Tour De SEO

Posted by Amrit Gill | Filed under SEO

Now that our bank of four is full and the banter has been rolling, we decided to have a little competition within the Search Team at flybmi. Yes it sounds playful, but it had a direct impact on my boastability at work, which I deem highly important!

Being the SEO Manager for both UK & International markets at a business class airline gives one an ability to aggressively bum-rush forward and win the Tour De SEO, but I work with very talented people.

Firstly, we have my boss, Callum Adamson (Search Manager) who’s kung fu style is PPC and Social with an MSG dosage of SEO. The dynamics of this one is balanced so finely, he has the whole – “I can still show you how to do it kiddo” mentality, where as I have the “I’m the specialist, you guys have a thing or twelve to learn from me!” pride driving me.

Then we have the Affiliate Manager, Christopher Wood. To which we have abruptly named DK (Double Kisser) simply because hes one of the best charmers around, and if you know affiliates, you know its all about what can you do for me, rather than what I can do for you! On top of the charm, he is lined up as a potential Iron Man.

Finally we have the new guy, Stato-King Supreme Aman Gaddu who is flybmi’s Web Analyst, who’s love for the weekend is as nearly as great for his love for raw data. The guy can spin pivot tables and pull out trends that I couldn’t even imagine, the guy has a silver bullet, he just has to talk about trends openly and people will start loving him.

Of course, you guys already know about me by reading the about me page, so I’ll swiftly move onto the rules of Tour De SEO.

So the basic rules for each site are simple, each site must be based on the wordpress platform, the domain name associated to it must have been registered in May 2009.

Our Designated blog categories:

  • Amrit – SEO for travel
  • Aman – Online trending
  • Callum – Search marketing
  • Chris – Monetizing a blog through affiliates

Metrics to which we will measure our performance against each month:

  • Page Rank
  • Unique Visitors
  • Returning Visitors
  • Bounce Rate
  • Inbound Links

So each month we’ll score all our websites against the above metrics, so for the best performing website for each metric will earn a point, for the website that earns the most points in a month will be classed the months winner and will get an additional point.

The winner of the Tour De SEO will win the best website 2006 trophy that is knocking around the office, the loser will win The Complete Dumbass of the Year Award.

Additional to the above metrics, we all have chosen a single specific keyphrase that we will hunt for at www.google.co.uk (logged out) and the website that’s ranking the best will be awarded an extra point. The keyphrases will remain undisclosed so none of us can earn off from some friendly soul pumping in targeted link love to our site.

The rules we all adhere to are as follows:

  • White hat SEO only
  • Contestants are not allowed to purchase links of any kind
  • Favours are only allowed for design and technical issues
  • The domain must be newly registered (May 2009)
  • No outsourcing content, development or link building
  • Must be open to public scrutiny
  • Home and work IP addresses must be excluded through Google Analytics
  • We all have to add each other to our blogroll

So on your marks chaps.

Amrit.

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June 22nd, 2009

2 Responses to “Tour De SEO”

  1. Callum Says:
    June 22nd, 2009 at 12:27 am

    Great post keep it up :o)

  2. David Reynolds Says:
    July 2nd, 2009 at 9:29 am

    Hi Amrit, best of luck in the competition.

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