# Barnacle SEO

> Barnacle SEO: attaching your brand to high-authority platforms that already rank well in search, instead of only building your own site's authority. Coined by Will Scott in 2008.

Barnacle SEO is a search strategy coined by Will Scott, CEO of Search Influence, in 2008. The name comes from the barnacle, which fixes itself to a whale or a ship's hull and rides where the current runs strongest. Rather than only building your own site's authority, you earn visibility on a platform that already has it. The term remains standard SEO vocabulary and applies in the AI-search era, where the same idea means getting cited through high-authority sources.

## Links

- [Will Scott on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamscott/)
- [Search Influence](https://www.searchinfluence.com/)