I spend a lot of quality time in Private Q&A here on SEOmoz, and I recently passed a milestone – 1,000 private questions answered since we re-launched the system (just over a year ago). Not surprisingly, we see a lot of the same questions and concerns pop up over time, and I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things along the way (please tell me my suffering wasn’t in vain). This post is an attempt to distill the biggest lessons from those 1,000 questions…
1. Dogma Will Get You Killed
You finally got your head around SEO best practices, and then you tackled your first e-commerce site, only to find that nothing worked the way the blogs told you. Search is algorithmic, so we assume it follows the same rules for everyone. In theory, it usually does, but those rules are incredibly complex and situational. Google claims over 200 ranking factors, many of those factors are probably multi-part, the algorithm is changing more than once per day, and there’s occasionally a manual intervention to really screw things up.
It’s good to know the basics (and there are some best practices), but you have to learn to roll with the punches. Even something as “simple” as de-indexing a few dozen pages rarely goes as planned, and can take weeks or months. Measure, evaluate, and adapt. If one tag or tactic isn’t working, consider your options.
2. One-trick Ponies Make Good Glue
I wrote an entire post recently on this topic, specifically link-building vs. on-page SEO. People naturally get comfortable with one aspect of search marketing (link-building, on-page, social, etc.) and then want to “perfect” it, but at best they hit diminishing returns fast. At worst, they’re putting band-aids on URLs while they bleed to death from a huge link wound. I’ve seen sites with spotless on-page SEO that have been stuck for months suddenly leap through the rankings because they’ve acquired a few good links. On the flipside, I’ve seen sites that were a total mess but had solid link profiles miraculously improve when their on-page problems were fixed.
3. A Link, by Any Other Name…
…might still stink. In the rush to build links, too many people, especially people with brand new (read that “highly vulnerable”) sites, make the mistake of thinking that all links are equally good. It’s no mistake that my most linked to blog post in Q&A is Rand’s 2010 post “All Links are Not Created Equal”. It’s not just a question of spam and penalties – link value varies tremendously with the page, placement, density of links, and on and on.
Case in point: I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen spend months on a DMOZ link only to have it buried on a page that has little or no internal PR or isn’t even indexed. Link-building is not just a numbers game. I’m not making a white-hat argument – it’s just SEO fact. Some links are better than others. Don’t waste your time on junk.
4. You’re Not a Black-hat Genius
Sorry to break it to you, but better to hear it from me than Google. First of all, if I can spot your paid links and gratuitous spam in 5 minutes of looking at Open Site Explorer data, how hard do you think it is for Google, who can essentially see the entire link-graph at a glance? Obviously, they don’t always get it right, and plenty of spam slips through the cracks, but the algorithm isn’t stupid, either. Ethics aside, the practical problem with black-hat SEO isn’t that it doesn’t work – the problem is that 98.7% of people do it badly.
At the risk of kicking you while you’re down, I also have to add that your link circle/wheel/tetrahedron isn’t brilliant, no matter what your mom says. Just because you’ve cross-linked 157 Squidoo lenses doesn’t mean that you’ve built an impenetrable web of black-hattery. If your link wheel were a Disney movie, the theme song would be “The Circle of Crap.”
5. On-page Is Getting Messier
I keep wanting to write a post on Google’s recent advice about pagination (and rel=prev/next), but then I get so angry I’m afraid I might turn green and start fighting alongside Iron Man – not that that wouldn’t be awesome. The problem isn’t that they’re wrong (although I think the advice is horribly over-generalized and often ineffective), but that they’ve put a tremendous burden on webmasters. Implementing a proper canonicalization + pagination scheme on a dynamic site with hundreds of thousands of pages is incredibly complicated, and requires not only substantial development resources but stellar communications between the SEO and dev teams (if you’re lucky enough to actually have teams of both). Add in HTML5, schemas, and the whole mess of other new options, and it’s only going to get more complicated.
