Discussion 2: Do You Still Read SEO Content from Infamous | Low-Authority Websites?
Plugaru
Honestly – do you regularly follow SEO blogs?
How often do you read SEO articles?
I don't regularly follow anyone as after a while, you realize SEO blogs are made up of educated guesses. In most cases, they are repackaged aggregate content from other blogs.
I do read many publications whenever there is an algorithm update or Google changes the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) display which can have an immediate impact.
That being said, I love to read marketing insights infused with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) such as
Ammon. For technical SEO, most are educated guesses unless they are talking about the basics.
That is why I like to spend time in a FEW FB groups. Especially paying attention to people's real tests and cumulative knowledge.
Ammon
As for BHW, really? It's like Warrior Forums – mostly speculation with a few bits of really bad and outdated bad practice thrown in.
Syndic8 was the only BH forum I took seriously, and even there you have to know that certain practices are shared because they are of low value, and don't threaten to uncover what the real BHs are doing successfully. ๐
Years ago, it had some good stuff. Would I recommend the current content? Hell no, but when you are sifting for gold flakes and placer mining, it worked four or five years ago (and reading back farther even from that). Now there are resources that are much more condensed.
Hell this group is more of a motherloard of nuggets than that forum which was/is having to move a shit ton of material through sleuce boxes hoping for some kind of color.
But this group and others like it didn't exist when I started.
Hell, I let some of those carefully nuggets slip away in my AMA.
Ammon ยป Gillispie
Yeah, these days when you see a flash of yellow in what is surging through those sleuces, it usually just means someone ate sweetcornโฆ ๐
Plugaru
Many years ago I was spending half my day reading SEO blogs. And I was looking forward to watching the WBFs. It was when I quit my programming job to become an SEO. Soon I've realized that there is a fair amount of information rotation and I was virtually just wasting my time. Now I let Social Media filter the good, the bad and the ugly for me )))
However, I still like to read the end-of-year "best articles" some blogs are publishing. Because, in my opinion, the best articles are those which discuss ideas, and not necessarily some specific tactics.
Plugaru
It is sad, however, that many people don't find blogs useful anymore.
Not sad – inevitable. They bought into the stupid tactic of believing they needed a constant stream of fresh content. Lots and lots of it. And they needed a publishing schedule.
The trouble with that is that the really good SEO users who are also good writers tend to be busy people. They write that great content when they are inspired by something especially interesting or cool, not because it's Tuesday.
So, most of the schedule has to be done on 'filler' content – the shit that people can churn out on demand on any day of the week. And that shit mostly gets written by the wannabe gurus, just rehashing the same drivel they also post to 18 other publications to build their link profile and say what a busy and highly demanded author they are.
That in turn puts off some of the most provocative and thoughtful SEO writers I know – because they don't want their thoughtful, long-toiled-over, meaningful work put next to that drivel. In other words, they actively increase the crappy content and drive down the amount of good stuff they'll get, driving quality down at both ends of the spectrum.
Like I mentioned before, good SEO users are busy people. If they go to your blog and read something great then their time is well spent and they'll be back. But if they go to a blog and read that rehashed drivel they'll be pissed. Mightily pissed. And if they find that three times in a row when they go to what was once a highly valued and trusted source, all they see is that rehashed drivel, they stop going there.
Once upon a time, places like SearchEngineLand had a really high bar, and stuff had to be really good and interesting to be published there. They didn't care if they published 3 times in one hour, or only once in a week, what mattered was the quality, and by extension, their reputation for NEVER being a waste of time.
That brand and its values were sold out long ago.
Discussion 1: How Much Time do You All Spend Learning New SEO Stuff Each Week?
Courtney Marie ๐
Although I have been doing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for 10 years, I sometimes still feel like I know nothing ๐ haha It is so nice to learn from people who inspire you! This field really requires so much ongoing education. How much time do you all spend learning new SEO stuff each week?
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Although I've been doing SEO (before it was even given the name "SEO") for more than 12 years now, I've always felt like a noob at times lol. So I can easily emphatise with how you feel when you join SEO seminars and the like.
I just recently followed a webinar by Deepcrawl on the topic "SEO Monitoring" two days ago, and it was very enlightening! I never stopped learning, and I try to do this every day!
