47 Experts Nobody Has Ever Heard of Share Their Top Link Building Tip!
Sound familiar? Yeah it’s just getting desperate out there.
You know the type of post, the “expert roundups” or “roundup posts” as it’s been coined by my fellow SEOs.
Like most tactics that go mainstream with SEO, we beat the shit out of them until they are pretty much useless. The same thing has happened with these expert roundups I’m afraid.
Remember the decay and fall of guest blogging? Good times, until they weren’t good times and Matty boy put his team on the scene.
Will roundup posts have the same fate?
Meh, who cares, if this is your primary link source then I feel really bad for you.
Fortunately they seem to be losing steam now that people are “catching on” to how ridiculous these things really are.
Let’s get one thing clear, most of these people are not fucking experts!
They’re just some random bastards another random bastard targeted in a desperate attempt to get links and social shares.
What the hell does “expert” even mean? I’m not even sure I even want to be considered an expert at SEO, how can you be an expert at something that changes so fast?
Yeah think about that for a minute assholes.
Alright Jacob, enough blowing off steam, it can’t really be that bad?
You don’t think so? Well obviously you aren’t on the SEO roudups most wanted list.
If you were, you’d realize just how much of a joke it is. There is even a dude that runs an actual paid service for peddling his roundups across the interwebs…
Just got an email offering blog post "roundups" as a service (pitch: get links from the unsuspecting "influencers" who participate). Ugh.
— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) October 13, 2015
Hitting up Rand, probably not such a good idea haha.
And sorry Bill, we all love you, but yes they’ve been taking advantage of you my friend.
@randfish I went from feeling honored, to eventually realizing I was on a shared list of "dudes who say yes".
— Bill Sebald (@billsebald) October 13, 2015
Maybe we could do a post like this instead:
“Bill Sebald and 39 SEOs You’ve Never Heard of Give Their Best Link Building Tips”
Sure contributing might get you a link in the process but let’s consider the trade off before we dive in. Most of the people in these roundups are completely clueless and it might even damage your reputation by just being in their very presence, so consider that.
Some people have been pretty successful with it though, let’s look at big deal Neil Patel for example. I’ve wondered if this dude just has a response with spintax he uses over and over because damn, he is literally the roundup king.
Where do you find the time Neil?!
We can’t hate on Neil that much tho, dude is banking no doubt with his big deal shtick. Alright now let’s look at some classic roundup responses and have a little fun.
Just play around with some queries like this “seo tips” “experts” and you’ll find tons of them.
You thought you could hide you bullshit spueing SEOs you but you were wrong. From SEO to link building I’ve pulled a collection of some {ridiculous|hilarious|insane|moronic} roundup contributions and displayed them here for your enjoyment. Get your umbrellas out because it’s raining bullshit below ;-)
Neil Patel on Optimized Anchors:
For a long time, SEOs used anchor texts with keywords to improve their SEO. The great thing was it worked! But the days of optimized anchors are gone. Today, using optimized anchors is like asking for a penalty.
– Source
Barry Schwartz on Link Building Advice:
My best advice now, build a Google Glass app, it gets a ton of exposure and links.
We did and it was a huge success.
– Source
Ash Buckles on G+ SEO Tips:
Be sure to check out active users on Google+ that are discussing authorship and author rank.
– Source
Some girl I’ve never heard of spitting that link building knowledge:
The best way to do offsite SEO nowadays is to NOT do SEO!
– Source
Another dude I’ve never heard of:
Don’t do any SEO if you want to survive for long term. :)
I am not saying to quit it completely but my point is; don’t try to over optimize your articles for SEO as Google knows what you are doing to get higher SERP.
– Source
The Shit SEO on the $500 Link Building Budget
Nowadays, you have to think outside of the box. The box has to be barely visible. When you look back to where that box is, you can’t actually see it. That’s how far outside of the box you have to think, and being an SEO that is almost impossible to do as most of us are just creatively retarded.
– Source
Careful, this one might make your head explode:
My favorite white hat link building technique that scales is expert round ups.
This is my favorite one to do because it allows you to get great links, connect with really influential people, and it helps promote you as an expert in the industry.
