Before I get into this post, don’t fret.. There will be an archived copy of God of SEO here. I’ll always host it for everyone to see, as I’m very proud of my beginnings, but every good thing must come to an end.. And in this instance, a more improved version has risen anyway.
[well]Note: There may be some archive issues for the first few days, as I’m using an old back-up whilst I format the newest one to a proper archive. 4 posts are also missing from this backup, but will be back up soon.[/well]
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In June 2013, I started a blog called God of SEO, in 2 short but eventful years, it’s transformed my life from an agency employee to one of the most well known SEOs in the world, given me a ridiculous amount of opportunities, introduced me to some of my best friends and business partners to date, and paved the way for my adult life.
I’d like to thank the following people for helping me through my journey with this blog, in no particular order:
- Todd Foster
- James Gregory
- Jason McCuen
- Kennan Clark
- Kyler Patterson
- Matthew Woodward
- Sean Markey
- Rohit Palit
- Daniel Cuttridge
- Mike Campolattano
- Matthew Barby
- CCarter
- Agent Black Hat (Despite what may of happened, we still pulled in a lotta traffic together)
- Marie Haynes
- Paul Shapiro
- Victor Pan
- Cyrus Shepard (Probably the only guy at Moz that liked me, haha)
- James Dooley
- My family
A few of these names, I’ve almost lost contact with completely… So I hope they see this, and it brings a little bit of a smile to their face with all the memories.
I also highly suggest you follow all of these people, they’re all great at what they do.
My Best Posts & Memories
Some people may disagree with this list, and have their own favourites – I’d love for you to drop them in the comments, but here’s the articles I had the most fun writing and releasing, and a little bit of a story for each one.
My Income Reports –
I’ve decided to discontinue this particular category when moving over to my new domain, but I’ve started a different series called Traffic Reports, which is more about how I acquire traffic than how I make money.
I loved writing these income reports every month, I’d always try and one up Matthew Woodward‘s income, even if he had a couple years head start on me… And it was always interesting to analyze my earnings every month, as well as see people’s reactions and see people getting motivated and inspired.
Black Hat Can Be Long Term –
This post was a compilation of being a black hat for several years, and showcased sites that took the usual “black hat doesn’t last long” and threw it out the window.. Showcasing sites that had been consistently ranking and pulling in a sh*t ton of traffic.
The Whole Alex Becker & Bad Product Reviews Thing –
I was starting to get really p*ssed off with so many bad products flooding the SEO market, and non-SEOs selling SEO dreams to people wrapped inside a fat paywall.
So, when a new product ( CloudPBN ) hit the shelves.. I decided to do something about it.
Little did I realize how many SEOs were going to try and promote this product… Which resulted in the post getting over 200 comments and 11,000+ pageviews.
Shortly after this review I got a lot of people telling me the Source Wave Facebook communities were censoring everyone, so James & I put a campaign together and emailed his entire group, shortly after I then also managed to email a lot of his readers – It’s safe to say, I think he lacked the marketing skills to carry out a full-on war with the best.
I then did several more reviews which were all very popular, showcasing other poorly put together SEO products. I think my response to 2Rockstars DMCA was a highlight too.
How to Buy Domains –
As scraping and SEO domains for PBNs were becoming more and more popular, I put out a pretty extensive guide on how people could scrape their own. This was the 2nd most popular post of 2014.
The Worst SEO Company Ever –
One of James Gregory’s favourite posts, and one he recently brought back to my attention… I’d stumbled across a Twitter conversation from someone I was following at the time, and started working out how this company had made a network of all their clients sites…
The UK SEO SERPs –
At the time, one of the best churn and burn posts out… And it had the traffic, comments and social shares to back that up.
I’d smashed the UK SEO SERPs with multiple websites, all ranking over a 6 month period – Even peaking at #3 for “SEO” at one point.
Getting F*cked by Google –
In early May, 2014 Google decided to pretty ruthlessly go after me.. Deindexing several sites, deleting bloggers, my adwords accounts etc etc… I had some of the world’s leading penalty experts trying to come-up with how to remove the penalty, but in the end, I decided to do nothing –
Parasites –
I started getting really, really into Parasite SEO… I put out an intro guide and an interview with Terry Kyle to Parasite SEO and several other posts followed afterwards.
I’m still obsessed with parasite rankings today.
Hacking Facebook Ads –
I mean, even the white hats liked this one.
I showcased a technique I was using to steal Facebook pages engaged audiences and target them with ads. It was an overnight success, and hit over 10k pageviews.
SAPE –
I have a love/hate relationship with the infamous Russian link network…
I mean, I had to put out not 1 but 2 posts telling people it wasn’t dead.
There are so many posts that I can’t even write descriptions for all of them, so here are a few more for you to read and reminisce with:
- Sneaky Link Building Tips – Also did parts 2 and 3.
- That time the Webspam Team started monitoring my emails.
- That whole Tiered Link Building fiasco, that had a ton of other bloggers raising pitchforks.
- Beating Penguin 2.1 – One of my first very popular posts, after the success How to Beat the Payday Loans Algo.
- My first interview, and a very popular one.. Back when I interviewed Leith from BHW fame.
- The cheapskates loved when I showed them how to be an SEO for $57.
My Best Guest Posts
I didn’t just create content on my blog, the way I originally got so well known was being the first person to guest post on Matthew Woodward’s blog.
I started doing a lot more guest posts, and they resulted in some pretty sweet posts.
- My HUGE 12.5k word E-Commerce guide, also on Woodward’s blog.
- Using Black Hat SEO Tools for White Hat Purposes, I wanted to attract both audiences, ok?!
- I also did a personal guide to business blogging, back when I was running not 1 but 2 agency’s blogs.
- I returned for a 3rd, and final time to Woodward’s blog with How to steal your competitors customers.
I also did a load of interviews, contributed to about 5 other SEO blogs, and had my posts featured all over the shop, from SE Roundtable to pretty much every SEO forum on the web.
Final Words
I didn’t want to make this post incredibly long, I easily could of, but I did do the one year case study after all. I fit in every piece I ever put out that I wanted to, gave shout-outs to the people who made GoS what it was and helped me so much in my career, and I had a good laugh to myself writing some of the descriptions.
Thanks to all of my readers, you guys are the real MVPs, and if you’ve made it this far down the line with me.. You must be doing something right.
I enjoyed my time as The God of SEO, but now it’s time to evolve, and I’m nowhere near my final form yet.
Check out the posts I’m putting out on this blog, and drop me a comment with your favourite God of SEO post or moment.
Regards
Charles Floate, The Artist Formerly Known as God of SEO
