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Grumpy SEO Guy
This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 80, a review of episodes 61 through 79. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy, and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. Actually, I'm not even grumpy today because it's episode 80. Okay, so what happens on episode 80? It means we do a review of the last 19 episodes. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical based on my experience. This podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. Okay, there's a lot to get through. Let's get started. So the purpose of this episode is to summarize the last 19 episodes, and then if you hear anything that sounds cool, go listen to that episode. Not everybody has listened to every episode, and maybe they don't have time to listen to all of them. So we're going to summarize them, and here we go. Okay. Episode 61 is called SEO for Total Beginners. Okay. This is a good place to start. This episode explains what SEO is, what SEO is not, and how to think about SEO. Here's an example that I gave in that episode. I said, how do you get a fast race car? What do you need to get a fast race car? Okay, what do you need? Well, you need a lot of things, but one of them is you need a powerful engine.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Now, there's a lot of other things that race cars may or may not have, okay? Like cool paint jobs. Now, let's be honest. A lot of race cars have cool paint jobs, okay? But those do not make a car fast. So if you want a fast car, you have to get a good engine.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
What A lot of people consider to be SEO is analogous to the paint job on a race car. Yes, lots of race cars have cool paint jobs, but that is not why they're fast. Lots of websites do all sorts of cool things, but that is not why they rank. Okay, so the example or the comparison was you can think of authority as being like a race car's engine. Yes, you may or may not need all of these other things to rank well, but you do need authority in order to rank. Just to explain it. But there's a whole other episode on this. Authority comes only from backlinks. If you're new to authority, you can go back even further and listen to episode 21. But regardless, that's what that episode is about. Okay, episode 62, what is and how to do rank and rent. And a rant on affiliate marketing and bad online business advice. Okay, a lot of people did not like this episode. They said that I explained rank and rent wrong and all these things. Okay, that's fine. Cool. Like, it doesn't even bother me if people disagree with what I think rank and rent is. I'll just explain it again here and people are gonna tell me that I'm wrong. Again. That's fine. Rank and rent is when you rank a website so you get to the top of the search engines and then you sell places on that website to local businesses or whatever. I tried it in five different industries I had zero success with. Everybody told me that I did it wrong. But I stand by my claim that the only people that I hear say that they have good outcomes with rank and rent are people that are trying to get you to purchase their rank and Rent program. I've been in the industry for over a decade. I do not know anybody who has actually made money with rank and rent. Lots of people online claim that they made money with rank and rent. But yeah, like, literally, people say anything, so who cares anyway? Again, I don't know. Maybe don't listen to that episode if you think that I did a bad job explaining it or maybe listen to it. I don't know. It does matter to me. Okay, episode 63. Two pieces of controversial SEO advice. I'm going to tell you one of them. You have to listen to the episode to learn the other one. Okay. One of my controversial pieces of SEO advice was this. There is a saying in English, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. All right? Now, I think I may have given a little lecture on why the grammar in that sentence is terrible. But still, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. What does that mean? It means if you're already at the top of the search engines, do not make changes to your website. I have heard from many people that say, oh, we were at the top of the search engines and then we like rewrote our content or we did this or we did this other thing and now we're not at the top of the search engines anymore. Don't mess with something if it's working. Okay? Like, if you're ranking. Okay, look here, let's. Let's take a step back. I don't know if this always happens, and I don't know why it happens, but it seems to me that when people make changes on page to their website, they usually start bouncing in the SERPs. Okay, SERPs means what position are you in? SERP Search Engine Result pages. Okay, so I think in that episode I said something like, if you're in position five or better, do not make any changes to your content unless you must for like, technical reasons. So what I mean is, if you say something that is erroneous on the website. Okay, if you say something mistaken. Yes, go change that. If you say that your blue widgets are yellow and they're actually purple, you should change that because it's. It's not right.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
