Updated on: “2008-02-05 Time:04:41+00:00″
Search engine optimization contests, or SEO contests are presented by internet marketers as a way to drive traffic and interest to their sites. Since the majority of SEO contests require participants to place a link to contest holder’s domain, it’s also a way for these marketers to increase the popularity of their sites and increase Google page rank.

The contest organizers will typically make an announcement on their website about the contest and post in webmaster forums. The rest can be left to the community to spread the word of the contest. The more enticing the prizes, the more quickly word will spread of its existence.

History of SEO Contests

The first widely known SEO Contest was the The nigritude ultramarine contest produced by SearchGuild .The Contest ran from May 7, 2004 and the duration was 2 months. Anil Dash won the contest at the last minute by asking readers of his popular blog to link back to him.

On September 1st 2004, A new SEO Contest invited participants to rank #1 on Google in for the search phrase seraphim proudleduck. This contest was 3 months in duration. When the contest ended, over 520,000 results existed for the term.

In 2005, webmasters and SEO experts competed for the phrase loquine glupe. The winning entry in this contest was a site that lacked the glitter and polish of some of the other entries and, as it turned out, the page was optimized using a variety of black hat SEO.

In 2005 contest holders in Germany and Poland jumped into the SEO Contest ring with and. It was the ambition of the Hommingberger Gepardenforelle contest to find out how search engines rank sites – this contest ended with nearly 4 million results. The Polish msnbetter thangoogle contest was initiated to promote Polish SEO and obtain the attention of the SEO Services in Poland.

Redscowl bluesingsky, sponsored by SEOlogs SEO contest ran from January 1, 2006 to March 1, 2006. Well known internet marketer Shoemoney won this contest and subsequently he donated it to the number 2 winner.

SeoContest2008 announced in January 2008, The UK Webmaster World Forum announced another contest. Unlike other contests in past they have asked participants to target a single key word “seocontest2008″. This contest will run for two months only and only top ranking in Google will be considered as winner. The 1st prize for this contest is $1000 and runners up will be getting $100 each.

Since then there have been numerous SEO Contests developed. Some of the more popular contests have been v7ndotcom elursrebmem, carcasherdotcom seocontest, ambatchdotcom seocontest, the four required words, CPayscom2 Online Casino, and precharge projectnet to name but a few.

The basics

Search engine optimization is the practice of arranging your web site so that it is attractive to search engine robots. Through the use of strategically placed keywords, proper meta tags and proper internal linking structure, SEO practitioners set up their pages so that search engines categorize their pages exactly the way they intend. Together with offsite SEO, a well optimized site should rank well for the target keywords in search engines such as Google.

Google is often the benchmark for SEO Contests. Considered to be the elite of search engines, largly due to the difficulty in obtaining a high search engine result position (SERP), it is considered the ultimate challenge to achieve a number 1 position in this search engine giant.

In an SEO contest, webmasters are focused on a single key phrase. The target keyphrase is typically an invented word that is a combination of the contest holders sitename. For instance, Ambatch Publishers sponser the ambatchdotcom seocontest, Carcasher is the sponsor of the carcasherdotcom seocontest, where as Seocontest2008 is different and doesn’t involves the name of organizers.

The rational in choosing an invented phrase is twofold. The most aventageous for contest participants is that it presents a level playing field for the contestants. Prior to the contest start a search for carcasherdotcom seocontest would yield no results. This means that no one has an advantage by owning a preexisting webpage targeting that key phrase.

Similarly when UKWW announced the contested keyword Seocontest2008 on 31st January 2008, it returns no results, means it is a fair contest.

The second and highly responsible reason for using invented words is that it prevents search engine spamming. The average search engine user won’t likely run into a contest entry in a normal search. This is a considerate move and is seen as an unwritten rule

A sampling of SEO Contest Rules

Each contest utilizes their own set of rules and they can be very simple or very complex.

New domains only. A condition for Redscolw Bluesingsky was to use new domains only for contest entries. This prevented people with popular domains or blogs from having an unfair advantage over those with new domains

Link backs: The majority of seo contests require a link back to the contest holder’s site. Interestingly, the V7N contest was held by two separate entities. V7N required a link back to the forum while WebGuerrilla, offering prizes for the same keyphrase, stricktly prohibited a link to the forum but instead, required a link to Google personality, Matt Cutt’s blog.

