A Hero is someone doing something good, sacrifising own time, health, money or something else, for saving someone else, right?
So who can then be a Hero when talking about SEO?
There is one type of SEO that fit really well into this category.
There are a lot of tips and tricks online, for people that want to do harm to themselves or other people. It is really easy too google how to make a bomb, how to commit suicide, how to starve yourself and so on. There are a lot of forums and blogs on these topics, that get a lot of attention and ends up high (highest) in Google on these search terms. This is just Google working as it should, since a lot of people are interested in these pages, they also get placed high in rank. Though, it is not a good thing.
Would it not be better if suicide prevention websites would rank highest when someone Googles how to commit suicide?
Sites that would help the searcher find professional help instead of forums and blogs helping him or her end it all?
This is exactly what a couple of Swedish SEO's are doing.
They made a site that provides all the needed info for getting professional help for your suicide thoughts. They made onpage SEO and content very good. Then they reached out, and with help of seo-community and bloggers they finally managed to rank this site highest instead of the Flashback (Swedish forum) -thread with suicide tips and tricks, that were earlier ranking.
There is no money in ranking a site that help people quit their suicidal thoughts. Making and ranking a site first on topics like this is only charity, non-profit work. But if the site gives at least one person second thoughts about their suicide plans, the makers of that site is real SEO-heroes if you ask me.
This text is part of the SEO Hero competition by Wix, submitted by Jonathan Björkskog