But do not go rewriting your content because somebody told you that. Oh, you're position five. And if you rewrite your content, you'll be in position one. No, you won't, because you'll probably lose your rank for a while and you may or may not recover. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Episode 64 how to use 301 redirects for SEO I made this episode because I get this question all the time. How do I use 301 redirects? Blah, blah, blah. Okay, look, I'm going to give you two pieces of quick information here and then you can go listen to the episode. If you want More, you use 301 redirects because when you buy an expired domain, you want to 301 all of the pages that used to be on that site to the homepage or to the equivalent of whatever they are. Now. If you're recreating the pages, but don't steal people's content if you're recreating a site.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
In other words, what I mean is, if you buy an expired domain, do not build a copy of the older site. That is a bad idea. From a purely lawful perspective, that is a bad idea. I'm not even talking about the SEO results of doing so. But anyway, maybe the domain headlight. A thousand pages on it, right? You just want to 301 all of those back to the homepage to keep the authority and then build out whatever pages you want. There are plugins that will do this in WordPress. There are many, many plugins. You should find a plugin that will do it automatically, as opposed to a plugin that makes you type in every single URL individually. Because you don't want to do it that way. Okay, look, and then the other thing that I talk about in that episode is whether or not you should buy authoritative domains simply to redirect them to your target domain. You shouldn't. That's a bad idea. Because what is the number one rule in search engine optimization? Would this ever naturally happen? Do you think a bunch of domains would ever just redirect themselves to some other domain for no reason? Of course not. So maybe it might not work. Okay, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but I'm saying you might get caught doing it because it's unnatural.
Listener
Okay, good.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Go listen to that episode. Okay. Okay. I hope that makes sense. Episode 65, how much doctor do you need to rank? People ask this question all the time. How much doctor do I need to rank? Let me break it down for you very quickly here, Doctor. Just like. Just.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Just like all the other things, okay? Like as and DA and PA and UR and TF and CL and all the other ones. It is an estimate, okay? It is an estimate. People love to tell me that I'm wrong because I said that higher DA or whatever metric you're using always outranks lower da. I literally have never said that. And I explained it again on this episode. Those are all estimates of the original measure of authority, which was pr. PR was a Google metric of authority. It stood for page rank. It was a real metric of authority. It used to be public. You could find the PR page rank for every website and every web page in the world. But then what do you think happened? People started selling links based on pr. Google said, and I'm just guessing, I don't know if this is officially what Google did. And then Google probably said something like, oh, well, people are taking advantage of this. We can't provide it anymore. They obviously still use something like that. They just don't publicize it anymore. So when Google stopped publishing pr, other companies created their own.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Everybody has their own. Ahrefs has Dr. Domain rating.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Moz has page authority. And DA domain authority SEMrush has one. Majestic has one. Everybody has one. They are all estimates. They are not what you think they are. Let me say this once. If you listen to anything that I say in this entire episode, let it be this next sentence. The purpose of SEO is to get to the top of the results. It is not to get the highest doctor possible.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
It is possible to get to the top of the search engines with small or no increases in your doctor. It is also possible to increase your doctor and have no increase in position. I'm gonna say it again because people are not going to understand it. The purpose of SEO is to get to the top of the results, not to get as much doctor as possible. Those are different things. They are different. Next Episode Episode 66 how many sites do you need in your PBN? Private blog network? I get this question all the time too, Grumpy SEO Guy. What number of websites do I need in my pbn? I don't know, dude. As many or as few as you want. There's if okay with how the SEO industry works. A lot of people ask questions that seem like they make sense, but don't actually make sense. For example, how much doctor do I need? Which was what we just talked about because people have quantified things so much and they sell things based on metrics. Okay, well, this doctor is more. It must be. No, no, that's not how SEO works. I believe I have explained that proficiently in these episodes. Okay, anyway, look, so people always ask, how many sites do I need in my pbn? Which is basically a similar question to how many backlinks do I need? You need more than you have now. Okay, like that's the answer. The answer