The Rustylime SEO Challenge
Rodney 29 comments
Ding ding! It's competition time!
It's been a long time since the last Rustylime competition I ran but I have finally gotten around to another crazy idea: The Rustylime Search Engine Optimisation Challenge!
What's it all about?
In short, the RL SEO Challenge offers budding (and professional) web developers, coders and enthusiasts the chance to show the whole World just how good they are, by getting a website ranked higher than anyone else's, on . How you do it is up to you.
What you will need:
- Some webspace to store your pretend website.
- A little bit of understanding about how SEO and Google work.
- A little bit of spare time.
You don't need to register a domain name (you can if you want to: they can be bought for only a few bucks). Your website does not have to be pretty or visually appealling, so you don't need to be a graphic artist to enter. You are more than welcome to use templates from sites such as Open Source Web Design, etc, if you wish.
What are the rules:
The rules are pretty simple. The clock will start ticking next Monday, so you really should register your intention to compete before then. Late entrants will be accepted but the all competitors will have the same deadline - so starting late will really hinder you. Once the clock starts, we'll be judging everyone's site after 1 week to see whose is the highest ranked in Google.
Your site can be funny, silly, crazy or just plain old boring but here's what it must have, so we know it's legitimately part of this competition:
- The site must advertise a fictitious product, the "Rustylime Absersizer".
- The site must prominently display the words "Rustylime SEO Challenge".
- The site must be in English (sorry).
How is the winner judged?
The winner is judged simply by comparing Google rankings from on Monday the 18th of January 2010. Whoever ranks the highest, wins.
What do I win?
The winner will get the amazing prize of 50 kudos points on RustyLime, as well as all the honour and glory that comes with winning such a prestigious event.
How do I enter?
To enter, you must be registered as a RustyLime user and leave a comment below, with the URL of your site.
But I don't know anything about SEO.
So here's your chance to have a play and learn something about it. Some useful resources can .
Besides, we'll also be giving 15 Kudos to the best looking site, as judged by readers.
But I can't make a website.
Again, here's your chance to learn. Plus there's a bonus 5 Kudos up for grabs for the worst looking site, as judged by readers.
So get yourselves signed up and ready and we'll see you in a week!
Jack
Monday 4th January 2010 | 07:27 PMSince the clock won't start ticking till next Monday, how do you take into account sites that were put online before monday, since they'd have an advantage.
Rodney
Monday 4th January 2010 | 08:06 PM...in response to this comment by Jack. Yeah I did consider some people might cheat like that and I considered the idea of only announcing the topic of the site on Monday next week. Then I decided that it's ok to give people a week to make a really cool site, if that's what they want to do, and then only release it next week. So we're really on the honour system, here. Hopefully people behave.
...in response to this comment by Jack. Google cache tells all.
Rodney
Monday 4th January 2010 | 08:50 PM...in response to this comment by Mikey. Yeah there are ways to figure out if people cheat but I'll be honest and say that I'm frankly happy if people just get involved! :-)
Gina Squitieri
Thursday 7th January 2010 | 12:10 PM"But I can't make a website.
Again, here's your chance to learn. Plus there's a bonus 5 Kudos up for grabs for the worst looking site, as judged by readers."
Love it. I could see me winding up with 100 kudos - easy. I'm not doing it.
This is off topic, maybe, but Mikey, you have the coolest site. It's so easy to read and user friendly. You have a lot of talent.
Rodney
Thursday 7th January 2010 | 12:47 PM...in response to this comment by Gina Squitieri. Is anyone planning to do it?
Jack
Thursday 7th January 2010 | 07:14 PMDepends if I can work out what an "Absersizer" is.
Rodney
Thursday 7th January 2010 | 07:17 PM...in response to this comment by Jack. Its whatever u want it to be ;-)
...in response to this comment by Gina Squitieri. If you were a member I would have given you kudos for those kind words :-)
Kim OJ
Friday 8th January 2010 | 12:08 AMI would like to participate, but I do not know much about SEO, so I am not sure I am going to have the time to study up etc.
