigritude Ultramarine of 2006 on December 30th, 2005 3:29 pm

    [...] So what’s next? We only need to look as far as WebGuerrilla and his contest and you can see where this is going in a hurry… [...]

  24. oilman on December 30th, 2005 3:39 pm

    ok - I’m in to match your terms Greg :) http://www.oilman.ca/sem/nigritude-ultramarine-of-2006/

  25. Jason Hendricks on December 30th, 2005 3:42 pm

    Seems you be confused, Greg.

    Seems you be really, really lame, John.

    Nobody likes being called out in public, but in this scenario you brought it on yourself. PR (public relations, not pagerank) stunts are cool and a great way to build traffic, recognition, etc., but why not come up with an original one?

    the link can be JavaScript. Or it can have a nofollow attribute. It just has to be human-clickable

    So why in the hell are you even doing the contest if the links you gain have no benefit? Again, totally lame.

  26. Mike on December 30th, 2005 4:54 pm

    So you mean people can only enter one of those 2 contests, right?

  27. John Scott’s SEO test is being challenged » ThirdSquare.com on December 30th, 2005 4:55 pm

    [...] by Greg Bowser and a few others. This Web Guerilla entry is being used to announce that he himself is copycatting this to start his very own contest as well. [...]

  28. SEO Contest Controversy » JasonHendricks.com - Internet Marketing and E-Commerce Consultant on December 30th, 2005 5:00 pm

    [...] Because of this “new” contest there’s been some controversy and even a counter-contest offered by Greg Boser (aka WebGuerrilla). Greg will award the exact same amount of money in his contest except instead of linking to V7N, Greg requires that participants link to Matt Cutts’ blog without the http://www. (since it only shows a PR of 4). Funny, funny stuff. [...]

  29. John on December 30th, 2005 5:06 pm

    Great idea! I’m in

  30. Alex on December 30th, 2005 5:32 pm

    Just found out about the v7n contest and soon after found your site. I would prefer to win your contest as v7n is gaining more from this than anyone. However, v7n is trusted and I’m sure he’ll pay up. Why should I trust web guerrilla? In all honesty I’m not trying to be an ass as I’m on your side. I’m interested to hear your response.

    I need to be sure before committing to this.

  31. Alex on December 30th, 2005 5:33 pm

    Oops…my mistake. Did some more research and seems you do have a name. I’ll shutup now.

  32. Chung on December 31st, 2005 5:50 am

    I am going to participate. It’s going to be fun!

  33. Happy New Year on December 31st, 2005 7:44 am

    Can’t wait, my tribute to Matt’s blog

  34. Kris Farmer on December 31st, 2005 12:03 pm
  35. Kris Farmer on December 31st, 2005 12:12 pm

    Aren’t you proposing a similar thing with the only difference being “Matt’s blog� in your case

    Michael Allison - But, being the benevolent guy that he is, he’s gonna give the PR to Matt, rather than just say that no links are required.

    If the link requirement is so offensive, then why have one, at all? And if going after PR, in the form of a contest like this is such bad form, why is it better to add PR to someone else’s page, rather than your own?

    Some people just aren’t getting the joke here.

  36. Anita Anderson on December 31st, 2005 3:17 pm

    I came across the article in search engine journal and was very intrigued. A newer SEO that I am, I had not heard of these contests before. After perusing MattCutts Blog I was very impressed with the information he presents and believe it to be a worthy resource to link to.
    With regard to the contest; I think it a great way to assess my SEO skills. Who knows-lets see how good I really am.

  37. IncrediBILL on December 31st, 2005 6:06 pm

    I’m thinking I might participate just to see if I have what it takes to even hit the top 10 but I might link to something more interesting.

    Since I don’t need the money perhaps the Bonsai Kitten site could use a revival with a little link love.

  38. SEGuru on January 1st, 2006 4:15 pm

    V7N is not trusted. John Scott is a scam artist and it seems as if now is as good a time as any to bring it to light. I used to work in TV and its true, people will believe anything they see on tv. Just as with JS…he’s got a few loyal followers, but birds of a feather…

    Its sad actually, that he’s taken a stand against Greg like this without knowing who he’s dealing with.

    Like I said at TW…this will be fun to watch!

  39. Mr Snarky on January 1st, 2006 8:50 pm

    LOL at requirement B and Cameron’s suggestion that “black hat seo” be the anchor text. Also at the clueless wannabe SEO’s who don’t get the joke.

  40. g00gl3r on January 2nd, 2006 10:47 am

    As I already said over at Oilman’s place. I just find this really funny but it has found me something to do at night and I now have a use for an old domain that’s knocking around.

    It will be fun to see who takes sides and who just enters in both competitions rendering the boycott pretty useless IMO but hey, bring it on, the most chances of winning cash the better right?

    P.S. I’m going to try in monitor this with my blog (click my name to see it) as it’s never has a use before either to be honest.

    Thanks for bringing a little fun into my working life for a month or so.

    g00gl3r

  41. g00gl3r on January 2nd, 2006 2:40 pm

    and here it goes!

    $4000 + ipod for the winner alone!, details found at g00gl3r.com if you’re not registered on v7n.

  42. SEO Contests Galore -- Macalua.com on January 2nd, 2006 5:52 pm

    [...] Greg Boser aka WebGuerilla, Oilman and Mike Grehan’s SEO Contest Target Keyword Phrase: TBA (same as V7N) Search Engine Target: Google Top Prize: $3,000 Other Prizes at Stake: 2nd - $1000, 3rd to 5th - $200 each End Date: TBA Link Requirements: all entries should link to “http://mattcutts.com/” and not link to V7N.com; Mechanics: click here , here and here . [...]