to this question is based on so many things, including what your competition is doing. If you have very easy competition, you probably don't need very many. If you have very hard competition, you need a lot more. But they also need to be better. Because remember, number of backlinks does not matter, but quality of backlinks does matter. A hundred bad links is worse than one good link, but people are still going to be like, well, grumpy SEO guy says it's all about the number of backlinks. Even though I literally have never said that ever on any episode or on any forum post ever. But you know, content writers are just going to troll me all day long anyway, so whatever. Okay, look, actually, not kidding, but that's a different topic. Okay, so look, how many? I think. I think I said in that episode that this is for normal websites, by the way. Like normal, not super crazy competition normal. I said if you build a PBN with 30 to 50, I think that's what I said, 30 to 50 sites, you will probably have wonderful results, okay? Because most websites are lacking 30 to 50 good quality backlinks.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
And if you provide that for your website, the results will probably please you. But I don't know because every situation is different. And I literally just got an email yesterday from somebody who said, well, you said 30 to 50, but you know, we've got. I forgot what they said. Like 30,000. I think they said, by the way, I'm totally keeping this anonymous. I think they said 30, 30,000 backlinks from 6,000 domains or something like that. And I'm like, well, based on those numbers and nothing else, you have more backlinks and more referring domains than most people. You are probably in a more difficult industry. Maybe 30 to 50 won't be enough, but it might be because I haven't looked at those backlinks and they might be terrible. So who knows? In my experience, you usually start getting decent results with 30 to 50.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Decent quality backlinks. Do not misunderstand what I'm saying and say grumpy SEO guy says, I need 30 backlinks and then go buy 30 forum profile backlinks, because that's just gonna be a waste of your time and money.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Okay. Next Episode Episode 67 Secret Sauce is super scammy Nonsense. I think I can cover this one. Very briefly. There's a lot of SEO agencies and consultants who talk about Secret Sauce and they talk about what they're gonna do for you, and they're like, well, we're gonna. Every single one of them is lying, is scamming you, and you do not want to work with them. Next Episode Episode 68 why you shouldn't focus on number of backlinks. Number of backlinks is not a thing. Number of whatever your doctor is is not a thing. And stop quantifying things in manners that they should not be quantified, okay? It's like asking, how many stickers do I need to win the race? Like, none. You need a good engine. Number of backlinks doesn't matter. If I could give you one backlink, that would be a million times better than all of the blog comment garbage you bought for $10.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Number of backlinks is not a thing, period. Like, SEO is not powerlifting. No one cares what numbers are. All they care about is where you rank. Feel like I Covered that one. Next episode, episode 69 why SEO agencies sometimes Lie about who Their Clients Are. Oh my gosh, I see this constantly. I could. Let me. Okay, let me keep this one kind of quick. A number of SEO agencies and consultants will put on their website stuff like our clients include. And then they'll list like Apple and IBM and Microsoft and Google and like, okay, first of all, bro, Google is not your SEO client. Really? No. Like, no. Okay, but anyways, so a couple comments about that. First of all, why are they doing that? Well, there's a very good chance that those big companies are not actually their clients, especially if it's some no name SEO consultant. Right? But they're listing that because they want to list companies that you've heard of. Because if you see this person and say, wow, Apple is their client, well, they must be good. I'm gonna work with them. This is why they put it on the website. Okay, but there's more to say about that. If Apple was even their client, which is unlikely. Okay, it is unlikely that a big tech company that you have heard of actually hired this person, because that's not how SEO works in that area. But let's just assume it was. It doesn't mean they got good results. All it means is they have good salespeople.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
You can have Apple as a client do a bad job and get fired, but Apple was still your client so you could brag about that. So literally getting big clients does not mean anything, excluding the fact that they're probably lying about having them anyway. But here's the even bigger point that people still don't understand. No decent SEO agency would ever name their clients on their website because the clients do not let them.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
