Where did April go?

It was a blip on the radar aside from Ross Hudgens of Siege Media expertly trolling this guy on LinkedIn:

Dennis Yu: secret weapon of 7 figure founders, ceo of blitzmetrics

The self-proclaimed “secret weapon” posted this lovely little knowledge nugget:

‘Want to know what’s crazy?

I don’t ever “do SEO”– but rank on most of the keywords I care about.

Our website is a piece of junk– haven’t touched it for years and use a $9 theme.

But what I have done is create a lot of content across many channels– and been fortunate enough to have a lot of people share it.

Instead of “doing SEO” (which is something a consultant would like to have you believe can be bought on Amazon and shipped with Prime), you help as many people as you can.

About 20 years ago, I worked for a search engine and built internal analytics– and I can tell you what they are looking for and how things work.

These other “experts” haven’t worked for a search engine, but they have read some blog posts that quote someone else who overhead from some other dude how search engines decide what’s important.

Friends, I implore you– stop “doing SEO” and start putting stuff out there that’s so useful, people say “wow”!

Then I guarantee you that your “SEO” (traffic you get from Google organically)– will be amazing!

But these consultants– if they don’t have expertise in what you do nor your passion– can they actually help you?

I know this will piss off the SEO “experts”– but I thought you should know.

To which Ross humbly replied:

Thanks for that Ross!

I’d like to sit up on my high horse like

Except that the “secret weapon” schooled us all by dominating LinkedIn with the help of Ross’ comment. This one post earned him 135 likes and 121 comments.

And on that note, here are my picks for interesting SEO articles of April 2019.

7 Landing Page Best Practices for a More Effective Digital Marketing Strategy [Infographic]

Mark Walker-Ford, Social Media Today

We’ll start things off with a bang! This article has a nice space-themed infographic for a little word play fun about landing pages, but the excitement doesn’t stop there. Tip three tells us that in order to increase conversions on a landing page, it’s best to get rid of the navigation. Say what?! Although the logic behind increasing conversions by limiting visitors’ ability to leave the page sounds like a UX nightmare, maybe there’s something to it.

Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Around April 26th?

Barry Schwartz, Search Engine Roundtable

When will the madness end?! Hopefully never if SEOs want to keep their jobs. It’s a love hate relationship with algorithm updates. We hate them for their constant upheaval in our professional world and we love them because, well, they keep us in business. It looks like the mighty Googs may have been shaking things up a bit this month and Search Engine Roundtable has the shiny screenshots to prove it.

Why You Must Stop Obsessing About These 5 Things in SEO

John McAlpin, Search Engine Journal

#2 – Yes. Yes. Yes! As someone who has worked in the legal SEO market, I can vouch that rewriting local landing pages will eventually lead to the death of content writers, one English major at a time. There are only so many ways to ask “Have you been seriously injured in a car accident in (XYZ city) to no fault of your own?” My eye is twitching just thinking about it.

Aligning content and SEO for search success

Andrew Dennis, Search Engine Land

Wow, this is dry. You might ask why I’ve included it in this month’s roundup given that it’s a chunk of painful content to get through, but it’s actually really useful and something every team should put into practice. I cringe anytime I hear of siloed departments within digital marketing teams.

*Shameless CanIRank plug – our client teams are designed to work together with integrated SEO, content, promotion and technical experts. We all have specific specialties, but training and experience in every facet of SEO to work better together as a cohesive unit.

Two Ways To Avoid SEO ‘Perfection’ (And Why That’s A Good Thing)

Scott Elser, Forbes

Ahhh, less than 1,000 words of easy-to-read, well-formatted and spot on SEO advice. I love it! Elser does a nice job of highlighting two “perfect” SEO strategies that can raise red flags to Google. He breaks them down with specifics and gives the green light for building questionable links. Payday loan sites, here I come! (Just kidding, don’t do that!) Granted, this is basic knowledge for most seasoned SEOs, but for a small business with an internal marketing team, this is a great thing to keep in mind.

How to Conduct The Ultimate PPC Audit

Joel Mesherghi, Distilled

This guide is pretty much everything you need to know about PPC in one detailed and thorough resource. If PPC is part of your SEO strategy, running an audit is a great and super fun way to maximize efficiency and discover any holes in your approach. Broken down into 13 clear and concise sections, Mesherghi keeps it simple and gets to the point in true analyst form. It’s all business and no fluff.

Life Shattering April News:

Fake Amazon reviews giving unknown brands an SEO bump, says Which?

It’s Amazonegeddan! Forget the SEO impact; as a remote worker, I survive off Amazon. This is unacceptable! As more and more people resort to the life of a hermit and solely interact with the outside world via snarky comments on Reddit, true and honest online reviews have become a necessity. Amazon is essentially being hacked with unverified reviews that are altering the SEO value of no name brands. You can find me in fetal position under my desk now.

And there you have it, folks. April wasn’t so bad for all of us who didn’t get destroyed by the March 2019 Core Update. Well, besides losing all hope in humanity through Amazon.

See ya next month!