Gordon Gekko on SEO

One of the most iconic characters in popular culture from the 80s is Gordon Gekko. Michael Douglas’ portrayal of the archetypically ruthless businessman still resonates quarter of century later. In light of the corporate malfeasance behind the financial crash that nearly brought the Western world to its knees his words seem to have particular relevance.

Now, while his story is a modern morality tale, his words – taken out of context and with a sly wink – apply powerfully to SEO.

Lunch is for wimps

Google never sleeps. Round the clock, the algorithm works, finding new flaws and opening up new loopholes. Knowledge is out of date faster than an overripe banana. If you’re not checking your rankings every day, if you’re not reading the latest thoughts

It’s a zero sum game, somebody wins, somebody loses.

In SEO, there is only one #1 position. From #2 on down, you’re picking up the crumbs from someone else’s table. Those crumbs can be enough to make a living – but you should always, always be driving for that #1 slot. If that means someone else gets hurt, who cares?

Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

Always want more. If you have a million organic visits a month, you have to be greedy for 2 million. Without that drive, you find yourself sliding back without even noticing it. If you’re not hungry enough, you can be certain that someone else is – and unless you want them to eat your lunch, it’s better to eat it yourself first. Even if you’re not hungry.

What’s worth doing is worth doing for money.

If you’ve got a talent – for building links, driving traffic or getting better rankings – it’s worth money. If you can’t find someone to pay your commercial worth, go create your own value. Every day, billions of queries run through Google alone  – every one of them can be monetised if you’re smart. Find a niche and dominate it. Your time and knowledge is money – treat it accordingly.

The most valuable commodity I know of is information.

Data. Data. Data. It’s the lifeblood of SEO. If you don’t what links the competition have got, how they got them and what they’re worth, then you’ve got nothing. You need to know how websites work – from the front end, through the back end, and through to the very infrastructure on which they run. You need to know how and why Google do what they do. Research, test and discuss: there is no other way.

Sheep get slaughtered.

If your only strategy is to follow the competition, you’ll lose. You get no prizes for finding the same loophole that your competitor found last week. By that time, he’s cleaned up and you’re just chasing his tail.

It’s all about bucks, kid. The rest is conversation.

A number one ranking is great for bragging rights. But if that isn’t creating money, who cares? Ranking is only a means of getting traffic. And traffic is only a means of getting money. If all you’ve got is a ranking, then you’ve really got nothing. Turning that into cold, hard cash is the name of the game.

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."