Game theory examines mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between rational decision-makers. It has applications across economics, political science, psychology, logic, computer science, and biology. I want to apply it to SEO.
SEO as a Zero-Sum Game
In search rankings, only one site can occupy the top position. One person’s gains result in losses for other participants. SEO is clearly a zero-sum scenario — which means game theory applies directly.
Multi-Player Scenarios
Real-world SEO involves numerous competitors, not just two. These multi-player scenarios are called n-person games or evolutionary game theory, where the frequency with which a particular decision is made changes over time in response to decisions made by all participants.
SEO professionals constantly evolve their strategies, switching between approaches — “content is king,” link profiling, technical optimisation, black hat techniques — based on results and competitor behaviour.
The Key Insight
Biologist John Maynard Smith discovered something important: in competitive populations, it was not important whether participants were engaged in a winning strategy, but rather that they were engaged in a strategy in the first place.
Applied to SEO: successful search optimisation does not require choosing the perfect strategy. It requires selecting an approach and evolving it based on outcomes. Having any coherent strategy that you learn from matters more than finding the theoretically optimal one.