Is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) a game? This article intends to delve into the depths of current SEO trends and implementation and pick apart the elements to discover both how it manipulates the designer/developer, but also how it can be gamed to their advantage and examining the tricks, techniques, proper methods and their similarities to the videogame world.
Search Engines are always changing and evolving — Meaning we need to be ahead of the curve. Rules are reworked, algorithms change, methodologies are tweaked. With the advent of social media’s dominance over the internet, people began to expect things immediately. Tweets have replaced news articles, soundbites replace interviews, and search engines have grown to provide more up-to-date and organic results. What does this mean for websites?
It means Front Page or Game Over.
According to a 2013 research publication by Chitika, it is evident that the top billing in Google (and obviously other search engines as well) results in a tremendously significant increase in traffic for that search result. People simply don’t care to scroll down — and woe betide those on Page 2 and beyond. As such, Search Engine Optimisation has quickly become notably more important. Beyond the obvious immediacy of the top spots, it appears that people trust those search results, trusting them to be more organic and relevant as opposed to the classic methods such as advertisements, emails or other promotional ways of increasing traffic to your website.
It makes me think of the old arcade cabinets. Dig-Dug, Space Invaders, Asteroids…Those who wanted to be the centre of attention, who wanted more friends in that scene, they weren’t just playing for fun — They were going for that #1 spot on the leaderboards (usually occupied by the dreaded “AAA”). Few cared for the names below #3, and fewer still cared for those below #10. Sure, all competitive activities have leaderboards, but the others don’t have the same ramifications or the same kind of game-like ways to improve that.
It’s-a-me, SEO!
Use any piece of SEO software or visit an SEO-checking site and you can evaluate your site’s engine friendliness. Most sites will generate a mighty long list of red errors. Red is bad right? You bet. Orange/yellow, less crucial. Green is groovy. But what’s this? Some generate a number, and even a letter! 48%? C grade? Wait, what? Must get higher!
This is a part of how Google, Yahoo and other search engines view you. The higher your grades, the better they like you, the higher your leaderboard standing. When Webber-Design first launched our shiny new site and blog, we were around 50%, Grade C. We had a slew of reds, a few yellows, and a bunch of greens. Being given a list of tasks that then reward you (primarily with bigger numbers or tangible rewards that benefit you) — That pretty much constitutes a quest. Just like Nike “gamified” exercise with their Fuelband tracking your routines, calories burned and applying feedback; SEO has been gamified by way of quests, complete with difficulty tiers, leveling up and eventual rewards in the form of improved traffic to your site and higher rankings in search engines.
Of course, it was a soft launch so we hadn’t yet done the majority of the back-end web development yet, so we printed off the list and set to work. At this point, it’s down the skill and knowledge of the developers to use every technique available to streamline the site and amp up that page position! Make the tunnels towards the bottom and loop back under, luring those dinosa — Wait, sorry, that’s Dig-Dug.
Quest Complete?
So following the list sounds easy, and for some parts this is true. Adding a robots.txt or writing a description is not hard, but proper optimisation…That takes some doing. You have to plan your route, how you will rewrite the CSS, HTML and JQuery to maximise efficiency and minimise the code file size, how best to word your paragraphs to properly use Heading (H1) and subheading (H2, H3) to populate repeating keywords without keyword stuffing (which search engines like Google will severely punish you for), how to make the most of the navigation while not duplicating content…
On top of all of that, you have to do it ethically — Long ago, you could “stuff” keywords into your site. Today, Google and co. disapprove of this practice so much that doing this will make your ranking plummet. There’s a whole slew of rules in play (some of which change), such as not having too many keywords, to not hiding elements (via transparency, or off-screen, or under other elements), to avoiding “spamming” backlinks to your site. Using techniques like this is called “Black Hat SEO”. If you do it and get caught Google and co. will punish you, which can even result in being removed from the databases entirely — Game Over. Doing things within the boundaries of the rules sets no such risk, but is obviously harder, earning the name “White Hat SEO”. Both work, but one requires less effort but more risk (and is generally unethical), and the other more work but just rewards. Cleverly exploiting certain parts without stepping over those boundaries results in a game-like environment — Following the public strategy guides while using tips whispered from seasoned experts in secret to maximise potential and raise those scores.
Level Up
In recent years, however, search engines began to focus on constant and dynamic content to drive organise search results. Social Media scratches that itch. Relying less on a single established source, search engine algorithms now scour the web for mentions, likes, hashtags and backlinks. Services like Klout have become more pertinent as the number of social media avenues increased tenfold, and users need to contextualise just how important any given one is — It’s clout, if you will.
The web is not the static place it once was, resulting in the necessary inclusion of social media and the audience…Or players.
But we’ll get to that in part two.
Conclusion Get!
All in all, it is evident that SEO is still vitally important, but not as simple as it once was. Designers and developers have been roped in to achieving top spots via building these plans, doing these quests (with context or without) and measuring their success with abstract (but not arbitrary) numbers. Could it go further? Genuine “levels” applied to SEO checks, leaderboards beyond search engine front pages, legacy results to compare improvement and show off your SEO skills. Ultimately, gamification’s main benefits are accessibility to the masses, a form of addiction via Skinner Box techniques (more on that later), and best of all, making the dull and tiresome tasks fun. With this, SEO could perhaps end up as something end users can contribute too, thanks to social media’s accessibility. We will look at that in “Gamification in (Web) Design Part Two: It’s Dangerous to go Alone, Take This!”
Joshua Rousen studied Graphic Design BA Hons in University of South Wales. An avid life-long gamer, he completed his critical papers on the phenomenon of “gamification” (the process of applying videogame logic and rules to existing activities) and the existing/upcoming technology that already implements it or may do in the future. Gamification is increasingly popular, being implemented for the likes of exercise (Nike Fuelband & app, Fitocracy) or chores (ChoreWars) and other everyday activities, so Joshua perpetually monitors trends in the development and application of gamification in other avenues.
Bibliography:
- Reality is Broken — Jane McGonigal
- The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice — Karl M. Kapp
- Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game — Lee Sheldon
- Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers — Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo
- Gamification by Design: Implementing Game Mechanics in Web and Mobile Apps — Gabe Zichermann, Christopher Cunningham
- Fun Inc.: Why games are the 21st Century’s most serious business — Tom Chatfield