I stopped asking our clients a decade ago if I can list them on our website because every single client said no. Why did they say no? Is it because we didn't get good results? No, of course not. We got amazing results. It's because they don't want their competition to know who they're working with, because that creates weird issues. If you're working with a company and their competition comes to you and says, oh, work with us, we'll pay you more. That is an uncomfortable position to be in. No, we don't list our clients because every single client has told us no, because they're getting amazing results. And it's secret. It's private.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
And it's discreet. The real, and I think I said this like on episode one. The real SEO industry is very, very private and very, very secretive. Okay, like, the more people brag publicly, probably the more they're lying. And that's likely true for every industry, but especially SEO. The more you say, oh, yeah, Xerox and IBM and Facebook and Apple and Microsoft are all our clients. No, no, they're not. No, they're not. No, no, they're not. And even if they were, they probably would not let you put them on their website. But they're not. But anyway, the reason. I know what, I already said this, but the reason people did that, turning this into a whole other episode. The reason people do that is because if they lift it is because if they list a bunch of clients you've never heard of, like, you're not going to care, right? Like, you could list. If you've been an SEO consultant for a while and you're good at your job, you probably have like 50 clients or something, right? Like, after a couple years, I don't know. Don't utilize those numbers as, like, scale of anything. I'm just saying, depending on the size of your projects, after a couple years, you might have 50 clients or so.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
But probably nobody's ever heard of them. In 15 years, we've had like, two or maybe three household name clients, and those are only household name clients. If you're very familiar with certain industries, like supplements or martial arts, probably regular people still haven't heard of those. So I wouldn't even be bragging by sharing them on our website except for the fact that they all said no. Anyway, I hope this makes sense. If not, whatever. I don't know what to tell you. Go listen to that episode. Okay. Next episode, episode 70 think twice about buying Backlinks off of a menu. The subtitle for this episode was. There's a reason PBNs are called private Blog Networks. Generally speaking. And I could go both ways on this argument, honestly. But there are services out there that will provide you a list of websites you can get backlinks from. I would recommend not working with those agencies, and I would also recommend not working with any agencies that will take you as a client just because you want to.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
Because if they'll take you without a screening process, they will take anyone without a screening process, which means they could be linking to spammers, which means they're penalized, which means you're penalized. Probably don't do it. That's all I'm going to say about that. Okay. Next episode, episode 71. SEO contradictions, clarification, and Critical Thinking. I made this episode because there are a lot of people in the SEO field who say things and then later say other things that contradict the first thing they said. But, like, people don't seem to be aware of this. There's some examples if you listen to it, but I'm gonna give you one example right now. Some people will say, bad backlinks can't hurt you. Backlinks can only help you or not have any effect at all, but they can't hurt you. Okay, by the way, that's mistaken. But let's just figure that it's not. Okay? Okay, so anyways, they say that, and then later somebody will say, oh, man, I can't figure out why my website dropped. And the same person will say, well, maybe you got a spammy backlinks penalty. Okay, one moment here. If you just said, backlinks cannot hurt you, why would you say, maybe you got a spammy backlink penalty? Those things cannot be true together. Okay, so anyway, like that, like you understand what I'm saying? It's like they just say things and then they, like, just randomly say something else, and it's not even. It's not even like, logically connected to the first thing they say. They just say things and look, I. Whatever, whatever. It doesn't matter. So that's. That's. We're gonna go on to the next one now. Okay, next episode, episode 72, how to build your own PBN, part 4, answers to questions from Reddit. I have a lot of episodes on how to build a pbn, a private blog network or private blog portfolio the correct way. Specifically episodes 3, 4, and 5. There were a lot of questions that people had. They were asking me on Reddit. So I made another episode that shared answers to some of their questions. If you want to build a PBN, listen to those episodes. Okay, next episode, episode 73, my experience going on six SEO job interviews. This is a fun episode to make, depending on what you think the word fun means. Okay, so I went on six SEO job interviews, and by the way, this was like, way in the past. I went on six SEO job interviews, and in this episode, I talked about the conversations, I talked about the experience, I talked about the process, I told what the interviews were like. I listed some of the questions that I was asked, and then at the end of the episode, I read from a list of questions that I had to answer, like, as part of the application process. So anyway, the general