u/GrumpySEOguy

Long post. Contents:

1. Do I listen to other SEO people and who do I recommend?
2. Why the podcast exists
3. Why everything we teach is free
4. NO, GEO IS STILL NOT A THING even though I have been offered money to say it's real
5. Critical thinking
6. Yes I comprehend there have been no new episodes for a month

At the risk of surprising everyone and dropping my (lol) popularity... I don't really follow or listen to or pay attention to other SEO people. I'm sure there are some smart people out there. u/weblinkr is pretty smart and seems to know his stuff. But while I can name maybe a dozen SEO "influencers," I couldn't tell you their specific methods because honestly, 99% of what I have seen over the last 16 years from anyone (literally going back to marketers from 16 years ago) was worthless garbage. Why do you think this podcast exists? So basically I have no opinion. I literally start reading something another SEO writes and then see EEAT or content or some other cleverly-named but completely useless concept and stop reading.

To be fair, while I was on the west coast I went to my share of SEO presentations and parties and etc... but... that's literally the reason the podcast exists. It was at some business networking event where I started ranting about how trash the SEO industry is and another one of my entrepreneur friends was laughing and saying I needed a podcast.

Request granted.

I haven't watched any of (anbody's) stuff. So I have no opinion on (anybody).

Also, let's be careful in this subreddit. Things that keep this forum better than most SEO forums is that we almost never allow discussion of other sources because, let's be honest, it's usually spam. I do not think this thread is spam so I'm keeping it, but you should see the ban records here. I hear the main r/seo forum is even worse with this.

I know they say read your competition to learn. I don't really see anyone else as competition. This isn't a flex. I just really am uninterested in what others are doing because (except for the last month when I've been away from podcasting AND SUPER DELAYED ON REPLYING TO EVERYONE'S EMAILS YES I KNOW UPDATE SOON), I'm usually preoccupied with podcasting and our own client work. Sometimes I read other SEO stuff when I need to get grumpy enough to do another episode. When some garbage that doesn't work is trendy, we'll make an episode about whatever.

I get messages from time to time people people asking to be on the podcast. Self-promoters. Yes, I know podcasts are better with guests. I moreover don't care. There's a reason 140+ episodes with no guests. I was a guest on someone else's, though. That was fun.

Grumpy SEO Guy is the anti-promotion podcast. 99% of people are promoting products. Buyer beware.

I like to think the reason people trust me is because I do not promote anything (even though my haters, and yes they're going to have their own episode) accuse me of shilling serpfox and ahrefs, which is hilarious because 1) I use both of those and 2) THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE AFFILIATE PROGRAMS SO HOW COULD I EVEN?

I mean there's two explanations:

1. I'm easily distracted and just made literally over 100 podcast episodes making up nonsense for fun.

or

wait for it

2. I'm actually teaching real SEO that works and have no agenda other than keeping you from getting jipped from EEAT audits and content writers who will not increase your rank at all. I mean I literally have emails from people saying "dude I listened to your stuff and I kept waiting for you to try and sell me something and you didn't... and I kept waiting and you didn't.." That's right, because in a no-barries-to-entry industry like SEO, how can you trust anyone selling you anything? Or anything internet marketing related? Because as I've mentioned on the podcast, if I'm making $10,000/day, I'm going to make $10,000/day, not sell it to you in an ebook for $47 (AND RUIN MY MARKETSHARE).

If I did sell anything it would be cost prohibitive because of how useful it would be, so I make it all free instead.

I mean think about it. If you've paid $1,000 for an EEAT audit, which is categorically a waste of money (because EEAT is not a ranking factor), that means whatever I sell with even 1% more value (literally anything) would have to be more than $1,000.

People have told me they spent (amount redacted but well over $5,000) on SEO courses that were worthless content is king. That means anything I sell would have to be over $5,000. Because I know for a fact we have at least a couple listeners who have started their own profitable SEO agencies from my free podcasts, I know what I teach works, and I could delete all the episodes and sell, at least the PBN ones, for $20,000 for all 3, AND IT WOULD STILL BE THE BEST VALUE ON THE INTERNET as far as SEO goes, I choose to give them away for free. Because screw all the scammers. The information is out there for free if you want it. You've been informed. Buy EEAT audits at your own risk. And honestly just Patreon that money to me anyway, because at least then you're supporting something that isn't a waste of your time.

The sheer number of emails I get "hey Grumpy what do you think about so-and-so SEO person and their program?" DUDE I DON'T KNOW. I'm going to just send people to this thread when they ask that question. But honestly, there are 2 questions you should ask yourself, not them, they are below.

Guys in this time off my head is melting with ideas for new episodes.

It's interesting, and there are 2 (3 really) ways to be a teacher of strategies online.

1. be friends with everyone. I have a hilarious story to tell about this that I cannot actually tell because it would show people in a bad light. Imagine two known scammers appearing together at an event and each pretending like the other is legit because, well think about that.
2. be snobby and trash others in your field. First requirement for Grumpy SEO Guy is do not mention any people or services by name unless you are saying good things about them. Why do you think in 3 years now we've mentioned 1) serpfox, 2) ahrefs, 3) semrush 4) keysearch dot co (not dot com). Oh and moz. That's it. I get offered money to promote things. But none of the products I mention actually pay me to promote them, I promote those because we use, or have used, them. I am apparently at the point where I'm popular enough to be paid to shill SEO knowledge. SURPRISE SURPRISE, everyone offering to pay me was a GEO shill.

My fee to promote GEO is $1,000,000 btw. I'd sell out for a $1,000,000 fee. But no non-disclosures. The next episode would be about what a charlatan you are and your worthless GEO service you paid me to promote. Since GEO IS NOT EVEN A THING.

3. keep to yourself and literally don't care. I do not diss others and I rarely promote things. People who want to learn SEO can listen to me. Or listeners who think I'm annoying like that one guy commented, you can listen to other SEO podcasts. The internet is sweet because there are numerous things, and if my podcast that teaches real SEO doesn't entertain you, you can listen to some other person's podcast and learn about how content is king. And then in in a while when you aren't ranking, maybe try ours again. I diss concepts that don't work. I will say "anyone saying content is king is a scammer" because content is not king. I teach you so you can decide. I give you the tools. Even people who pay for advisory calls I don't make recommendations for people or products (because what would I even recommend?).

I'm #3. The truth is, I know nothing about anyone online. The reason I promote serpfox and ahrefs is cuz we've used them for a decade+. I'm confident recommending them to you. I'm not confident telling you to listen to anyone else about SEO. So whenever anyone asks "is x course good?" my answer is always I don't know, if it agrees with what we teach, yes. If it's different, probably not. And if that answer is to snooty for you, how about this:

1. is it internally consistent with itself? Or does it jump from concept to concept that contradict each other (we have an episode about this but I forgot what number). I think the example I used in the podcast was if someone says that content isn't a ranking factor and then tells you you need better content to rank. Those things can't both be true.
2. does it make sense to itself? Does it fundamentally build on layers that give to each other? I try to do this with our podcast. Like the 4 things you need to rank. 1) no penalties 2) content 3) relevancy 4) authority. Most episodes are adjacently related to these topics, because everything is part of something similar.

Sometimes I get tired of explaining critical thinking, like right now, so I'm going to take a break. It makes my thoughts hurt to have to explain how to think about things when everyone wants the answers. I should charge $1,000 per episode.

PS. Sorry for the long post. Hopefully it makes up for the month+ of no new episodes. We are well aware that is happening.

TLDR; No idea about any SEOs. I know some are popular, though.