In a recent post of his, Aaron Pratt suggests that SEO contests serve no purpose other than to "damage the industry". At first I thought I had no opinion on the matter, but about 90 minutes later I seem to have formulated one. Yeah, I need to find a hobby.
On the surface, an SEO contest is not much different than writing contests or web design contests. The objective being to have different people pit their skills against other like minded folks in an effort to determine who is best. I'd even argue that SEO contests have an upper hand in that the progress of those participating is readily visible to the public just by doing a search at Google, Yahoo, or MSN.
As an individual, the primary benefit of entering an SEO contest is that you may gain some respect from fellow search engine optimizers. Although there's little chance of having a client choose you because you won a contest, it doesn't mean that a referral might not come your way someday because of the reputation you earned from winning. The cons include giving away particularly good SEO tactics to your competition, but also to the search engines.
From an industry perspective, I disagree with Aaron's premise that the contests are harmful. I believe this because most contests target made up phrases that nobody searches for. As such, the "real" search engine results that the general public see are not being cluttered by junk. In addition, the made up phrases don't target people or brands so there's no harm, perceived or real, to anyone.
The question then comes down to whether contest that target people or companies have the potential to "harm" them or innocent bystanders. Such is the case with the recent Dave Pasternack (of Did-It) contest. The innocent bystander in this case is an aspiring chef also named Dave Pasternack who has had his name (it was in a NY Times article) bumped from the top spot in Google. Some might argue that he has now lost some publicity that he worked years to earn. I lean more to the side of he had some free publicity in the past that he didn't really try to get. I'm sure he was happy to be featured in the NY Times and didn't really consider the search engine implications.
And in the case where the company or person is reviled, would an SEO contest be such a bad thing? How about if a company is providing poor customer service? Would it be bad to build a site with your grievances and do everything in your power to get it to the top of search engine results?
So in the end, I think that SEO contests are mostly harmless. Perhaps petty sometimes, but harmless nonetheless. Mind you, should I find my name bumped from the number one spot in Google, I'm going to be one unhappy camper 
- Redscowl Bluesingsky
- Dave Pasternack
- V7ndotcom Elursrebmem
- V7ndotcom Elursrebmem - Observations Round 2
- V7ndotcom Elursrebmem - Observations Round 1
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