– Source
Well there you have it folks, this is why SEOs can’t have nice things. Now it’s time to jump on Twitter and tweet at all these expert SEOs one by one and annoy the living shit out of my followers (kidding, well sort of).
Is there a hilarious roundup answer I left out? Just leave a comment below with the details.
If it meets my quality guidelines I’ll gladly add it and make backlink dreams come true for yet another SEO expert.
Wow, there’s some contradictory logic coming from these experts.
I love this! Im an avid reader of all things seo and I was starting to catch on early. Great post my friend!
Jacob, an ‘expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less! Thx for the smiles.
So true, being an “expert” isn’t always a good thing.
How do you get others in your organization to understand that everyone on the web who says they’re an “expert” isn’t really an “expert”? For instance, owners who are completely computer illiterate and even upper management personnel?
You’re a real weasle Jacob. I would have contributed some fitness bullshit for a link back to my site. Seriously though.. Funny but true post. Wish you’d blog even more.
I wish you would post more often, all of your posts keep me motivated to “think outside of the box”. Like waaaaaaay out there.
And this is from a measly in-house SEO who doesn’t even keep up with his own websites. Keep it up!
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a really weird dude lol. But yes, I always intend to blog a bit more, we’ll see how it goes.
Nothing wrong with weird. Everything wrong with normal.
OMFG! Let’s not be too harsh on this stuff. These “round-ups”, scare tactics and misinformation are what weeds out the the bad SEOs and makes it easier for the rest of us. We need them to keep spewing their crap about “keyword rich anchors don’t work”, “SEO is dead”, “duplicate content won’t rank”, etc., etc. I honestly think you should do a round-up, like you mentioned, that we can then bash away at in comments.
Jesus, that fucking Woodward is a fucking joke. JOKE!
Thanks Jacob. I’m honoured that you’re sharing my valuable SEO insights. A lot of people think I’m a dick, but I think this proves that I’m one of the tier one SEOs in the world.
Kbomb forever!
I’ve been Kbombed, that write up you did earned it.
If you have to self proclaim that you are one of the “tier one SEOs in the world” then you aren’t.
LOL this comment oblivious to humor is icing on the cake!
Guilty as charged. I realized it after I posted the comment. I’m officially retracting my previous comment due to being a “self-proclaimed” dumb ass.
Lmfao
Well at least my surname isn’t the same as a shithole town in the North of England!
I’m so tier one that I get neck ache from looking down on you tier 6 SEOs.
Roundup people are bad, sure, but there’s something even worse. Thought leaders.
Shit is all fucked up. Follow the leader! Haha
Why do you hate Neil? He’s probably banking more than all of us combined; he must be doing something right :)
Me? I literally said:
“We can’t hate on Neil that much tho, dude is banking no doubt with his big deal shtick.”
I don’t have a problem with Neil, he just gets some flack because he pumps the guru game so hard.
I tried many of Neil’s tips on my clients’ sites and they worked really well. I find his articles full of actionable intelligence.
Neil builds SEO for people while most guys here does it for search engines. Both approaches would work if done right. There’s nothing to be cocky for from either side. Most SEOs are a mix of both I believe.
I’d like to see a roundup of all the experts who say you can’t spam Google anymore because Google has fixed everything.
Thank god we have these experts, I don’t know what I’d do without them…they make my life so much easier :)
Kinda hard to be an expert on something that changes and evolves every day.
Typically, it’s a couple of people you know, some you may have heard of, and then the mates / clients of the person putting the ego bait together…
http://wtfseo.com/top-247-seos-i-hope-will-share-this-post-if-i-mention-them-in-it/
As always dude, you are so on point. This “discussion” has been happening for quite a while hopefully this post will be the nail in the coffin.
The main issue is expert roundups are self-perpetuating. “Experts” like them because you get links. Publishers like them because you get content. That is the main reason I don’t see them going anywhere.
Also I’m trying to find it but a year or so ago I intentionally gave bad / crazy advice and it still got published.
Ha yeah I thought about doing that, just responding with straight ridiculous shit.