The contests at a glance:

Carcasherdotcom

Contest Dates: March 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006
Key phrase: carcasherdotcom seocontest
Contest sponser: carcasher.com
Status: Open

There are currently 679,000 Google results for carcasherdotcom seocontest

Nigritude ultramarine

Contest Dates: May 7, 2004 – July 7, 2004
Key phrase: Nigritude ultramarine
Winners Prizes: iPod, Flat Panel LCD Screen plus bonus prizes
Contest Sponsor: Dark Blue
Status: Finished

SEOContest2008
Contest Dates: February 1, 2008 – April 1, 2008
Key phrase: seocontest2008
Winners Prizes: $1000 for 1st winner and $100 for 2 runners up.
Contest Sponsor: UK WebmasterWorld Forums.
Status: Open

On July 7th, Anil Dash, Six Apart VP and professional blogger won the contest.

“So, in order to prove that real content trumps all the shady optimization tricks that someone can figure out, and because I figure I deserve an iPod at least as much as the Star Wars Kid, I’m entering the contest. Do me a favor: Link to this post with the phrase Nigritude Ultramarine. I’d rather see a real blog win than any of the fake sites that show up on that search result right now.” (quoted from Dash’s winning entry)

There are currently still 116,000 Google results for Nigritude ultramarine.

The winning entry by Anil Dash is still in the number 1 position in Google. His entry can be seen at www.dashes.com/anil/2004/06/04/nigritude_ultra

Seraphim proudleduck

Contest Dates: 1 September 2004 – 1 January 2005
Target Key Phrase: seraphim proudleduck
The Prizes: £1000 (1st), £300 (2nd), £200 (3rd)
Contest Sponsor: Salmonbones
Status: Closed

Interesting End: Salmonbones announced that he sold the prize domain name, therefore no prize was actually awarded.

There are currently still 88,200 Google results for Seraphim proudleduck

The four required words

Contest Dates: 15 February 2006 – 15 May 2006
Targeted Key Phrase: “the four required words”
Winners Prize: 1st in Google ($100 + Icon), 1st in
MSN ($20), 1st in Yahoo! ($20), 1st in A9 ($20), 1st in Google Images ($20), first in A9 Images ($20), first in Ask Images ($20).
Contest Sponsor: milliondollarscreenshot.com
Status: Closed

There are currently still 11,600 Google results for “The four required words”

Retsambew Dash Klat For Charity

Contest Starter: Webmaster-Talk.com
Seo contest running dates: April 3, 2006 – September 1, 2006
Total Prize amount: $5,810.30
Search engines used: Google
Keyword Phrase: retsambew dash klat for charity
Places Paid: 1st – 5th
Monthly Results Prize: NA
Final Results Prize: Total cash value prizes total $5,810.30 for 1st through 5th place

There are still 51,100 Google results for Retsambew Dash Klat For Charity

Isulong seoph

Contest Dates: 01 June 2006 – 29 September 2006
Target Key Phrase: Isulong SEOPH
Prize: 1st Prize Php40,000
Contest Sponsor: seophilippines.org
Status: Closed

There are still 866,000 Google results for Isulong seoph

Vorgermilten

Contest Dates: June 1, 2006 – December 31, 2006
Target Keyword: Vorgermilten
Winner Prize: $10,000 for 1st Place in Google, $2000 for first in Yahoo, and many other cash prizes.
Contest Sponsor: officialares.com
Status: Closed

There are currently 29,600 Google Results for Vorgermilten

World SEO Championship 2006

Dates: July 14, 2006 – October 20, 2006
Keyword: ambatchdotcom seocontest
Monthly Prize: $200, $100 and $50 to the top 3 listings respectively.
End-of-contest Prize: $4,000 for 1st Place, $2,000 for 2nd place and $500 for 3rd place in Google.
Sponsor: Kelvin Hui
Status: Closed

There are currently 1,030,000 Google results for ambatchdotcom seocontest

CPayscom SEO Contest

Contest Dates: August 1, 2006 – February 1, 2007
Target Key Phrase: CPayscom2 Online Casino
Prizes: $10,000 for 1st Place, $2,000 for 2nd place and $1,000 for 3rd place in MSN.com
Contest Sponsor: CPays Affiliate Program
Status: closed

There are currently 779,000 Google Results for CPayscom2 Online Casino.

precharge projectnet

Contest Dates: August 19, 2006 and ends December 19, 2006
Target Key Phrase: precharge projectnet
Prizes: 1st Place Winner $2,000.00 Cash 2nd Place Winner $500.00 Cash, 1 Owned Forum Software from vBulletin, 1GB Creative Labs Nano from Amazon, 5 Domain Registrations from Domain Site 3rd Place Winner $250.00 Cash, 1 Template from TemplateMonster – Up to a $75.00 Value, $25.00 Gift Certificate from Amazon. 4th Place Winner $100.00 Cash. There are also prizes for contestants ranking 5th to 10th and a recently updated list of monthly prizes.
Contest Sponsor: Precharge.net
Status: Closed

There are currently 119,000 Google results for precharge projectnet

Popularity: 10% [?]