My first triathlon was this past Saturday (it was a sprint), and it didn't go so well. I figured there would be some way to use the experience as a lesson learned about SEO, so I thought about it for a bit and concluded that there is a lesson indeed, and it is about paid links. Obviously, it's a loose tie-in, but whatever, I'm good at stretching analogies. Anyway, if you're willing to humor me and my semi-topical post, read on. If not, brainstorm some questions to ask Rand. :)

Saturday morning I woke up at 4:15 am (aka "the butt crack of dawn") to get prepared for my first triathlon. I have been training for a half Ironman, but my trainer wanted me to familiarize myself with the craziness of a triathlon so I signed up for a sprint. A sprint is a 400 meter swim, a 15 mile bike, and a 5k run (3.1 miles). I was a bit nervous, especially about the open water swim, but I had done some lake swims and it was a short distance so I figured I'd do fine.

The race started and I did the swim portion. I had to catch my breath and collect myself halfway though the swim because there were quite a few people around me and I didn't want to freak out, but I did all right (I could have shaved at least a minute off my swim time, but overall it wasn't too horrible). I ran out of the water, yanked off my swim cap, goggles (and yes, I initially typed "googles"), and wet suit, threw on my helmet, sunglasses, and bike shoes, grabbed my bike, and took off.

The bike was a leisurely 15 miles with one small hill climb. I say "leisurely" because a couple weeks ago I did a 52 mile bike ride, so compared to that 15 miles felt like a breeze. I biked out to the turnaround point and headed back. I looked at my watch and saw, to my excitement, that I was making decent time for my first ever race. Only 3 miles to go, then a short 3 mile run and I'd be done. Huzzzah!

My internal celebration was immediately sidelined when I heard a small but audible "pop!" I didn't think much of it--I figured I ran over something and made a crunching noise. No big deal. However, shortly after the mystery noise something didn't feel right. My bike sounded loud. Really loud. The ride was no longer smooth--it felt like I was riding on a jack hammer. I rode for a bit longer before deciding to stop. I clicked out of my pedals, turned around, and pushed down on the back tire. It squished under the pressing weight of my finger. I had a flat.

"No big deal," you're probably thinking, "just change it right quick and be on your way!" Uhhhhh, yeah, that would have been the most feasible solution...except for I didn't have a spare tube with me, nor did I have a bike changing kit, nor do I even know how to change a tire. I had been meaning to attend a bike clinic and learn how to do it, but I just never got around to it, plus I told myself, "What are the chances, right?" Well, just my luck--I ride for 3 1/2 hours with no problem two weeks ago, but the day where I'm participating in a timed event and going a whopping 15 miles, I get a flat with 3 miles to go. Son of a bitch.

I walked with my bike for several minutes before a friend of mine saw me and stopped. She had a spare tube and a bike kit...but she'd never really changed a tube, either. We fumbled with the back tire for about 20 minutes. My boyfriend rode up, stared at us awkwardly (no, he doesn't know anything about bikes, either), gave us his extra tube as a backup, and rode off. The entire time I kept glancing at my watch, thinking, "I should be done with the race by now," and getting more irritated and frantic.

Thankfully, a spunky little woman ran across the street wielding a bike pump. She lived nearby and saw two inept racers fumbling with a bike, so she decided to help out (and by "help out," I mean she totally pulled a Nick Burns, the Company Computer Guy on me and said "Mooove!" so she could work her magic). Christy (aka the hero of the day) had done many triathlons and knew a thing or two about bike maintenance, so she swiftly took over and expertly changed the flat out for the spare tube...only to discover that the air valve on the tube was bent, so she had to change that one (good thing we had a backup tube for the backup tube). After a 30 to 40 minute delay, I was finally able to climb back on my bike and finish the final 3 miles. I transitioned as quickly as I could and hauled ass for 3.1 miles, fueled by rage and exasperation. I crossed the finish line in a measly 2:05. With the delay, it took me an hour and 26 minutes to ride 15 miles. If I hadn't gotten the flat, I would have finished in around 1:35 or better. For someone as stubborn as me, that's a hard fact to swallow.

"Yeah, great," you're thinking, "You didn't know how to fix a flat so you screwed yourself over and finished with a crappy time. What does this have to do with SEO?" Well, I thought about how I had been doing so much training and figured the sprint would be a piece of cake. Sure, I didn't know how to change a flat, but I had done a long-ass ride recently and had no problems whatsoever, so what's another 15 miles?

Well, I thought about my situation from a paid links perspective. Maybe you think you know a thing or two about SEO--you have a website and you've read an SEO blog here and there. You understand that you need links to your site, and you've heard that you can simply shell out some cash and receive a large amount of links quickly and easily. "Pretty sweet deal," you think to yourself, so you snatch up some links. They go under the radar of the scrutinizing search engines. You amass thousands of links, hundreds of which are via paid means, and you've never been caught. This is your 52 mile bike ride. Why should you worry about your website getting a flat tire (a flat tire in this instance being getting busted by search engines)? You haven't had any problems so far, and you think you know what you're doing, right?

One day, however, you're stunned to find that the latest small batch of paid links you've purchased got you thrown in the slammer. Somehow these links didn't escape from the search engines' steely gaze like the other ones have. Your site's been penalized. Your rankings took a nosedive. Your business suffers. You, my friend, got a flat tire, and now you're left standing by the side of the road looking like an idiot and not knowing what to do. Guess you didn't know as much as you thought...

That's what happened to me, and I've seen the same thing happen to marketers. I got cocky. I mean, I know I'm no triathlon expert or anything, but the amount of knowledge and training I've built up over the past four months combined with the previously successful long rides I'd done made me think that the chances of some sort of mechanical hiccup happening to me would be low. Similarly, a lot of marketers think, "Hey, I already have a ton of paid links and the search engines haven't detected them, so what's a few more? What are the chances I'll get busted for this new batch?"

Well, maybe you will and maybe you won't, but are you willing to take that risk? Maybe I will get a flat and maybe my ride will be fine, but I've now learned that that's a risk I don't want to take. I also learned that I don't know as much as I think, which is why I'm attending a bike maintenance class this week. The same goes for marketers--when you're stranded by the side of the road with a neutered site and useless links because the search engines lay the smack down on you, do you know what your next course of action is, or are you going to stand there awkwardly, not knowing what to do as your site loses conversions and business every day it's taking a rankings hit?

Now, I'm not saying that all paid links are bad, contrary to what Google may insist. I just caution that if you are going to dip your toes into the paid links pool and wish to test the waters, know full well what you're getting yourself into--be aware of the risks involved, have a strategy in place (e.g., make sure you have a high amount of naturally acquired links mixed in with a small amount of paid links, and naturally build your links vs. dramatically increasing them over a short period of time), and make sure you have your repair kit and tube on hand in case you do get nailed (remove the links, file a Reconsideration Request, grovel like you've never groveled before).

There you go--a weak analogy that compares getting a flat tire to getting busted for having paid links pointing to your site. I told you I could do it. Now all I need to do is learn more about this crazy contraption called a bicycle. In the meantime, I hope you learned something from my racing woes--if not, then at least I did. I'm already planning on doing another sprint triathlon (I'm dubbing it my "redemption race"), and I'll certainly be more prepared for it. I hope that you're prepared for the risks involved with paid links--if not, then maybe you need to attend a maintenance clinic, too. :)