All jokes aside though, some people did some really good roundups initially, solid question, diverse group of answers. Then people tried to replicate it a zillion times with terrible execution.
Jon Cooper nailed that shit to the top of inbound so hard that everyone else wanted a piece, cuz he kind made it look easy. But most of the attempts we’ve seen aren’t even on the same playing field.
For one, most of these people don’t even vet the responses, it’s just another 200+ words of content and the potential to get some more RTs. So ridiculous. But I guess I don’t need to bash them that hard, they prolly struggling real hard when it comes to actually making $$, cuz if a roundup like this is what your spending $$ or time on, it’s gotta be rough, lmao.
It’s fun to watch the evolution stuff takes and how lazy people are. They just completely blasted the tactic to shit. Here is a good one too.
Step 1. Find keyword “best rss reader”
Step 2. Email spam a bunch of experts
step 3. Post awesome replies
Step 4. Sit back and watch the links ans social roll in.
Step 5. Collect $$ from new found ranks and traffic
I think pretty much any process with “sit back watch the links roll in” is bound to be trouble and get SEOafied.
One of the only “expert” roundups I was a part of was on feinternational’s blog. One of the best spins they put on it was have viewers vote for the best answer. Since one of the guys over there is a writer for http://www.entrepreneur.com/ they offered the top 5 links from there. I thought it was a clever way to get a lot more attention to their business instead of the same lame roundups which I often decline.
This is great…I fucking can’t stand all these leeches claiming to be experts. The only thing they are experts at is eating and regurgitating useless content from Google’s mouth, like a little bird being fed by their mother. Somehow douchers like neil patel or whatever his name is make bank because of his dorky smile and dumbass twitter accounts…real SEO is alive and well, this site proves it. Thanks brah.
This was fucking Hilarious lol most SEOs are retarded. Need more SEO humor in my life.
On fucking point.
I see the value, I’ve come across some great advice when real “experts” give some insight.
Personally, I think the publishers have to do a better job at cutting out crap responses.
Keep it up Jacob.
Roundup is a weed killer. Not to be confused with killer weed.
The real beauty of SEO is it’s a prism that only reflects back your point of view.
Johnny Fucknuts, assistant in house SEO for Overpriced Agency A, thinks he’s cutting edge with his next great “traffic leak”. Sure to get huge social engagement, some excellent link backs and a raise on his 6 month eval.
Meanwhile, in the shadows, makers are building sites ranking for 1000’s of terms almost instantly.
And they can both coexist just fine.
Why do you hate them. They’re just trying to build their business. We like Neil. He gives almost everything he knows. I’m not saying everything works. It’s just he gives value.
I’m not blaming you. There are lot of experts out there hahaha. SEO is funny.Everyone is an expert in this field lol.
We should follow people who really test their system like seo traffic hacks. I’m not saying he is perfect.
Seo is about testing right. If you test you’ll know that nothing works 100% of the time. Then what should we do?
It’s up to you. Hahhaha.
Now I’m testing my blog. And I’m very happy I think I broke my site hahaha. I don’t need SEO experts hahaha. But I like reading about their strategies it gives me more ideas for testing.
Great stuff!
Especially liked the “The Shit SEO on the $500 Link Building Budget” still laughing!
SEOs be like https://youtu.be/QMdU4sUeGxs
Funny because it’s true. I lol’ed.
Hi Jacob,
This is my first visit to your website and this article impressed me to subsrcibe to your mailing list. I feel the same as many other experts do. Not doing SEO (not over doing) is the best strategy to survive for long terms. Thanks for educating round up article.I will be looking forward for more awesome articles.
Have a good day :)
– Sasidhar
You know Jacob, there are only 2 people on the internet who make sense to me when it comes to SEO. One is you, and the other is Georgi from KontentMachine.
Everyone talks about “adapting” to Google’s algorithm. But then I read you two, and you guys talk about “exploiting” it !
When I see a mail from Jacob King in my inbox, I know it’s gonna be a good day. Thanks for not putting up with all the bullshit :-).