theme from this episode is that most of the agencies and companies with whom I interviewed really were clueless as far as how SEO went And I got asked a lot of questions, like, well, about content, basically. And you know what, if you're thinking about taking an SEO position, you should listen to this episode to learn what it might be like. Okay, next episode, episode 74. Everyone is lying to you about duplicate content. And even more SEO job interview questions. So at the end of this episode, I found some more questions that I was asked in the job interviews and I mentioned them in the episode. The beginning of this episode talks about how people lie to you about duplicate content by telling you that it is a concern and it is not a concern. And in this episode, I even give examples of websites that are ranking with the same content, thus proving duplicate content does not exist. But there are two exceptions to that rule, and I'll just tell you what they are now. First exception, if you have duplicate content on your own website, like, obviously, you should probably try to keep from having duplicate content on your own website.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
And the second example is if you have the same content on different websites that you own and they're both on the same server. Okay, that is a problem too. But other than that, there's no such thing as duplicate content. I mean, well, there is like duplicate content just means matching content, right? But it's not a problem. There's no such thing as a penalty from duplicate content. And I give examples in this episode of well known websites that have identical articles that both rank. So there's. There's no, there's no, there's no penalty. Okay, next episode, episode 75, a glimpse inside the shady world of Internet marketing and affiliate programs. I'm not really going to offer a lot of detail. You'll have to go listen to this episode if you want. It's a pretty good episode. But if you've ever asked yourself why the affiliate marketing industry seems so untrustworthy and dishonest, you're asking the right questions. Okay. Anyway, next episode, episode 76. Ranking but no backlinks. Where's the proof? Look, people, especially trolls of this podcast, love to say, oh, I can rank without backlinks. Oh, you don't need backlinks to rank. You just need good content, bro. A long time ago, I posed a public challenge to the world to show me a website that ranks in English on google.com with no backlinks in a medium to competitive industry.
Listener
Okay, not.
Grumpy SEO Guy
And obviously we're not talking local SEO here. And nobody's done it. People say that they have. Oh, I do it. Oh, I rank with all. But no, you don't. Literally, literally nobody can do it because it doesn't exist. There are no websites that rank without backlinks unless they have extremely low competition. Extremely low.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
But people always make these claims, so I'm not sure what the problem is, but you need to back up your statements. If you say you can rank a website without backlinks, you have to show examples of websites that rank without backlinks.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Now, nobody's gonna do it, but. Because it's not possible. But still, before you buy something from anyone selling you something saying that they can rank a website with no backlinks, usually they're content salespeople, by the way, or content is so good you still need backlinks. You're wrong. Stop scamming people and show proof. So anyway, that's that episode. I would encourage you to listen to it before buying content from anybody claiming that their content is so wonderful that it doesn't even need backlinks. Because that's not how SEO works. That's like saying. That's like saying, my paint job is so awesome. It makes your car faster and you don't need a better engine. You just need this cool paint job. That's not how, like, automotive performance works, okay? And that's not how SEO works. Anyway, next episode, episode 77. What are Tier 2 and Tier 3 backlinks? Are they helpful? You've probably heard these phrases before. Tier 2, Tier 3, there's more. Tier 4, Tier 5, whatever. You've probably heard this before if you've been researching SEO, sellers and vendors, because people often like to say, oh, we give you backlinks and then we give you extra tiers of backlinks. Look, in this episode, I explained that the concept is fine, but it's usually not done in the correct way. And any correctly made PBN already has tier 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Like, as many as you want to go, probably. So you do not need additional tiers of spammy backlinks from forum profiles and blog comments and all the nonsense that people do. So because it's not going to do anything for you, it's probably just going to, like, look spammy, so probably don't do that. I think that's a good summary. You should listen to that episode if you want to know more. Okay, next episode, episode 78. There is no such thing as cheap SEO, guys. There's a reason that you can pay $10 for a thousand backlinks, okay? Like, there's a reason that they're $10.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
I'm not. I'm not sure what else to say? Honestly, all backlinks are not the same. Bad backlinks are worse than no backlinks, and there's a reason Those backlinks are $10.
Listener
Okay.
