SEO can be a very difficult bike to pick up and ride, or a very challenging mistress, depending on your intent.
Search Engines and the algorithms they employ change rapidly, so the concepts from just a few years ago are antiquated. Many of the considered white hat practices, policies, procedures and philosophies have turned black as night (or at least gray) over short spans of time.
One of the determining factors of black hat vs. white hat is that of intent. Similar to Google’s ambitious “ten things” included:
“You can make money without doing evil.”
Whether you agree with the outcome of this ambition, their defined intent is simple to grasp: Do what you do to enhance the user’s experience.
So in the spirit of help, I am sharing with you my list of influential people and information available about search engine optimization. I have seen many people, organizations and publications that claim to have a profound impact, but these are the people, day in, day out, that provide great information because they want just what I want: “to provide a positive user experience.” Even though it may have become their profession, that doesn’t make them sell-outs! (If they were, they wouldn’t provide anything for free)
I would appreciate feedback regarding this list. There are many people that deserve to be included, however, these are the one’s I have exposure to.
These are the people I look up to and why:
Important People:
Bill Slawski – Patent Master – what could be happening in the industry, tomorrow
Eric Ward – Link Master – the power and value of a link and marketing tips
Aaron Wall – SEO Guru (black and white) – what you should be doing now to better yourself and your sites
Matt Cutts – Google Spokesman – speculative understanding inside Google
Danny Sullivan – Search Engine Advocate – wealth of knowledge on search engines
Debra Mastler – Link Guru – bringing humor and common sense into the link realm
Mike Grehan – Link Guru – filthy linking rich!
Besides the people that are important in the industry, there are important portals of information that is accessible to everyone. Here are (in my opinion) the most important news and information organizations:
Important Organizations: (sorted alphabetically, not by importance)
Ask.com Blog
Google Blog
MSN Live Search Blog
Webmaster Central Blog
Yahoo! Blog
This list is provided by me and I encourage anyone reading this, to post comments of the people that have influenced you (in a positive manner) and helped you “Build a Better Website” for your users.
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