6. Check Your Headers
Sorry, that wasn’t particularly helpful, so here’s an easy tip. When something isn’t going right and you don’t know why, check your page headers. Job #1 is to make sure that crawlers see what you see (or think you see). It’s unbelievable how often a problem comes down to a bad redirect, status code, or other crawler accessibility issue. There are tons of header checkers, from web-based to bookmarklets – I still use this header checker over at SEOBook.
7. Use Basic Tools Well
There are some great SEO tools out there, but I see the same issue in SEO that I do in writing, time management, and basically every single 21st-century human endeavor. We’re so busy chasing shiny new tools and the perfect app that we don’t bother to learn how to use any of those tools effectively. You can go a long way with a solid header checker, Google’s “site:” operator, a link analyzer (like our own Open Site Explorer) and a desktop crawler (I highly recommend Screaming Frog, but Xenu is still great, too). Master the “site:” operator and learn how to use it with “inurl:” and “intitle:”, and it’s amazing how many on-page problems you can diagnose. Stop chasing every new tool and learn how to use a handful really well. You’ll save a lot of time, money, and holes in your drywall.
8. Learn When to Be Patient
Patience may be the toughest skill any good SEO eventually has to learn. There are times when you’ll need to react quickly to a problem, especially a technical problem (like a bad redirect or site outage). There’s a fine line between reacting and over-reacting, though. One of the most common mistakes I see in technical SEO is when someone makes a change, it doesn’t immediately improve their rankings 24 hours later, and so they revert it or make another change on top of it. Even if it doesn’t make the problem worse (and it usually does), you’ll never be able to measure which change worked. Make sure your changes went live, that Google has acknowledged them (i.e. crawled and cached), and that you can measure the impact or lack of impact. Don’t change your strategy overnight based on bad information (or no information).
9. Stop Scheming & Get to Work
This post was originally “8 Lessons…”, but when I wrote #4 I got so annoyed that I had to follow it up with maybe the most important SEO lesson I can teach you. Are you ready? Here it is (warning: this may be inappropriate for younger readers)…
DO THE FUCKING WORK.
The most frequent excuse I hear in Q&A is “I don’t have time to…” Let me ask you something. Isn’t this your business we’re talking about? Isn’t it your livelihood? Isn’t it the thing that puts food on your table and clothes on the backs of your children? You’d better damned well find the time. If 80% of your traffic is coming from Google, and you don’t “have the time” to do the hard work of improving your product, creating unique content, and participating in your industry, then here’s the simple truth: no blog post is going to save you.
Dr Pete! You dropped an F-bomb on SEOMOZ! Tsk...
Ah, political correctness gone awry:
Originally from the Latin faceo, "to make, to do." Conjugate it slightly--faceo, facere, feci, factus. Then go through early High German umlaut and you get from factus to fuctus. And therein might be the original root of the word. Certainly the original meaning of "to make, to do" does fit with the more recent (1500s) use of the word until it came down to its present usage.
Superb Post Pete.... I really got some useful tips from this post .... :)
Did you read the rest of the article? I thought it was spot on :)
That might have been one of the best parts in a post full of awesome parts. ;)
MAN I think you've really nailed and distilled some of the most common sources of confustion/questioning in the Q&A (public and private). I'd just add another;
#10 - Stop Being So Quick To Blame Panda & Penguin
And I say this seriously in the nicest way. But I see people ALL the time diagnosing a drop in traffic or loss in ranking as something due to panda, or penguin, or whatever. When the truth is, these changes affected (off the top of my head) less than 5% of queries - and most of the time in reality their loss of traffic had nothing to do with panda or penguin. Just because they're the big "hot topics" doesn't mean you should jump to the conclusion your site was "hit". You need to step back and take a look at things objectively before making a conclusive diagnosis!
It's always the algorithms fault!!!
Actually Mr. Client, you changed all on page recommendations last week without consulting us first. Or wait, you hired a bunch of Indian link builders who have been building thousands of exact match keyword anchors over the last thirty days?
The list can go on and on. :)
I think it's appropriate to reference Paddy Moogan's post on everything being your fault, and also to point out that singling out Indian link builders is a little unfair.