  43. sagbee on January 3rd, 2006 8:05 am

    I think All checks grabed by Shawn. huh many things he know :(….

    BUt I will participate with strong confidence.

    v7n - $1000
    WebGuerrilla - $1000
    Oilman - $1000
    Mr Grehan - $1000
    g00gl3r - 30Gb iPod

  44. Andy Hagans on January 3rd, 2006 1:12 pm

    Seriously who are all these idiots?

  45. g00gl3r on January 4th, 2006 2:27 am

    I have to say that money talks. With high cash stakes to hand you are bound to see many people interested. What’s the topic? SEO of cause. I’m up for anything to do with making more people interested in SEO. And that’s why we’re including the iPod.

  46. SEO Contests » Blog Archive » New Google contest dwarfs Nigritude Ultramarine contest! on January 4th, 2006 3:07 am

    [...] Oilman added his own $1,000 contest for 1st place, Mike Grehan added $1,000, and webguerrilla adds $1,800 to the pot, for 1st-5th place, BUT they require a link to Matt’s blog without using the http://www. [...]

  47. Robert Charlton on January 4th, 2006 5:59 pm

    So apparently Matt is running an experiment. From Matt’s excellent post on his blog…

    url canonicalization
    http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/seo-advice-url-canonicalization/

    Q: I noticed that you don’t do a 301 redirect on your site from the non-www to the www version, Matt. Why not? Are you stupid in the head?

    A: Actually, it’s on purpose. I noticed that several months ago but decided not to change it on my end or ask anyone at Google to fix it. I may add a 301 eventually, but for now it’s a helpful test case.

  48. John Scott on January 8th, 2006 4:27 am

    WebGuerrilla,

    Inquiring minds want to know. v7n’s total for the first place winner is $4,000. Are you going to be out banked by some slacker who spends his days floating on a rubber boat in the Sea of Japan?

    Me thinks you need to put some serious dough out there. Be a man. Put your money where your mouth is, and all that jazz.

    Cheers
    JS

  49. Redscowl Bluesingsky » WebGuerilla SEO Contest on January 8th, 2006 8:54 pm

    [...] We have also decided to start tracking the SEO Contest being held by WebGuerrilla. We are adding the sub-category WebGuerilla SEO Contest under SEO Contests. View the subcategory for more information! [...]

  50. Mike on January 9th, 2006 6:53 am

    Cash does talk, but there is so much more behind this than just the 4k. It’s about putting your money where your mouth is. It’s been going on in the forums for a while, competing with words. That gets tiring. I believe everyone should link to the thread on John’s forum where he announces the competition. It was his idea and he’s the one who got the ball rolling.

    Mike Dammann

  51. Clint Dixon on January 10th, 2006 5:36 am

    A contest with no rules other than deliverate link building which is link spamming which is what Google does not want and yet you will all run and play.

    All the while all the blaxk hats are laughing. DaveN should enter and kick all of your butts for being lame.

    V7N did not start the SEO contest as was posted earlier…they are riding off one already done.

  52. Clint Dixon on January 10th, 2006 5:42 am

    I decided I am in. But I am going to win and not link to anyone who tells me I haver to link to them.

    Then when I win sitting at 1 # 1 how will anyone else be declared a winner??

  53. Zwart on January 15th, 2006 4:05 pm

    Ok, so it’s v7ndotcom elursrebmem (!?) then….

    Are you sure? LOL

  54. Bidera on January 16th, 2006 9:34 am

    This seems kind of a fun thing to do even for an amateur. However, I wish the name chosen would have had been less sensical. That is it shouldn’t have had any marketing connotations and v7ndotcom elursrebmem certainly does at least the first part that is…

  55. Redscowl Bluesingsky on January 16th, 2006 12:51 pm

    Guess I’m going to join your contest for the money!

  56. LazyH on January 17th, 2006 8:37 pm

    If the goal is to rank best in Google, I think the link requirement should go to the Yahoo Blog Weather Report page. It just doesn’t make sense to help google help their own. Let’s give Tim a boost!

  57. Andre on January 18th, 2006 2:50 pm

    This is getting to be funny!

  58. Bill Kelm on January 21st, 2006 8:02 am

    Bill Hartzer said in his comment above:

    ” I’m sure it will be very informative for the engineers at Google and the other search engines–all they have to do is analyze the results and find all the ‘tricks’ SEOs are using. Furthermore, I’m sure it will be fairly easy to identify all the SEOs out there involved in the contest.”

    As a “non-insider” but observer of the SEO-SEM industry since 1997, I’m curious how true Bill’s statement is? I’m not questioning Bill’s vast knowledge and experience. I’m just wondering if Matt Cutts (who I respect) isn’t going to suggest to someone in Google that they should use this “contest opportunity” to do exactly what Bill suggests? Matt certainly has the right (and maybe “personal obligation”) to do that. For all SEO’s following the Google Webmaster Guidelines, no problem. But, how “competitive” will this get?

    Was the 2003 contest used by the search engines to do the same?

  59. Tony on February 6th, 2006 6:29 am

    A good prize value to get into such contests.

    People at Google can’t detect such websites which come up like mushrooms at such fast rate?
    If they can, they may ban such sites by 15th May.

    just a thought.. any comments?

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