Unlock the Vault to Win!
The sun beats down relentlessly as you trudge along the dusty, winding track. The dry earth cracks beneath your boots, sending up clouds of powdery dirt that swirl in the heat. In the distance, a lone figure appears – an old SEO account manager…
“Well, well, well… if it ain’t another greenhorn lookin’ to strike it rich. Listen up, ya scrawny keyword wrangler—there’s SEO gold buried deep in this here website, and if ya got the guts, the brains, and the know-how, you just might get yer grubby hands on it.”
“But don’t go thinkin’ it’s gonna be easy! That gold’s locked up tighter than ole John Mueller’s diary. The only way you’ll be able to bust open that there vault is by sniffin’ out the secret password, piece by piece. You’ll need to use all your SEO smarts and poke around where most folks don’t dare look.”
“If ya wanna get yer hands on that sweet, shiny SEO gold sittin’ inside the vault, ya best start diggin’ where the clues point ya. Below, you’ll find a list of challenges, each one leadin’ ya to a piece of the secret passphrase. Some clues are buried deep in the site’s guts, others are hidin’ in plain sight—ya just gotta know where to look. So quit yer lollygaggin’, roll up them sleeves, and get to work! The answers ain’t gonna find themselves!“
Notes Before You Begin
Hello! And welcome to the world’s first (and possibly last) Technical SEO Treasure Hunt. I hope it can help provide some useful training for aspiring Tech SEOs that allows for hands-on training on different core elements. Before you start, I wanted to list a few notes on the best ways to enjoy and get the most out of this exercise.
- Clues have been designed to be used in combination with technical SEO software, mainly SEO Crawlers like Screaming Frog or Site Bulb. The site is small enough that you won’t require a paid license for either. These crawlers make life significantly easier for some of the clues and make the whole exercise more reflective of a real-life SEO audit. SEO Chrome extensions like SEO Pro and Ayima are also fair game. That being said, all clues can technically be solved without this assistance, although I wouldn’t recommend it.
- I’ve aimed to signpost the different password combinations as best as I can so there isn’t any additional confusion. At the same time, this does mean that for a number of clues you’ll be able to cheat by searching for the phrase ‘Vault Combination’ in inspect element or on the page’s source code. I’d recommend only doing this trick if you’re completely stuck and then working backwards to understand how you should have reached the answer.
- Detailed explanations and solutions for each clue can be found on the Explanations page. There are no clues hidden on this page.
- Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. If you’re enjoying the site then please let me know. If you’re looking to sell your own freelance SEO services, kindly direct all enquiries to the bottomless pit for immediate processing.
- Best of luck!
Signed – Sam Ward-Jacobs