I agree with you. I have just read fantastic post by Joost de Valk and I would like to quote few great words here
"To gain/regain the traffic from Google, you need to pay by their rules and in all honesty: those rules haven't changed all that much over the last 10 years. The only thing that's happening is that all the ways people found of bending those rules are slowly breaking. Client expects us to come up with a silver bullet. There are no silver bullets in SEO, just a lot of shiny silver drop of sweat, coming from your forehead."
Thanks Dr. Pete. You always come up with us to face the problems of us. Congratulations for reaching a milestone. Hopefully you will continue your great work.
Excellent addition to a great post. I agree. Stop blaming ANY of Google's updates. Stick to white-hat, keep writing good content and you never have to worry.
YES! I had a client who has a seasonal business meaning that people were not looking for his business during the time of the Penguin update publicity.
He was very quick to blame the company I worked with for the drop in traffic as we didn’t ‘prepare for Penguins’ (no joke, his exact words). His rankings remained the same but his traffic dropped. He would not believe us.
+1 I Agree! People are often looking to place blame on the updates instead of rework. "Take a step back and look" at the factors before making a decision on the cause.
Taking a minute to stop working and say, thank you. Shared with the entire team and for too many reasons to count. We all need reminders and sanity checks. Patience is absolutely brutal in this industry. It tripped me up a number of times back in the day and I'd leave work feeling crushed by the lack of movement. A week later (or even a month later!), things would pop and I'd feel crazy for not trusting myself sooner or by that point even connecting the shift to my work.
With many more years under my belt, it's the reason I like to supplement the big client work we do with some smaller gigs, too. The team doesn't always have the same level of experience with being patient. On the large accounts, it takes longer either because a term is more competitive or there are just development delays with the methods we're taking, site changes or content we're creating. With the small accounts, they can see change happen in a few weeks and that's enough of a confidence boost that it sets the tone for future work. Now they trust me, they trust themselves and they understand how to manage client expectations.
Small rant. I could go into as much detail on every point of the post. It really was a fantastic and timely reminder. Congrats on so many questions, that's a major achievement and for being so honest and outspoken about your experiences. :)
Loved it, Peter!
I'd just like to add my 2cents about the How SEOs should look at tools:
I agree with you:
I think that's good advice. Obviously, I'm not suggesting you never use any new tools or experiment, but I find people chase after shiny new toys at the expense of actually accomplishing anything. Your needs should drive your quest for tools, and you should give those tools a chance to show what they can do. Don't just sign up for 10 new sites/day because someone Tweeted "THIS IS AWESOME!"
It's never a good day not to have your shit together. Thanks, Dr. Pete for the reminder.
Nice post, I have personally done a few hundred questions to help out the community in the Q&A section, but yeah I think people should just use the search function most of the time it is the same questions over and over, that been said I can feel for the users who want a personal touch to their questions.
I should be clear - I'm not complaining about people asking new questions (and I'm a huge supporter of Q&A behind the scenes). There are just about infinite variations on every theme, but I thought it was a good opportunity to review a few of those common threads.
I agree for the most part. I too have answered 100s of questions in Q&A. Many times I link to a Matt Cutts Google Webmaster Help videos on Youtube, and old blog post, and many times I send them the beginners guide to SEO.
Thank you all for answering so many questions in Q&A! We all appreciate it.
You crack me up Pete. Truly a brilliant post my friend. I really like the "use basic tools well" advice. It seems like there is a new shiny tool being developed by seos every day and it's easy to take your eyes off the tools that get the job done well.
Thanks this should introduce some insights for the people that are stuck with their current SEO strategy. I think the resource and time management is still a major factor, when expecting a client to do something structurally you would almost have to e-mail them each week to remind them to keep building links etc.
Thanks for the post Dr. Pete. I don't know what I'd do without screaming frog. And the main problem with the Q&A Forum is that it's addicting - I've been gamified :)
I'm addicted too! Working hard to level up to Journeyman!! :P
Great post... and excellent use of the F-Bomb to drive the point home. I'd give you several likes just for that.
If I had a nickel for every time I have heard - I don't have the time from a client of mine - I wouldn't need clients.
