Is SEO Blogging Worth It?
When I first heard about search engine optimization, I was given a set of CD’s and tasked with learning how to bring traffic to a website from the search engines. While those CD’s helped educate me in the basics, it wasn’t until I stumbled across an SEO forum that I really started to learn the methods and tactics that produced results. Since that time, SEO blogs have become increasingly popular as the default place to learn the discipline.
However, as search engines takes a more and more active roll in the community and SEO bloggers continue to publicly discuss previously untapped link sources, little known but effective methods, and conversations held in private, I’ve found myself asking a recurring question:
Is SEO blogging worth it?
That question may seem obsurd, especially since it’s being posed on an SEO blog, but I think it’s an important question. Obviously blogging allows us to communicate with others in the same industry or profession. It allows us to share our knowledge with newcomers (as I said, this is essentially how I learned what has become my profession). And for some SEO bloggers, it attracts clients.
Unfortunately, all of those benefits are not without their costs. Every time a blogger posts about a new place to obtain a free clean link, or reports a site selling links, or demonstrates how one of the search engines is being gamed, they are making every other SEOs job that much harder. The link source closes the loop hole, or the links are devalued by the search engines. The site selling links receives a penalty and the buyers lose value. The site being used to illustrate the point loses rankings, loses authority, or loses it’s competitive edge.
The next time you come across a great source of free links, wouldn’t you be better served by using that information to improve your site’s or your client’s site’s rankings? Sure blogging it might bring you some attention and maybe even some links, but will a few extra subscribers benefit you as much as increased rankings would? Do you really get enough business from your blog that it would be more valuable to expose that link source than to use it to improve the quality of service you’re providing to your current clients?
I realize many of these types of posts are written with the best of intentions, to achieve all of the benefits we mentioned earlier, but many times that’s not the end result. In this age of social media, interactive SEO courses, and cheaper and more frequent confrences or events, do we really need SEO blogs to achieve the benefits we’re seeking?
Someone once told me that with every decision I need to ask myself whether or not the juice would be worth the squeeze. So I ask you, all you SEO bloggers out there, is SEO blogging really worth it?
I definitely think, its worth (if done with good intention)! I love to blog because it help me to learn, share & grown my network. As well bring me some money online.
-DS
I prefer forums to blogs but there are still a lot of good reasons to blog. Sharing with the community is one. And while you don’t have to give away all your secrets, sharing good, basic SEO information is a way to do that and also get your name out and add a few links.
@pops, just to play devil’s advocate for a minute, I can’t tell you the last new SEO blog I subscribed to. At this point in the game there are so many out there covering the basics you talk about that I don’t think that would help get your name out much at all. You’d probably be better off joining the different communities of SEO’s that are out there.
Your point about links is a good one but again, how many links are you going to get and is that really going to improve your business? I think a big part of the issue here is that bloggers in a crowded niche such as this have to work hard to differentiate themselves and gain attention. One of the easiest way to do that, it to cause controversy by writing just the kind of post i’m talking about.
Sure, you exposed a free link source and everyone talked about your post for a day or two, and you even got a decent number of links, is your job as an SEO now easier or harder? Will you have burned up the good will of anyone in the industry that might have otherwise linked to you?
I just think people assume this is an easy question “Of course it’s worth it!” and I don’t think it’s nearly that cut and dried.
Most blogs are an homage to ego though there are exceptions – even in SEO circles. Forums as a resource are better because by the nature of many voices you get exposed to other disciplines like programming, making WP work, better business practices, etc. And there is an inherent humbleness to asking questions that generally elicits great answers. With a blog, people are going there to get answers, not figure things out. The information is spoon-fed and specialized. There may occasionally be a great discussion that happens in the comments of a blog but that is the exception, not the rule.
Not that there is anything righter about one than the other. I think it depends on where you are in your process to learning and what you need right now.
And as Dominating SEO mentioned, writing blogs is an excellent learning lesson. You get to know exactly how well you’ve thought things through when you try to put it in print.
The funny thing is, I think this is just a blogs versus forums issue. I don’t think industry matters.
Rand, what other industries do you see the type of fallout we see from blog posts in this niche?
Right now, with just the minor amount of reach that this blog has, I could negatively influence hundreds of other businesses whether it be through exposing link buyers/sellers, illustrating a spam method that works, etc. I think that’s where the difference is.
Blogging about technical SEO does get pretty uninteresting and stale after a while. But by looking at SEO in a much broader social / business context, there is a wealth of possible topics that can be tackled.
This very post is an excellent example of the above.
I’ve been posting on seologs.com for a while now (since 2005). In the beginning, I did blog about SEO quite a bit, but I don’t really even post about SEO anymore. I mostly write about things like Social, analytics, and tech stuff these days.
I felt sort of stuck for a while since I have SEO in my domain name, but I don’t really care anymore. I just write about whatever.
Back to the question, is it worth it. In terms of $$, I’d say no.
I used teach martial arts and even if an ernest person could not afford it, I’d still let them come in – it was as much about passing on the Art as it was anything. That’s the way I was taught…and how I live.
Not only is search evolving, but there will always be new webmasters, site owners and young SEOs seeking out further knowledge. This, to me, means there is still a place for blogging in the industry as there is for seminars, classes and conferences.
Also, as Todd eluded to, there is the more general conversational industry topics that are always worth having.
Ultimately it is more about the evolution of the industry and interacting with peers… Blogging isn’t really about making $$ in SEO… to me it’s a passion for the art… but that’s just me…
It is one of the reasons why I don’t blog tons of resource lists and places to drop links, and instead concentrated on technical aspects of SEO that make people’s head spin a little.
There are also certain limits to what I am willing to write about without a well defined business funnel – lots of it has been testing the market place, as well as a little brand building.
