SEO Forums: The Voice of the Industry - SearchEngineWatch.com Forums
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SearchEngineWatch.com (SEW) has been around forever, and was owned independently by Danny Sullivan (one of the leading pioneers of SEO) before being swept into Mecklermedia's Internet.com network of sites back in November 1997. The SEW forums are frequented by some of the best SEO minds in the business.
Elisabeth Osmeloski is the Forum Editor and oversees the many moderators who volunteer their time to make the SEW forums a great online resource. Moderators include industry leaders such as Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman. When asked about the value of SEW's forums, Ms. Osmeloski said, "The SEW forums really are a natural extension of Search Engine Strategies (SES) conferences, where people can network with other SEM professionals, discuss specific issues and get official answers from Search Engine reps. At SEW, we're certainly lucky to have many of the industry's thought leaders and experts participating on a daily basis."
The SEW forums are structured differently from HighRankings.com. The most popular main category is simply titled "Search Engines & Directories" and subcategories focus on individual search engines with Google naturally being the top-visited subcategory. The structure of the forum topics is a great way to gauge the current structure of the SEO industry. Google is the number one name in search, and holds a hallowed position at the top of the page. Subsequent topics include Yahoo, MSN Search, AskJeeves & Teoma and "Other SEs and Directories."
There are special topic areas for search engine marketing, general search issues such as trends, technology and current events, and a miscellaneous "lounge" area where you can post complaints and look for jobs, among other things. Advice is straightforward and favors a no-nonsense approach to SEO and SEM questions.
SEW knows the value of their forum, and is introducing their first live forum event on June 28th in Atlanta. Osmeloski describes the event as follows. "We're bringing the casual environment of forum discussion to an organized networking breakfast seminar. We'll be looking to have these in cities that SES isn't normally held, so people can get a taste of what happens at the conferences and the forums." Registration information is not currently available, but we will post more information in the Discussion section of this article when it is.
If you post on the SEW forums, you'll be in good company. Says Osmeloski, "While no forum can guarantee the accuracy of claims and comments made by members, we feel we make a concerted effort to allow a balanced view of the industry and discuss all aspects of SEM, including techniques labeled both 'good' and 'bad.' We've already hit the 4,000 member mark, and will likely hit 5,000 by the time [our one year anniversary] comes around, and we consider that successful."
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