Well time is one thing, it's all about how you apply that time ;-) Someone could easily get side tracked and spend 40 hours working on unproven techniques and not measure the results. And of course if people realized the importance they would make the time for it.
Great post! Congrats on reaching the milestone and contributing so much to the SEO Moz community!
And now I feel like I need to get to work. ;)
Lesson #2 particularly resonates with me. The brief time I have spent in SEO has led me to believe people are looking for just one tactic at a time. In tradtional marketing, there is the Marketing Mix. That is simply the point, there is a mix. One tactic is never going to achieve the desired goal. Diversity is key in creating value for your clients or your business. So to not utilize the Online Marketing Mix (might be trademarking that right now) is just bad practice
And I was extremely offended by the F-bomb you dropped Dr Pete :p
Great post Dr.Pete and awesome end, totally real ;D
Excellent post and outstanding tips Dr. Pete, particularly #7. Learning to use a handful of tools well rather than jumping on every new tool that comes along is one of the toughest lessons to learn yet one of the most important. In the long run, it saves immeasurable time as well as making one's SEO efforts more effective.
And of course, tip #9: priceless. I may frame that one.
In fear of your head getting too big I'd like to level things out a bit and say that this was a crap-post and you don't know what you're talking about. That said, I also will take most of the credit for your 1k mark as I asked that many questions; providing you the opportunity to shine. Do you have any idea how much time it took to ask 1k questions and then WAIT for you to respond?
Lastely, I'm highly offended by your lack of self-control when tapping into your vernacular. Using words like "Dogma" and "Black-hattery" are against everything we were taught in Sunday-school and you know it.
Consider yourself scorned.
Great post. But I'm always slightly disappointed about coverage of the consultant/client implications of these kinds of issues. "Be patient?" ... yes, of course SEOs must be patient. Try selling that to the CMO who has their quarterly update with the CEO in 2 weeks and "SEO results report" is on bullet item #1. "We lost 10 positions, but the SEO consultant has just told us to be patient again."What ends up happening is SEM consultant churn. "Don't do anything, let this settle out" can be loosely translated to "I don't know how to fix it so I need to buy some time" I've lost several clients in the past years for no other reason than I wanted them to future-proof their SEO. They're usually too embarassed to call me back in after quick-fix#4145 didn't work out.
This is all added on top of the pain of telling them they need to get involved in the content marketing process with you. No longer can SEOs "turn dials and flip switches" for rank. We have not only linking signals but social signals to contend with.
I hope that any CEOs/CMOs reading this post will take it to heart. Good SEO consultants do not knee-jerk and will argue with you if you do :-)
No argument there - it's not easy, and I do consulting (and have for years), so I'm not trying to minimize it. I've just seen too many times where an impulsive move led to disaster. It's tougher with new clients, and it's why I often won't take on clients who are midway through a desperate situation (they don't know/trust me yet, and they tend to do crazy things).
I hate to play the FUD game, but sometimes you have to remind people that, no matter how bad things look, they can always get worse. I'd also say that you have to collect the data. I'm definitely NOT advocating that you just sit on your hands for 2 weeks after a disaster. What you should do is isolate the problem and get the facts. Start feeding those facts to the client ASAP - it doesn't have to be perfect or beautiful, but let them know that you're being proactive. If they see that you're working to solve the problem, there's often less pressure to just instantly start changing things. Nobody wants to take unnecssary risks - people just get scared and then start making bad decisions.
First off congratulations on your 1,000 Q&A!
Don't get me started on Google's pagination. I recently watched Maile Ohye's video and thought... really? Googe needs to make it easier for companies that split their webpages up, when most shouln't??? OK, some need to but many really don't and it just makes for a bad user experience.
Also, I don't mind the majority of webmasters believing a link is a link. I see this everyday... people trying to get quantity over quality. I don't mind because it makes it that much easier for my cleints to move up in the SERPS.
Awesome fucking post, Dr. Pete! In all seriousness, great post. It is an adult audience here on SEOMoz and you can't watch TV for an evening without hearing profanity at least a couple of times. Also, when used to provide emphasis - which you did - profanity can be very useful.
