So what can concerned search engine optimizers do to help the Tibetans and raise awareness of their plight?

In years past, SEO professionals have competed in playful contests to see who could rank a site the highest for a nonsense term like “nigritude ultramarine,” or some other similar goal. To my knowledge, we’ve never collectively used our powers for something big that could help others.

I think the situation in Tibet represents an unprecedented opportunity for SEOs to do just that. But instead of running an ego-driven contest (and instead of “Google bombing” some unsuspecting site, which is no longer really feasible since Google defused this with their algorithm), let’s all see how high we can rank a Tibet-related site for the keyword “olympics.” The site would need to have the word “olympics” on their home page in order for it to really work. Ideally, the site would cooperate with us and take our SEO advice in terms of on-page factors that they would need to change to help with the “olympics” ranking. I think a good candidate site to send our “link love” to would be FreeTibet.org, a non-profit, non-governmental campaign to help the Tibetan people achieve the right to determine their own future. The organization has been in operation for more than 20 years, and has nearly 20,000 members. Alternative sites to consider: Save Tibet, the official Tibet-in-exile site, and the Dalai Lama’s site.

If we could get the site to hit, say, number 8 in the Google SERPs (search engine results pages) for “olympics,” that would be a great statement of support from SEOs for the Tibetan people.