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 (Part of the series on Sun Tzu's ; The Art of War – from the SEO perspective.)
Sun Tzu said;
In the practical art of war, the best thing of all is to take the enemy's country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good. So, too, it is better to recapture an army entire than to destroy it, to capture a regiment, a detachment or a company entire than to destroy them.
Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
SEO Style;
This one is hard to relate, unless of course to entirely take over a competitor is to inevitably buy them out or shatter their brand presence. We can also imply that crushing a competitor on one query space can make them obsessed with 'taking you down' in another. Foster aggression without creating animosity.
A more tempered campaign will enable you to conquer the enemy while not provoking them. Create a sense of futility competing with you and 'allow' them to accept being second best.
Sun Tzu said;
(Thus) the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; the next in order is to attack the enemy's army in the field; and the worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities. The rule is, not to besiege walled cities if it can possibly be avoided.
SEO Style;
To balk is to counter attack and the junction is you enemies allied against you. We must know the competitors well. When they launch a campaign we must heed and prepare to create a better reply in response.
But when one conducts a campaign, in light of your competitors activities, do not once more participate in long drawn out battles. When they are entrenched in a query space, do enough to keep the engaged, but begin to move to other query spaces while they are distracted.
(tune in Monday for the next edition)
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