Rodney
Friday 8th January 2010 | 08:15 AM...in response to this comment by Kim OJ. Meh, just bung something up and see what happens.
Jack
Friday 8th January 2010 | 11:59 AMLooks as though I'll be entering. No specific time when we should bring the sites online? 12:01am Monday morning for the advantage?
Jack
Friday 8th January 2010 | 12:42 PMWill google.com be used, or google.com.au?
Rodney
Saturday 9th January 2010 | 09:14 PM...in response to this comment by Jack. 00:00 onwards is fair game. :-)
Google.com will be used as the master source but entrants may feel free to quote the Google of their home country if they feel it should be included in the rankings.
Jack
Saturday 9th January 2010 | 09:23 PMWebsite's finished. All ready to put it online. I'm not sure whether I'll be registering a domain though, since at the moment it doesn't look like too many people will be entering.
Jack
Monday 11th January 2010 | 12:28 AMLooks like it's passed midnight now in Perth, so my Absersizer website is now online.
http://rustylimeabsersizer.kicks-ass.org
Rodney
Monday 11th January 2010 | 10:03 AM...in response to this comment by Jack. Brilliant. :-)
Jack
Friday 15th January 2010 | 02:24 PMGoogle Bot finally got round to crawling my site, although it doesn't seem to be listed yet. Interesting to see people looking for PHPMyAdmin setup files and such though.
Rodney
Friday 15th January 2010 | 02:29 PM...in response to this comment by Jack. Interestingly, this very web page has now taken the #1 spot for "absersizer", beating out all the genuine products. :-)
Rodney
Friday 15th January 2010 | 02:32 PM...in response to this comment by Jack. I actually just had a good look through your site. I can't believe how much work you've put into it! :-)
aries
Friday 15th January 2010 | 03:28 PMhahahahaha jack you are priceless!!!
i laughed my skinny white arse clean off looking at your site. well done old boy and thanks for the belly laughs... :)))
Jack
Saturday 16th January 2010 | 12:46 AMThanks :)
I have the advantage of being on school holidays at the moment, so my time isn't exactly of high value.
Jack
Monday 18th January 2010 | 08:58 PMServer will be going offline in a couple of days. Doesn't look like anyone else is going to enter, and Google seems to be taking their time to list mine anyway. Was an interesting competition idea, could have been fairly fun if there were more entries and Google cooperated.
Quite like the technology based competitions, can only stay hopeful the gap until the next one isn't quite as long.
Rodney
Monday 18th January 2010 | 10:45 PMWell, a technicality is a technicality! No one else entering means - YOU WIN!
Rodney
Monday 18th January 2010 | 10:52 PM...in response to this comment by Jack. Yeah, the lack of interest was disappointing but not surprising. I clearly aimed too far a field on this challenge, as it's a highly specialised area which is not related to the blog's normal subject material (i.e. bashing religions :-P).
None the less I was pretty impressed with your effort, Jack and I hope you had some fun.
Hopefully soon we'll get a "5 minute intro" article up on how to SEO, just to round this one off.
I can tell you, however, that the next technology based challenge is now being prepared and finally.... FINALLY... the hacking competition is coming back. In May 2010, I will have the appropriate servers in place, with disposable bandwidth and IPs to hold a new hacking competition. Spread the word. :-)
Jack
Tuesday 19th January 2010 | 12:18 PMWhy thank you :)
I even manged to learn a few little things in the process, which will certainly come in handy in the future.
Certainly looking forward to another hacking competition, and I'm sure like last time participants won't be too much of an issue.
Jack
Thursday 28th January 2010 | 05:03 PM... and the site finally gets listed in Google after being taken offline. :)
Jack
Thursday 28th January 2010 | 05:14 PMOh! It's actually the top result on a search for "Absersizer" outranking this article. :)
Jake Farr-Wharton
Monday 4th January 2010 | 06:28 PMAwesome! Another challenge where we can all join in... sigh. hahaha.