This post officially makes Dr. Pete "The Bad Boy of SEO" right?
Very sound advice ...
... is that you sitting in the corner with a red bucket on your head doing penance?
I think your last point is the most apt, reviewing a big site especially ecommerce can be daunting for clients, I have found prioritising their products with them for example best selling / highest ranking / most profit, and breaking tasks down will get things done quickly, looking at the site as a whole oftern seems like to much of a huge task, especially clients new to SEO and are yet to know the benefits for their business.
Hit the nail on the head, stop scheming and get to work! That reminds me I better get to work!
I agree with 8/9 of these... number 8 is asking quite a bit, don't you think? Great post, Dr. Pete!
Dr Pete is all ways full of win. I know more then a few of those questions were from our staff.
Can you explain what changed with pagination? Is it something recent? I searched for recent news on it but dont see shit..?
Congrats on the 1000 private questions answered Dr Pete.
The SEOmoz Q+A forums (both private and public) are FANTASTIC.
I had a pro account for some time and only really used it for rank checking, on-page analysis, backlink analysis etc. Then I discovered Q+A and I haven't looked back.
I've had both private and public questions answered in a timely and highly effective manner. So qudos to the SEOmoz team and to everyone (other users included) that is involved in this fantastic resource.
Congrats on 1,000 posts!
Really good post, i found it very useful! Thanks Doc
Great post Pete, and congratulations on the milestone!
Is there a way I can find a strategy for real estate? each time i look for ideas an agency show up on my face in Google. please help :(
Thank you
I was thinking of writing a long, detailed comment of why I enjoyed this post but I think everyone knows that and I need to put focus on #9 (the best point by the way :P).
Thanks Dr.Pete!
Thanks so much for the good read. There is some great advice here. I will admit, I have been guilty at times of a few items in the list. That said, with the help of those in this great community I have become better and more organized. Thank You!
Boss, What a shot. Masterpieces. Thanks for sharing.
Those ideas that can be found in your post were actually valuable. If you will just work hard in developing your product and applyinh those SEO linkbuilding techniques,then for sure will get your desired traffic in your site.
Hey Pete,
wonderful update which is most wanted to consider for our website because google is updating its algorithm by the name panda,penguin etc.....
Top post, your last heading made me sit up and take notice though.
I am assuming the comments you received on the lines of "I don't have time" came in from actual website owners... in that case if you don't want to do the effin' work (I'm not going to curse here as you did such a good job in your post Dr Pete lol) then pay someone else to do it. Like a good SEO. ;)
Hate on "questionable" backlinks/wheels/pyramids, etc, but myself and friends that own SEO agencies have ranked #1 for many a national level keyword with a combination of excellent on-page SEO, SEnukeX, fiverr linkwheels, and a small amount of social media interaction.
I don't think many people hate on it, if it works for you, great. My question is, how long will it last and does energy spent in getting #1 quick weigh up to the energy needed for getting and staying #1 longer by using white hat SEO.
Really enjoyed this blog, I am fairly new to SEO and have learnt everything from the people I have worked with, over time I have gathered that anything that works takes time. Shortcuts will put you in last place in the end, I've learnt the hard way. Also F BOMBB!!!!!!
GREAT Post Dr. Pete!! I got several useful tips from this post as well as the comments!
Thank you SEOmoz Community!
And if you can't do the effing work, hire someone else to do it. Chances are, if you hire the right person, just the very act of taking on the support will do wonders for your growth, and they'll do far more than you can because it's their passion. Then you can play up your strong suits and focus on other parts of your business.
Cross-linking 159 squidoo lens; black hattery. Thanks for distilling the key questions/theme from private Q&A.
Wow 9 killer lessons with superb ending! Congrats on the milestone :)
Dr. Pete you are doing a great job. Thanks for the summify your work in this post. It is a great read and I noted as self check before i posted some questions to SEOMOZ Q&A.
Are you allowed to use the F-word on SEO MOZ? LOL
Awesome post Dr Pete. Hit the nail on the head;-)
Great job, Dr. Pete! Loved #4.