Grumpy SEO Guy
So here's. I guess. No, look, here's my point. I'm not saying that you need to spend tons and tons of money to do SEO, but I'm saying for any amount of SEO that you need to do, okay? Any amount of SEO that you need to do, do not do the cheap stuff, okay? Do not buy the cheap stuff. It's like. It's like if you, for whatever reason, think that you need, like, a thousand backlinks, and I'm just. I'm just making. I'm just making this up.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Is it possible to estimate a number of backlinks that you might need? Yes, it is possible, but it's not specific, and it's more of a range than an estimate. And you could still probably, you know, like, nudge the numbers by 30% on either side of the estimate. Okay, so it's really not. It's not. Look, I don't even want to, like, like, describe this, because somebody is gonna say, grumpy OS Yogar says you could Grumpy OS Yogar says you can estimate the exact specific number of backlinks. No, you can't.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
You can't. But anyways, look, let's say for some reason, you have come to the conclusion that you need a thousand backlinks for whatever reason, okay? Do not go buy a thousand cheap backlinks and say, well, I got my thousand backlinks, because they're not gonna help you.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Any that you do has to be high quality. But anyway, look, there's a lot of cheap SEO out there. And the other thing that I mentioned in this episode, and this is equally as important, just because it's expensive doesn't mean it's good. If it's cheap, it's almost assuredly horrible. But if it's expensive, it doesn't mean it's good.
Listener
Okay?
Grumpy SEO Guy
Like, I hope that makes sense. But if you want to learn more about why there's no such thing as cheap SEO, maybe go find this episode. Okay? Next Episode Episode 793 Mistakes to Avoid One mistake is about website management. Two mistakes are about dealing with clients. That's what it's about. I don't really need to go into detail here, because now you know what they're about. It's more from the perspective of running an SEO agency rather than, like, necessarily doing SEO. But anyway, if you want to learn about three mistakes to avoid Listen to this episode. Okay, I hope that this was helpful. As you know, every 20 episodes we do a review of the previous 19 episodes. But okay, it's the end of the episode. See ya. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email me@hellorumpyseoguy.com if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder and it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks and I think those words will cloud classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do so@patreon.com Grumpy Seoguy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday when we talk about how to tell if something is useful for SEO.
Episode 80: A Comprehensive Review of Episodes 61-79
In Episode 80 of the "Grumpy SEO Guy" podcast, the host meticulously reviews Episodes 61 through 79, distilling crucial insights, strategies, and candid opinions accumulated over nearly two decades in the SEO industry. This summary encapsulates the essence of each discussed episode, highlighting key takeaways and notable quotes to provide a clear understanding for both loyal listeners and newcomers alike.
Grumpy SEO Guy embarks on Episode 80 with a straightforward objective: to summarize the preceding 19 episodes, offering listeners a concise overview and directing them to specific episodes of interest. He emphasizes the importance of discretion and experience in navigating the often convoluted SEO landscape.
Overview: This foundational episode is tailored for newcomers, breaking down the basics of SEO. Grumpy SEO Guy demystifies what SEO entails and clarifies common misconceptions.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"A lot of people consider to be SEO is analogous to the paint job on a race car... But that is not why they're fast."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [00:00-02:12]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy explores the "rank and rent" model and critiques prevalent affiliate marketing practices, expressing skepticism about their efficacy.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"I stand by my claim that the only people that I hear say that they have good outcomes with rank and rent are people that are trying to get you to purchase their rank and Rent program."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [02:12-04:07]
Overview: This episode delves into contentious SEO strategies, challenging conventional wisdom that may not yield the desired outcomes.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"If you're already at the top of the search engines, do not make changes to your website unless you must for technical reasons."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [03:45-05:45]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy provides a practical guide on implementing 301 redirects, a crucial tactic for maintaining SEO authority during website restructuring or domain acquisition.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"If you buy an expired domain, do not build a copy of the older site. That is a bad idea."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [06:32-07:44]
Overview: This episode scrutinizes the reliance on domain authority (DA) metrics, advocating for a focus on actual search rankings over numerical scores.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"The purpose of SEO is to get to the top of the results. It is not to get the highest doctor possible."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [09:46-09:47]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy addresses the often-asked question about the ideal size of a Private Blog Network (PBN), emphasizing quality over quantity.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Do not go buy 30 forum profile backlinks, because that's just gonna be a waste of your time and money."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [13:27]
