A contest for students in SEO? Who would have thought? Well, it's true. There is indeed such an event specifically for university and college students sponsored by website hosting firm Dotster.com and ticket sales organization BargainTix.com. The students compete for cash prizes for themselves and for their schools.
The very fact that such a contest, involving search engine optimization, is an indication of how mainstream the profession and the practice of site SEO has become. SEO is a profession for the future and many of the students entering the contest will be its leaders of tomorrow.
Dotster.com and ticket sales organization BargainTix.com provided the following contest information on their website:
Introduction:
This is an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) contest organized by BargainTix.com. It is designed to to introduce students to the SEO field. The contest is interested in comparing results for student pages. The contest date is from June 1st to Sept 1st 2006. Click here for more information on SEO and SEO contests.
Search Expression:
Astromusicologie 101
The search expression was announced on June 1st 2006 at noon (12:00 PM) Pacific Standard Time. This search expression yielded zero results on Google, Yahoo, and MSN at the start of this competition. Search terms for previous SEO contests include: "V7ndotcom Elursrebmem", "retsambew dash klat for Charity", "the four required words", "Carcasherdotcom Seocontest"
Prizes:
Prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd highest point total based on search engine results on Sept 1st at 12:00 PM Pacific Standard Time. Absolutely no points will be awarded for paid placement or "pay per click" ads.
1st highest point total - $500 cash prize
(An additional $500 will be donated to the School, Academic Club or Academic Department of the 1st place winner's choice)
2nd highest point total - $300 cash prize
(An additional $300 will be donated to the School, Academic Club or Academic Department of the 2nd place winner's choice)
3rd highest point total - $200 cash prize
(An additional $200 will be donated to the School, Academic Club or Academic Department of the 3rd place winner's choice)
Cash prizes will be in USD funds.
Continue reading about the Student SEO Contest and enter here.
The future of SEO is in the hands of the student contestants. As always, I am hoping that a few of the students entered will blog about their experiences in the contest and share with the rest of us.
We all know that employing blogs for SEO could help some wise student win too.
Shhhhhhhh.