Spot on Peter. The other reason people don't get time to do the work is that they are just too busy reading about new tricks and tips which pop up with every Google algorithim update and spend little time implementing the things they already know about. In the end if you are not implementing what you are reading then you are not learning and if you are not learning then why you are reading.
Brilliantly written. I recommend a few days off of the Q&A section that you remain as fit and helpful as you are to the community :-).
Looking forward to you next blog post!
I second this suggestion. 1000 questions answered earns you a vacation Dr Pete!
Great post Doc! I love the last advice most. I've seen so many 'SEO's' fail to create a succesful website just because of the fact they don't want to spend time on it and want easy money. Purely dynamic websites with no original content whatsoever won't get you anywere! Create websites that are valuable for actual people and customers and eventually you'll get the Google love you've been wanting.
And congrats on your 1000 answers!
You see you cannot stop yourself being a fan of Dr. Pete!
Call it a sanity check, reminder or ‘what I should know about SEO’ but you bloody have to printout this post and pinch it right in your soft board so that before you make any quick change, call yourself a black hat cheetah or ‘I know SEO well’ kind of things… this post will remind you of things that you should know as an SEO.
I have seen many people who focus ultra ordinary on one area (usually link building) and forget the rest of the game that is on-page optimization and social and more. This post actually tells you that Google is way more concern about their business so in order to get good returns from Google we have to take time and made effective changes to our business and make it nearer to what users and search engine is looking for (especially if you are getting 60% or + of your traffic from search).
Excellent Post Dr. Pete... this tips are very good and informative for me.
Superb Post Pete.... I really got some useful tips from this post .... :)
Great list with a great surprise at the end! I could feel the rant in this one.
It so holds true to the fact that business owners and marketing coordinators (or whatever) need to put in the work! Half ass work = half ass results AT BEST.
Times are changing at Google, whether people like it or not, where SEOs need to adapt for the better. That means effort. Even though checking headers may not be "sexy" compared to some of the other marketing stuff, if all of your pages return a 404 when it looks like a 200, your lack of efforts leaves you SOL.
So far, everything I've seen done half-assed tends to return 0-2% of the potential gain.
I've seen 100s of hours of half assed work return nearly nothing, just because no individual peice of work was good enough to convert.
..and create quality content! Nice rant Dr Pete :)
Do the 'what' work?? :)
Tips that are to the point will sink in the most. Awesome post Dr. Pete!
That's right blu! To me Tips n Tricks get people nowhere. It's about strategy and getting things done.
Great informative post...
Use basic tools well is probably my favorite. Advanced tools are great, but if you don't master the basics you'll probably never get what you need out of them.
Dr.Pete - Another great post.
As someone who has answered a fair number of my own questions, I wholly agree with your points here.
My only thought here is that "Learn when to be patient" is hard to apply when you have site(s) caught up in a Penguin/Panda penalty. Under these situations it's hard to make one or two changes at a time to see if it "fixes" your problem in the next update. In these situations I believe it's almost impossible to measure which changes bring success and which have a negative or neutral impact.
Hi Pete,
Thanks for this awesome post.
You mentioned "Master the “site:” operator and learn how to use it with “inurl:” and “intitle:”, and it’s amazing how many on-page problems you can diagnose."
I know the use of these operators for checking idexed pages & backlinks. I really wonder how we can use these for diagnosing & fixing on page problems.
Awesome post, Dr. Pete! Especially love the part about making sure you find the time - can't tell you how many clients we deal with who want a quick easy solution, and when we ask for simple bits of info about their business, it's like pulling teeth...
and personally, I liked the shock value f-bomb - nice strong ending to an awesome article...
Great post Dr. Pete! I highly respect the complete bluntness of your post and the "wake up and quit being so damn lazy" attitude it conveys. Sometimes we just need our butts kicked a little to refocus our energy
Dr. Pete, great post. All points including the last one. It's refreshing to hear DTFW.
Encouraging and uber-practical, love the call to GET TO WORK.
Point on the F-bomb tho: now I can't share.