Overview: This critical episode exposes the dubious claims of "secret sauce" strategies often marketed by SEO agencies and consultants.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Every single one of them is lying, is scamming you, and you do not want to work with them."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [14:XX]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy reiterates the pitfalls of concentrating solely on backlink quantity, advocating for emphasis on quality instead.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Number of backlinks is not a thing, period. If I could give you one backlink, that would be a million times better than all of the blog comment garbage you bought for $10."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [14:24-14:25]
Overview: This episode uncovers the deceptive practice of SEO agencies falsely claiming high-profile clients to enhance their credibility.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"No decent SEO agency would ever name their clients on their website because the clients do not let them."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [16:30]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy warns against purchasing backlinks from packaged lists or menu services, emphasizing the risks of low-quality or spammy links.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"There are services out there that will provide you a list of websites you can get backlinks from... Probably don't do it."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [19:14]
Overview: This episode addresses the inconsistencies and contradictory advice prevalent in the SEO community, urging listeners to apply critical thinking.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"If you just said that backlinks cannot hurt you, why would you say maybe you got a spammy backlinks penalty?"
— Grumpy SEO Guy [21:03]
Overview: Continuing his PBN series, Grumpy SEO Guy addresses listener questions from Reddit, providing nuanced advice on constructing and managing Private Blog Networks effectively.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"You usually start getting decent results with 30 to 50 decent quality backlinks."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [13:11]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy shares his personal experiences participating in six SEO job interviews, revealing the gaps in SEO knowledge among potential employers.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Most of the agencies and companies with whom I interviewed really were clueless as far as how SEO went."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [14:XX]
Overview: This episode debunks the exaggerated fears surrounding duplicate content, clarifying when it is and isn't a concern for SEO.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"There's no penalty from duplicate content."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [23:18]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy exposes the unethical practices rampant in internet marketing and affiliate programs, shedding light on the deceptive tactics used to manipulate market perceptions.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"If you've ever asked yourself why the affiliate marketing industry seems so untrustworthy and dishonest, you're asking the right questions."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [24:52]
Overview: This episode challenges the notion that websites can achieve significant rankings without backlinks, demanding empirical evidence for such claims.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Nobody's done it because it doesn't exist. There are no websites that rank without backlinks unless they have extremely low competition."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [24:53-25:13]
Overview: Grumpy SEO Guy discusses tiered backlink strategies, clarifying their purpose and the potential pitfalls of improper implementation.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Any correctly made PBN already has tier 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9... so you do not need additional tiers of spammy backlinks."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [25:31]
Overview: This episode tackles the misconceptions around "cheap SEO," arguing that low-cost services often lead to poor outcomes and emphasizing the importance of investing in quality SEO practices.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
"Any you do has to be high quality... the reason there's no such thing as cheap SEO is because the cheap stuff doesn't help you."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [27:34-29:26]
Overview: Focusing on the operational aspects of running an SEO agency, Grumpy SEO Guy outlines common mistakes related to website management and client interactions.
Key Points:
Key Takeaway:
Episode 80 serves as a valuable consolidation of nearly two decades' worth of SEO wisdom, delivered with Grumpy SEO Guy’s characteristic bluntness and no-nonsense approach. By reviewing Episodes 61-79, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of effective SEO strategies, common industry pitfalls, and the importance of prioritizing quality over quantity. Grumpy SEO Guy consistently advocates for critical thinking, skepticism of dubious tactics, and a steadfast focus on genuine, proven SEO practices.
Final Notable Quote:
"If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet."
— Grumpy SEO Guy [00:00-00:30]
This summary aims to encapsulate the depth and breadth of insights presented in Episode 80, ensuring that even those unfamiliar with previous episodes can grasp the essential lessons and perspectives shared by Grumpy SEO Guy.