Search engine optimization as an applied technology, would not be nearly as much fun if not for the effect of competition. Face the facts - you want to be number one, in all the engines, and that is the point of your SEO efforts.

Optimizing a web site is not far from creating the ultimate team of any sport. Every player on that team serves a role, and within a solid team - the chemistry and relationships are unsurpassed.

So how can the formation of a sports team compare to your web site’s optimization?

Just as in sport leagues, web site owners are constantly jockeying for position within the search engines. Instead of holding contests within stadiums though, your battle for position takes place on the search engines. Instead of fans and spectators, you have searchers.

As such, spectators only see what takes place in the stadiums. Targeted visitors only see how well you perform (if at all) when they come to watch for you in the search engines. Through practice, innovation, and sheer research on your competitors though, you can excel when it comes time to perform.

To take this comparison a bit further, compare search engine optimization to a football team preparing to make a run in the playoffs. Each Monday, the coaching staff meets to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents, with a focus on what can lend them specific advantages for the sake of victory.

From there the coaches will record a game plan that dictates what should happen and in what situations these things are to occur. Once they have presented their plans to one another and discussed them, the team is prepared accordingly.

For the next 4 or 5 days, the team practices and implements exactly what the coaches are looking to excel with, and resting is simply not an option. Then, just one day short of the actual competition, the players are allowed to rest and take a step back to breathe. It is at this point where they can then review all of what they have recently learned to accomplish.

Come Sunday, competition is fierce.

While you could be wondering where and how this all fits into your web site’s optimization, please continue on. There is more of a connection than meets the eye.

For starters, your team is composed of coaches and players. The coaches are those that have a firm grasp of your competition, where they rank, and who they target the most. If they are true competition, they too are well aware of whom they look to win over in the search engines.

Moving down the ladder of your team is the coordinators. Coordinators can specialize in things like HTML validity, link popularity, and keyword applications.

Let’s take a closer look into each of these coordinator roles.

HTML Validity Coordinator
Search engines have told us before, and continue to do so - Valid HTML grants preferential treatment. Why? For starters, the search engines simply do not want to send their users to pages that are relevant but crash a fair percentage of browsers used in viewing pages. They know that their users will become displeased.

The HTML Validity coordinator should know at all times how many pages exist on the site and to which standards these resources should validate to. If there are problems within the coding that generates invalid HTML code, then it is the responsibility of an HTML Coordinator to teach his players to counter these matters quickly and efficiently - and to see to it that this happens swiftly.

Link Popularity Coordinator
The Link Popularity Coordinator cares about one thing, and one thing only - links. Not from sites that are spammy, penalized, or simply irrelevant. The Link Popularity Coordinator scours the web in search of web sites that closely match your own in nature and in content without duplicating the information that you already have generated and host.

Once the Link Popularity Coordinator has located these resources, it is his job to instruct the players on who to speak with and what their goals are in obtaining inbound links. As the web grows, more search engines are looking to increase the level of relevancy in their results. As this process and tendency increases, the role of a Link Popularity Coordinator increases.

Keyword Application Coordinator
The Keyword Application Coordinator does the dirty work for your team. With the help of resources like WordTracker, Google AdWords Suggestions as well as Overture Suggestions, the Keyword Application Coordinator know what keywords your team is fighting for and the order of importance that lies within each target.

Once a master list of keywords has been generated, the coordinator is then responsible for keeping that list updated and dynamic - just as the searchers are who ultimately dictate what is on this list.

With the list in hand at all times, the Keyword Application Coordinator instructs your players on how to properly attack each target and to what priority their efforts are to happen. Your players then use what they know from the other coordinators to make their work the most productive as possible.

And then there are the players...
The players are the workhorses for all optimization efforts. Leaving the majority of the thought process to the coordinators instructing them, the players are on the field and knee-deep into HTML coding more often than not.

With this role comes a variety of responsibilities. From HTML document structuring, link implementation and heading specialists on down to the conversion enhancers, players must understand their roles in order to help the team to excel.

Putting it Together
Just as in football, the spectators of the competition are often left without any view of the work and determination that is installed within thousands of web sites on a daily basis. Continuing around the clock, this form of competition never truly ends. And, just as in football, your teams players may burn out, your coaches may need to rethink their game plans, and your attitude must be one of sheer determination at all times.

When someone searching on the search engines comes across your listing- they know not of the hours spent in targeting that exact occurrence. Rather, they find what they are looking for and move on.

The Thrill of Victory...
Obtaining a number one position for a competitive keyword is very much like winning a championship. If not for the sake of your consistent teams efforts and performances, the victory could never have become an obtainable goal.

Once you have become the champion of a keyword market, with the pride of your accomplishments worn on your sleeve - beware. For you are not the only team competing and parity can happen more often that its definition would leave you to believe.

If you have emerged as number 1, forget not what it has taken you to get there. Apply that strength to your team and accept nothing but 110% of your team’s abilities. Search engine optimization is a competition that never ends. When search engines update, we are left with the undaunting task of making sense of every shift and movement.

A loss is much easier to explain than a victory. Thankfully, as an SEO, you cannot afford the time to explain a thing - for another battle is soon to take place.