Over the past few months, I’ve become deeply captivated by the concept of alignment. Although I never participated in Dungeons & Dragons during my childhood (my first exposure was actually through an exceptional episode of this season’s Community), the idea of alignment has held a strong allure since I first encountered it. I ponder which characters embody each alignment, and where I, as well as my peers, fit within this framework. Given my lengthy commute, I have ample time for such contemplation.
In the spirit of this obsession, I’ve attempted to create an alignment chart specifically tailored for the SEO community. Accompanying this chart are notes, embed codes, an in-depth explanation of alignment, and relevant references. [Image: SEO Alignment Chart](https://www.webfx.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/alignment-chart.png)Notes
Lawful vs. Chaotic is determined by adherence to Google’s guidelines.
There are no public “evil” SEOs, so non-Lawful Evils had to be categorized as blackhats. I apologize, but this was the only logical place for you to fit.
Matt’s resemblance to Darth Vader was too striking to overlook. However, I genuinely believe you’re not evil.
Embed This Chart!
Explanation of Alignment
The chart consists of two axes: Good vs. Evil and Lawful vs. Chaotic. Each character’s motivations are positioned along these axes. Good denotes intentions that are benevolent towards others, while evil signifies malevolent intentions.
Lawful represents respect for and adherence to authority, while chaotic indicates an active attempt to dismantle systems and authority. Neutral falls outside of these motivations. For instance, a character with good intentions and a respect for the rules (Lawful Good) would be Superman. A good character seeking to challenge the status quo (Chaotic Good) would be V from V for Vendetta. A character with malevolent intentions aiming to undermine authority (Chaotic Evil) would be the Joker from the latest Batman films. An evil character operating within the established rules (Lawful Evil) is Darth Vader.
True Neutral is driven primarily by self-interest, as exemplified by House. The other Neutrals fall somewhere between these motivations. If you were curious, I find myself right in the middle of True and Chaotic Neutral.
List and References
Lawful Good – Rand Fishkin – “My hat is as white as Google’s background.”
Lawful Neutral – Jill Whalen – “It’s only search engine tricks that need to keep changing when the ranking algorithms change.”
Lawful Evil – Matt Cutts – “What is thy bidding, master?”
Neutral Good – Bruce Clay – “No SEO practitioner will intentionally do harm to a client.”
True Neutral – Rae Hoffman – “My primary focus is on my own companies.”
Neutral Evil – Martin MacDonald (quoted here) – “Any SEO that does not test the boundaries is not an SEO.”
Chaotic Good – Rick Skrenta (quoted here) – “We’re applying the Wikipedia model. Users can make their own additions and put on sets of sites to a slashtag.”
Chaotic Neutral – Aaron Wall – “You see, tricking people is bad. Unless you are Google. In which case you have to hit the quarterly numbers.”
Chaotic Evil – Kris Roadruck – “Your strategy is based around wishful thinking and hoping that someday Google will do your job for you so you don’t have to.”
