Baseball has long been called “America’s pastime.” And since the inception of Major League Baseball in 1869, all the way through the 2012 MLB season that drew nearly 75 million spectators – giving MLB the highest season attendance of any professional sports league in the world – the nostalgia-laced game has retained a firm grip on the consciousness and imagination of American sports fans.
SEO, on the other hand, has only really even existed since sometime in the 1990s – or roughly 120 years after professional baseball first sprung off the bat. And whereas baseball is largely defined by runs, hits and errors, SEO counts content, site architecture and inbound links at the core of its being.
But upon further review, there’s more synergy between the MLB of 2013 and SEO as it exists in 2013 than you might think. Especially when you take a closer look at the increasingly applied and understood concept of “Moneyball.”
Allow us to explain more here…
And be sure to click the link toward the bottom of this blog entry to download your FREE copy of the FULL Amplitude Digital ebook “How To “Moneyball” The SEO Role In Your Company.” The eBook was a big hit at the recent Digital Summit 2013 in Atlanta, and we’re confident you’ll enjoy adding it to your company’s lineup – and watching the big hits and wins pile up.
Hope Springs Eternal
Each and every Major League Baseball season, each and every one of the league’s 30 teams breaks spring training camp believing they have a shot to capture a pennant and make a trip to the World Series.
Yes, even the Chicago Cubs – and their legion of long-suffering yet faithful fans – entered the 2013 MLB season holding on to hope that “THIS is gonna be OUR year.” Never mind that the “Cubbies” haven’t claimed a World Series title since 1908 – long, long, long before SEO existed (unless “SEO” stood for, say, Sir Edmund O’Reilly). [push h=”30″]
A Whole New Ball Game.
Yes, baseball has long been America’s pastime. But it’s only in recent years that the economic and scouting systems employed by Major League Baseball clubs have advanced further into the forefront of the average American’s consciousness. The 2003 best-selling book “Moneyball,” along with the successful 2011 film adaptation starring Brad Pitt in the role of innovative Oakland Athletics’ general manager Billy Beane, is the main reason for this enhanced awareness.
The subtitle of that book, authored by award-winning sportswriter Michael Lewis, is “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.” As many now know, the economic playing field of MLB is far from even these days, with the 2012 New York Yankees’ $197.96 million payroll dwarfing the combined $55.24 million in salary of the San Diego Padres. The Athletics (also known as the A’s) were the only other MLB team with a payroll under $60 million in 2012, just barely edging out the Padres at $55.37 million.
That’s certainly not fair. But thanks largely to the smart and innovative application of data and statistics (aka “Moneyball”), along with the courage of Beane’s unconventional convictions, the A’s still found a way to win the American League West pennant in 2012, roaring back from 13 games behind the Texas Rangers (and their $120.51‐million payroll) on June 30 and 5 games down with just 9 days remaining in the season to claim the competitive and pricey division with a sterling 94‐68 record. They also bested the big-ticket and geographically ambitious Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, whose $154.49-million payroll was the fourth‐largest in all of baseball. The Rangers and Angels finished 93-69 and 89‐73, respectively.
Last season’s success – along with this season’s 12-4 start – was further validation that the A’s way can work. And net real results.
“Recreate Them In The Aggregate.”
One of the key scenes early in “Moneyball” comes when A’s management realizes there is no way they can replace two of the key players they’ve lost with their extremely limited operating budget. What they do realize they can do, however, is “recreate them in the aggregate” using undervalued, driven, and talented young players.
The cool thing about the “Moneyball” approach adopted by the A’s in recent years – and no doubt part of its enduring and ever-increasing appeal – is that it can work in a variety of other industries too. And what is more American than a good, old-fashioned Underdog Story, anyway? Even if it does apply modern, cutting‐edge statistical analysis, approach and technology?
Moneyball In SEO?
Of course, Moneyball can also be applied in a winning capacity to your business. Including to the SEO role in your organization.
As we’ve said many times before here at the official Amplitude Digital blog, SEO functions aren’t really as unique as a lot of advertising and marketing “gurus” and “mavens” today would like you to believe.
Instead, they’re really a collection of best practices that site owners and site marketers should be doing – regardless of whether or not Google, search engines and SEO itself even exist.
PLAY BALL!
There’s much more to the SEO “Moneyball” discussion, strategy and execution. Including tips on how to assign people within your organization to their proper positions and build a lineup that consistently crushes the ball, plays together and delivers big win after big win.
And you can start honing your organization’s game and building and fielding your best team by downloading a FREE copy of the full Amplitude Digital ebook. Just click on this link to get your copy NOW!
Then kick back, crack it open and see how you can start tweaking the SEO lineup in your company in order to improve your batting average, hit more pitches out of the park and start piling up the wins.
And when you’re ready to get to work to build a better ballplayer and stronger team with us, give us a call. Or shoot us a Tweet. We look forward to teaming up with you soon. And celebrating a string of successful and exciting wins.
In the meantime…
PLAY BALL!
And have fun doing it.
