007 Things James Bond Can Teach Us About SEO

James Bond movies are a guilty pleasure of mine. They’re really pretty poorly written (SO predictable), the “romance” is terribly corny, and the puns can be just terrible…but what can I say? It’s fun.

The 007 logo image above is a trademark of MGM

In honor of my appreciation for 007, I’ve come up with a list of seven things James Bond can teach all of us about SEO:

1. Our mission isn’t just about us. Bond’s priorities are “Queen and country” – everything he does is for England. There’s a very direct corollary in SEO – everything you do for the search engines is REALLY about the user. Making your content easier to crawl, decreasing website load times, and being careful about whom you link to are all SEO best practices because they improve the experience of the user.

2. Protocol is important. Code names, passwords, and military etiquette are a regular part of Bond’s work. SEO is similar in that it is most successful when you follow a very strict set of on-site SEO rules:

• Make all of your content “crawlable” – Beware of gee-whiz fancy Javascript and Flash website elements because they’re not always easy for search engine spiders to understand.
• HTML title tags are really, really important – Read my Two Minute Guide to SEO title tags for a quick how-to.
• Standard HTML heirarchy and clean code works. Search engines like clean code, and they like structure. Every page of your website should have h1 and h2 header tags, clearly defined paragraphs of text, and lists should be used whenever appropriate.

3. Emphasize your point clearly and unequivocally. When Bond makes a point, it’s usually crystal clear. In SEO, this means that the topic and main keywords of each webpage should be obvious. That way, search engines won’t have to “guess” about the topic of your page and your readers will know if they’ve found the content they’re looking for immediately.

Could Bond have defeated Dr. No without the help of this beauty?

4. You need a network of strong relationships. While it might seem like Bond is a one-man wrecking crew, the truth is that he relies upon strong international relationships to accomplish his goals. Just like Bond would be nowhere without local contacts and pretty girls with insider access, SEO is as much about building relationships as it is anything else. Relationships, you see, help you build links and promote content – they’re essential to success.

5. There’s a lot going on behind the scenes of a successful mission. Bond usually saves the day because of his hand-to-hand skills, his driving skills, or his marksmanship. However, all of these skills require HOURS of effort to hone. In SEO, hours and hours of work go into achieving a top ranking.

6. Eventually, the “bad guys” get what’s coming to them. It seems like every day there is some trick that the “bad guys” use to unfairly manipulate search engine results. These black-hat tactics might work for a while, but just look the bad guy always dies in the end of every Bond flick, black hat SEO “tricks” eventually fail.

7. Working with the opposition sometimes makes sense. How many times has Bond partnered up with the KGB to defeat one of his enemies? Sometimes, working with a competitor is the easiest way to boost both of your website’s search rankings.

Bonus: SEOs get the girl

My lovely wife Sara could totally be a Bond girl…but she’s mine. So no dice.

My wife Sara, a skilled website content writer.