Is it just me or do others only blog to categorize thoughts? I like to have a place where I can place things that are important to me to in a category form for later reference. Let’s think selfish for once bloggers, lol.
On-topic blogging helps with that website’s SEO by providing fresh ontopic content, so it is always worth doing if you’re an SEO looking to rank your own site – it stands to reason SEO’s will blog for that purpose alone. However, exposing loop-holes IMNSHO is a pure ego thing done by non-commerical SEO’s looking to get a rep and generate SEO-themed backlinks, similarly flame bait aimed at popular SEO “celebs” or tools e.g. the recent Linkscape circus.
It is nice to hear this mentioned. In my opinion, it seems to me that as secrets are giving away on blogs. Not much later that are taken away which leaves those who were using that strategy to look for new ones.
It depends on your goals.
If you your blog is a source of links, then you practically need to blog to get links. How you get them is another matter, but outing someone usually doesn’t get much.
It also depends how you share places to get links from. If you share in the spirit of “get them while you can”, then you are doing the target site a disservice. If you are sharing it as “a place that collects quality, relevant educational resources” and invite someone with such resources to contact the owner, it’s another matter.
Overall, though, as Dave said, it’s about evolution. By blogging, you help:
– the readers by providing useful information to get a chance to learn something
– the search engines to improve their evaluation algorithms
– the target websites that get more visitors from you
By disrupting normal workflow of SEOs, SEs and site owners, you allow them to get better. Some SEOs might eventually switch to content creation and promotion, SEs might finally realize where they’ve been lacking and site owners would finally focus on usefulness, not shortcuts to quick bucks.
The only thing that worries me lately is when outing a website hurts their business, mostly in a radical way. I think as a SEO, one’s responsibility should be to contact the site owner with the ideas and thoughts on how to improve/change the website to stay within the guidelines.
As Dave said, it’s about passing down the Art to other people, not about getting your name out there.
Since actions speak better, than words, I’ll say that I prefer to share my recent discoveries on the SEO way in members-only forums, though I am considering guest blogging more (no my own SEO blog, atm).
SEO bloggers are trying to outdo each other. They are giving away SEO “secrets.” You don’t need to subcribe to SearchEngineWatch or SEOMOZ anymore. :-D
Skitz, I can think of other industries. Think stock brokers. There are actually laws in place to limit the “damage” they can do by mouthing off. Another would be sciences. A chemist revealing a secret formula could “advance” the industry while ultimately damaging their long-term value. SEO is not so unique… it’s just new and we’re learning through the mistakes other industries have already encountered. It would be stupid to give up a trade secret in another industry. With SEO you get kudos. Well, for a minute as you mentioned. Imagine if the police blogged about the big drug bust they were planning!
Jaan, yes I do the same thing especially about topics I’m trying to understand. This has led to several small blogs that were soon abandoned though they seem to strike niche interests which has been good enough for Adsense income that is more than the cost to keep those sites up (barely).
I believe that SEO bloggers should use discretion and not give away all of their secrets. Just today, I scored an amazing site with huge value. I immediately went to test it and I will see what becomes of it. My first thought was to blog about it, and then I decided to offer it as a bonus for those who purchase my book or attend one of my training seminars. I believe people have become accustomed to finding “everything” through SEO blogs and it will eventually devalue the service.
Just imagine if real estate agents or lawyers would reveal all the dirty secrets they use. It would cost them short term, but would clean up the industry.
What about medics, politicians (esp. US government), food manufacturers (McDonalds), etc. Oh, it’d be such a feast of gossip/facts, if they all blogged their secrets 8-)
I agree with Todd…it is more interesting to read SEO blogs than to actually do it. In my case, I haven’t tried SEO blogging..I just read blogs.
Definitely its worth. Blogging is only the process by which you can interact with ppl worldwide.
Sometimes it just a matter of sharing. The internet is a vast source of education – education about virtually everything. I have wondered what motivates a lot of the sharing that people do? Does one gain pagerank and sell advertising? Everyone has to make a living. Does your site generate you any income or are you hopeful that you can exploit ways to produce income. Or perhaps you are promoting a service (which is my purpose on the web)?
Blogs are great SEO tools in them selves, because they are updated often with fresh content, or should be anyway.I search around for blogs in my niche to learn more and also leave good comments.
The answer is definitely yes. We have online store and our 4 blogs bring 75% of customers. Blogs are always updated and that is the reason why people like reading them and turning them into customers.
This is a tricky spot for me also as I wouldn’t know half of what I do if it wasn’t for people posting tips, tricks, tactics, and practices on blogs and even forums a little bit. I actually just wrote up a reasonably in-depth post about affiliate marketing up and down and after reading this post I feel a little guilty :(. I’m going to say yes, it is worth posting information that can help the community with a “less is more” approach.
Filter, filter. filter, just because someone blogs, does not make them the expert they seem to be. Some goes as far as rewriting someone elses content and passing it off as their own. Or simply doing a little research and writing a “report” on their latest studies.
Be selective about whom you follow and test their SEO methods. Be certain they are going to work for you before you jump in with both feet.
Yes, definitely blogging is a good way to share your knowledge but at the same time keep in mind not to mislead people.
Great post, and I agree. It’s always far better to use new link sources to increase rankings rather than blogging about it. Plus, any decent SEO specialist can find new link sources through backlink research.
Saying that, it is also important for us to share our strategies online so that we can learn and grow from one another, even in a zero-sum game… just maybe not our best stuff ;)
I think SEO blogging is worth it bcoz, it will not only help you but you can also learn from the comments you get while blogging! SEO blogging is great coz you can give informations on people who wants to know more about your blog. :) nice topic…