Why are there so many SEO blogs?
Blogging about SEO seems to be the “in thing” over the last 12 months. Hundreds of SEO and make money online blogs have sprung up offering tips on how to get more traffic.
The problem is that 90% of them offer very bad tips (the other 10% of them are mostly excellent). Why do people who don’t know much about SEO decide to start blogging about it?
I really can’t understand why somebody would blog about a subject they don’t know much about. Sure they might have read a few threads on a forum but does that make you an expert? You wouldn’t sit down and write and article about baking or fixing cars unless you were a good mechanic or chef so why write about SEO when you don’t know much about it?
Another issue is when people say “I don’t know much about SEO and don’t consider myself an expert but here are my tips on how to optimise your site”. Sometimes these tips are very good but most of the time they have either been said before or are misleading. If something has been said before, by an expert, then why repeat it?
As an industry SEO is full of misinformation and the hundreds of uninformed SEO bloggers who write about the subject just add to the noise.
My advice is to stop blogging about SEO and start doing it.
February 5th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I agree whole heartedly. I have been working in SEO for 4 years (a relative n00b) and I want to write about SEO but I don’t see the point in reiterating what has been said hundreds of times before. I say leave the SEO blogging to those who do it best. If you have first hand experimental results you want to share then go ahead, but how many times do we need to be told that on-page factors and link building is the best way to increase your SE rank.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Amen brother.
As I like to say: I *do* SEO stuff but I am not an SEO Expert.
-OT
February 5th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I think a lot of people blog about both money online and SEO because they want to do it. A lot of “noobs” have a lot to say. I do agree there are too many rinse, wash and repeat blogs out there that are just taking others words and spinning them, but many make rises throughout rankings rather quickly. You can’t really blame people for wanting to be just like their herors, but yearning and having what it takes to be is the difference.
Justin Dupre
http://www.blogosis.com
P.S. I don’t know if it is just me, but your comment box extends through the right side bar. I am using the latest version of Firefox.
February 5th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Yep, and most of those blogs are bad. Provide info like “basic seo things” which is useless and everyone knows that :) or how to get more traffic and write some stuff whicih everyone knows as well :)
Off-Topic: your comments form is messed up when viewing with Opera 9.25
February 5th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
I think the reason a lot of young know-nothing SEOers start up blogs is for a few different reasons:
1) It gives them a place to try out and test techniques that they may not be able to test on the sites they do actual work for.
2) If you write on a topic more often, and thus are forced to research it more, you should theoritcally become better at said topic.
February 5th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
I think it’s OK to blog about your experiences with setting up SEO and how it’s worked for you however you are correct that if someone looks like they are passing themselves off as some sort of expert and they are not then that is a bit naughty.
I guess it’s up to us blog readers to sort the wheat from the chaff (hence why I respect your opinion and you are in my blog reader – and many others are not – keep up the great work).
Care to name a few imposters?
I cant help but wonder if the reason many of these so called experts blog about SEO is becuase they are trying to influence the ranking for their blog / site etc? the more they appear to be an authority (links etc.) the higher they rise, and the more they look like an authority to firms seeking help with this sort of thing. I think SEO on its own is not the way to go, you need to take a broader look at the Business and SEO will be just one part of that mix.
Mike Ashworth
Business and Marketing Coach
Brighton and Hove, UK
February 5th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more on this. I think the problem lies with the fact there are no actual “rights or wrongs” set in stone with SEO. Its pretty much a guessing game; a guessing game maybe, but the guessing needs to be an informed guess, with some logic behind it. Sadly few people really have the logic to know exactly what they are doing, therefore shouldn’t be blogging about it.
Nice post.
February 6th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I guess, we should leave that thing to the real experts in this field.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Yeah ! But then how do tell the diff. between who is giving the right information!!
February 8th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
I’m sure you can trust the ones who rank well for “SEO Blog” themselves! ;)
February 11th, 2008 at 12:56 am
While generally I agree, I don’t think it’s wrong for someone to say something that has been said before it if is a valid point. There are a great deal of people with “this worked for me tricks” that regardless of how they actually work out for a different person in the end, becomes useful information.
I agree, we should stick to taking the advice from people who know what they are doing, and there are entirely too many SEO and “make money online” blogs. However, I don’t think that we should largely discount a lot of these blogs just because we don’t like the ideas they produce through their own “tested” methods.
February 13th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
this cracks me up, its like SEO just became the latest fashionable get rich quick scheme with the young teens recently, the amount of kids setting up SEO blogs stating a few basic facts, and then going on forums saying I wanna SEO my blog – when do I get rich…?
I saw one on a forum whose blog title had him as the UK’s leading SEO Consultant :) asking about meta keywords on one forum
February 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am
i completely agree with yo, too many people out there thinking they know what SEO really is, these are the people though who never get any listings anyway. stick to what you no. Rob Alpha SEO
November 16th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Now days any one can start writing about SEO and post it on their blog and this coule be the perfect reason behind many seo blogs.
March 30th, 2010 at 12:28 am
Hilarious article. There are so many “SEOs” out there that it’s ridiculous — everyone and their mother has an SEO blog. Blogging about SEO really is the thing to do.