24-7 AMs | An Internet marketing resource for you!

I’ve been waiting all winter to write this blog. Since Spring Training started this week (Pitchers and Catchers had to report), I present to you, the 10 ways that SEO is like Baseball:

1. All about the numbers: Baseball fans love stats. Tracking averages and benchmarking players against the normal is how we tell if someone is ‘good’. In SEO, it’s the same thing; reporting and hours of looking at analytics of website performance
2. Long term strategy: Teams will sign younger players that they feel will turn into the next big super stars years down the line. This is a system of planning for the future. In SEO, we also have to have our eye on the horizon, and make strategy based on long term results rather just short term wins.
3. Weird superstitions: Baseball players, when feeling that they’re performing very well, will often do odd things like not change their socks for weeks. Actually, this is pretty much the same in SEO.
4. Tracking Competition: Teams monitor what their division rivals are doing, and make adjustments to their batting line ups to best match the other teams’ pitchers’ weaknesses. SEO is similar in this aspect that we use tools like Google Alerts and internal reports for tracking and monitoring our clients’ competitors.
5. Constant Focus: A winning baseball team is made up of players who are incredible focused on the game being played at the time; players are never seen texting while standing in the outfield. SEO is similar in the constant focus on what is constantly changing in the search industry; it seems every day there is some new change to the search engine’s algorithms that we need to stay on top of.
6. Professional Fees: Carlos Gonzales was signed this past winter with the Colorado Rockies for a 7 year contract for $80.5 Million; Tulowitzki was signed for a 6 year contract for $31 Million. In web marketing, people often have their children handle their websites, pay per click, and optimization needs. While I certainly think there is a way to use this eager (and free) talent, it pays off in the end to have focused professionals as the backbone of your team.
7. Trends: The baseball season is long. Winning 3 games in a row might be great, but the team has to be consistently strong over the long haul to make it into the October post season. In SEO, a ‘good day’ of site performance means nothing, but an upward sloped trend of performance stretching months/years is clearly a success.
8. Cheating: Sadly, some baseball games have been thrown through the years, like the ‘Black Sox Scandal’ of 1919. In SEO, there are also ‘black hat’ ways to try to influence the search engines. As J.C. Penney recently learned, sooner or later the truth will be reveled on unethical practices.
9. It takes a team: 9 players on the field, plus the bullpen, plus the coaching staff. At Page 1, we have Account Managers, Optimization Specialist, Web Site Video Producers, Writers and Editors, PPC Specialist, Our award winning in house Design Team, and our IT gurus. It takes a team of experts to be successful in SEO.
   
   And lastly…


10. It’s fun: Baseball is fun to play, fun to watch, fun to root root for the home team. SEO is fun; great clients, constant change, and knowing that you’re making something better every day in some way.

Ready to play ball? Contact your Account Manager today and let’s discus some options and new offerings that will help meet your goals of reaching the post season!!

P.S. Todd Helton is the man.