Google: SEO Contests Useless, Waste Of Time & Generate Tons Of Spam

May 9, 2019 - 7:26 am 1 by
Filed Under Search News

Seo Contest

Every now and then you hear about a new SEO contest where you can win money, prizes, recognition and fame. Well, that might just stop now that John Mueller from Google trashed the concept. He said on Twitter "SEO contests are pretty useless. SEO contests never reflect real life-performance, they generate a ton of spam that negatively affects the whole ecosystem, they're a big waste of time & effort. The smart approach to SEO contests is to ignore them."

He then added "If you're thinking of running or taking part in one, consider just improving your services overall, making the websites you work on stronger & better for the long run, instead of trying to play useless, short-term games."

Here are those tweets:

For the most part, the SEO community seems pretty happy with what he said:

Why did he tweet this out of the blue? Well, Wix launched yet another SEO contest:

It worked well for their reputation in 2016, did something like it in 2017 and they keep doing it. Google has said Wix is fine for SEO but Wix doesn't have that great of a reputation in the SEO community.

In any event - contests are fun. I don't know if I'd be that harsh against them. All industries have contests. But I guess if it really causes a ton of spam, I can see why a Googler might not like them.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 14, 2025

Feb 14, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Super Bowl Volatility, Reddit Blames Google, Search Is Faster & Reviews Bug Fix

Feb 14, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Merchant Listing New Membership Loyalty Pricing Property

Feb 14, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google

Google Article Links To Product Snippet Overlays

Feb 14, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Dropped Minimum Required Budget For Local Service Ads

Feb 14, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads New Performance Max Search Themes Indicator

Feb 14, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: The Fungineers At Google I/O