Yeah, now I can't post my own post on Facebook, because my mom might read it.
So funny: "I get so angry I’m afraid I might turn green and start fighting alongside Iron Man"
hahahahhah
That's definitely the most pertinent point, Just Do It! I have worked with loads of SEOs that sit down and ask me which tools I use and ask me why I spent 40 minutes of keyword research when they would have spent 4 hours - it's because it's far too easy to convince yourself your doing something useful when in fact just getting on with it is far more useful.
"You’d better damned well find the time."
AMEN! I'm amazed that site owners don't seem to understand this simple concept. If your livelihood is resting on your website, you make the time and give everything you've got to make it successful. This is your business and if you can't make the time don't expect anyone else to swoop in and save it.
Very nice Dr.Pete thanks for this!
Especially liking the "Circle of Crap" - Thinking of forwarding it to someone I know who has built one of these "impenetrable web of black-hattery"!
And grats on the 1000 questions answered!
Hi Dr. Pete
Nice article and thanks for sharing this following tools
Open Site Explorer, Screaming Frog & Xenu.
Thanks,
I love the DO THE WORK! so many people spend time reading and analysing but never actually try and do work. I agree with that F* statement!
Thanks for such a wonderful post..I really got more useful tips...
I will say that we need to stick with google and first go with tools available like webmaster tools and other researh tools.
once we had basics dne then go with advance techniques. Best advice is grt content creation.
thanks
hmmm...
You had me 'til the last heading Dr Pete :(
Congrats on the milestone and thanks for all the time & energy spent.
Sha
To be honest, I carefully considered that last point, and it's potential offensiveness (and I sincerely apologize if it offended you). In a way, these are the things I can't say in Q&A, and I can't count how many times I've wanted to reach through the screen and shake people. Sometimes it's because they simply provide nothing of value and expect everything - they think they deserve to rank just because they slapped up a thin affiliate site with scraped content. Many times, though, they're legitimate businesses, and my frustration comes from knowing that they're on a road that could lead to losing that business.
I know people are busy, and I know building a business is hard work (I've built two). When your business is completely dependent on Google, though, you can't just put SEO on automatic pilot and expect that, just because you ranked in 2005, you'll keep ranking forever. You also can't blame everything on Google. You HAVE to consider your search value proposition. What does your site bring to the table for search users? I'm talking about everything from your snippet (why should I click on it?) down to your actual product/service (why should I buy it?). I'm amazed, and oftenappalled, how few people are willing to ask those questions.
I thought I was the only one who wanted to reach through the computer screen and slap people upside their head. LOL. Dr. Pete, instead of me getting mad at these people, which sometimes I'm pretty tough on them, I send them the SEOmoz's beginners guide to SEO.
Dr. Pete... what a guy! Apologizes for the use of profanity despite it's effectiveness in the write up!
Pete Dr. I don't expect this language on Seomoz.
I take full responsibility for that choice, and I apologize to those who it offended (including yourself), but I made a conscious choice to end with some shock value - not as a marketer, but as someone who is sincerely frustrated with the attitude that too many businesses are taking toward their SEO efforts. I've seen people lose their companies to algorithm changes this year at an increasing rate, and I'd rather offend them today than watch them lose everything tomorrow.
So you think this is the language your son should use tomorrow to convey you a strong message? Seomoz is highly regarded and looked upon for valuable answers.
The atitude and response of Seomoz staff is highly regarded. Rand is carrying the brand so well. If your outburst was for the companies who don't understand the other language, definately it will be appreciated by them. I always look at Seomoz and its staff as hard working engineers, who are inspiration to others. May be I am wrong in pointing this out due to cultural difference. But if I am not wrong basic values are same everywhere.
Again, I do appreciate the point of view (and your honesty about it) and apologize if I personally offended you. My daughter is 2, and no, I don't use that language around her. I think it's fair to say, though, that this is an adult audience, and I'm targeting adults with this message.
Please edit your reply, I was not looking for any sort of apology. I just can't show your post to my staff as reference for just one word. But by dragging this conversation more, I don't want to ruin a well written post.