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That sounds like a great presentation! Love seminars like that โบ๏ธ cheers to learning. It's one of the reasons I love this field!
Juferi
It definitely was! You can see a recap of that seminar here:
https://www.deepcrawl.com/โฆ/webinar-recap-SEO
Webinar Recap: The Major Benefits of SEO Monitoring with John Doherty & Jon Myers – DeepCrawl
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Courtney Marie ๐
Thank you so much for posting this Mohd!
Naveen
Being 'humble'. That's one of the ranking factors Google looks for. And it seems you have got it. Kudos.
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Afraz
I spend to much time thinking about SEO ๐
๐คญ๐๐ฝ4
Me too!! I even dream about it haha
Roose so well said!! It's true. SEO is fun and keeps us on our toes ๐ It's definitely a field where ongoing education is just part of the job description lol
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Sherman
Courtney, reminds me of phrases like, "The more I know, the less I know", or one I've heard Tony Robbins share one time, "Constant And Never Ending Improvement". I've shared with colleagues that each area in Internet Marketing is it's own University of study/education, be it Keyword Research, Analytics, PR, On-Page, Off-Page, Google My Business (GMB), Email Marketing, Video etc etc, that works for folks like us who enjoy learning. When I hear clients or friends wanting to jump online to try their hand at it, I offer to be a sounding board, but also chuckle internally about the adventure or nightmare they're about to journey ๐๐๐คฃ๐๐๐
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You are so very correct Sherman! SEO really is a journey or nightmare or both ha ha!! I find it's best (for me) to understand all the components you mentioned above, but to be especially well-versed in a few, and delegate the rest to those I trust. Otherwise learning would suck up all my billable hours! Haha ๐
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Ammon
When I started out I viewed learning as my primary goal. I'd spend anything up to 8 hours a day on simply reading, practicing and testing, experimenting and learning. Then I'd work anything up to 8 hours until exhausted and sleep.
I have never in the 23 years since felt that I have run out of things to learn, or am close to doing so, so I've never really relaxed about my commitment to learning.
When I'm working for agencies, I prefer to work only part time so that I still have more hours in the week for reading, learning, and my testing and experimenting than I spend just working predictable and tried work.
Now, in the past couple of years I've relaxed a little. I overdid the stress a bit, and had to learn to spend a little more time relaxing with Netflix, or playing games. But I'll still watch things that get my brain thinking, and I play mainly strategy gamesโฆ I'm incurable.
On average I probably only spend 3-4 hours a day on pure learning and research, and in that I include my time spent helping out in groups like this one, because teaching and explaining things for others is also a way of learning. You learn how to see problems from different perspectives, and you tighten up any loose or fuzzy parts of the knowledge in having to explain it clearly and succinctly to others.
I've had people call me an expert for over a decade, but to me, I see mainly how much there still is to discover and learn, so I call myself an eternal student. Honestly, in a field like SEO or any other aspect of online marketing, you have to be constantly learning, and the only real limitation to that should be how much you can manage and bear. You won't run out of things to learn, and tomorrow yet another whole new technology will come along.
To those who've been impressed by my knowledge and experience, well, that's how I got it. Thousands of hours of time spent gaining it.
Kudos Ammon!! Don't know about you, sometimes I just want a PAUSE BUTTON so I can stop time and tech, to have the opportunity and time to catch up! ๐๐คฃ๐
Ammon ยป Sherman
I'm stubborn enough that when I want to pause, I just take the time off other stuff and do it. ๐ I sometimes resent needing to eat and sleep, when I'm diving deep into some particularly interesting research and find I've run out of time. ๐
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Courtney Marie ๐ ยป Ammon
Yes!! Me too. Sometimes I look up from my computer and am like "oh crap! I need to eat!" Lol
Ammon ยป Courtney Marie
Yup. It also means I order more takeaway meals than I otherwise would, since sometimes I honestly find myself saying "If I order pizza, I can have an extra 30 minutes on this instead of cookingโฆ" ๐
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Courtney Marie ๐ ยป Ammon
Yes!!! Lol thank god for quick/yummy food haha
This may satisfy you: I Read Much About SEO but I Could Only Apply It a Little When Worked in Real Life