Put a nofollow to these outbound links, don’t give them any credit and power ;)
Was gonna do that, then I forgot. I’ve always nofollowed links to Cutts lol.
Hey Jacob, great post. I feel it would work so much better with some experts in it ;)
Now I’m not an SEO, but I did recently read that these posts tend to be lousy for the linkees because people don’t click the ones in the middle. If they don’t get clicked, and only the big names get clicked then that post is a hundrance to them. True? I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.
The people you’ve never heard of are in the post to market it. Yup, I know you’ve never heard of them, but they now have greatness by association and therefore will market the post (that’s potentially damaging them) to the death (possible theirs). An “influencer” will probably only tweet something their in just once, which isn’t particularly good for social traffic, an unknown will promote until all their followers see it.
These articles drive us batshit crazy, because we see them all the time, however, to fans of the lesser known people they are “amazing” and a great resource.
Thanks Sarah! Actually seeing a couple people defending roudnups lol, maybe their clients read my blog haha. There have been some useful ones no doubt, again Jon Copper created the freaking mold (in SEO at least).
Just hilarious man… I really wish you’d put out more posts like this! Look forward to the next one
Most SEOs do not have time to do real SEO as they are occupied by writing SEO blog posts. This website is one of the few exclusions.
P.S. Comment unsubscription links do not work, please remove my email, thanks.
Sorry about that, that plugin is kinda sketch.
There are two kinds of SEOs in the world…those who push SEO and other marketing bullshit as as a service and those that actually do marketinf for “real companies” The real problem with marketing as a practice is that we’ve all walked away from being Donald Draper and as a group, we all sound like snake oil salesmen.
I wake up everyday feeling slimmier and slimmier.
Hey Marston, thanks for the comment. I agree with you a bit but why be so pessimistic man? 99% of your competition is lazy as shit and produces predictable, cookie cutter crap. That should get you excited because it creates opportunity. You should wake up everyday feeling charged up that you’re going to kick the shit out of all these half assing douches with some high level chops.
This was just awesome to read. Sub… scribed. And that last one did in fact make my head explode.
Sorry about that, it’s pretty high level stuff.
and here I thought expert meant anyone who knows what doesnt work.,., OH WAIT
Yep – I agree. I got bored of reading these round-ups long ago.
Another thing that really grinds my gears is all of the content marketing and SEO blogs which only use case studies in the content marketing/SEO industry.
I understand it can be tricky to get client sign off or whatever, but damn. I don’t want to read an SEO case study about optimising an SEO blog. Gimme something real. Like how you helped little Timmy to sell his widgets online.
I hear you, I want stories about little Timmy selling his widgets online too.
I really enjoyed the post.
Last week sent you an email asking if you could answer a question for an SEO expert roundup. Maybe my email bothered you and also inspired you to write this great piece of blog post.
I have to confess that it will be my first and last roundup post since a lot of really influential people are telling me they prefer not to participate because they are afraid it might be a very low quality roundup post. I also got some great answers, though. But It looks like the known SEOs will stop answering positively to these roundups.
Keep up the good work, Jacob.
Cheers.
Francisco
Yes, irony! Nah it didn’t inspire it, more Rand and Bill’s Tweet. Dang I missed a roundup opportunity, son of a bitch!
Best of luck Francisco!
Great stuff, Jacob! I have to admit, I fell for such an invitation ONCE…. guy contacted me, asking if I’d be willing to respond to a question for a roundup post. He named 5 or 6 other folks whose opinions I respect, so I said sure.
When the post came out, it was nearly 50 “experts” (about 48 of whom I’d never heard of), offering some the most idiotic responses imaginable. Needless to say, I didn’t share the link anywhere… I can normally embarrass myself quite well, without help.
Never again!
Haha I heard that’s the latest thing now, “Rand Fishkin has already responded…blah blah.” Dang tricksters!
Hey mate!
Great and simple ’roundup’. Felt like new blood!
Just like what many had said, good job!
I’m a sucker for roundup posts, but haven’t been able to bring myself to read one in a while because of all the reasons mentioned. For me, it’s all about how relevant AND simultaneously unique the subject matter is. Like Jon’s “Creative” post, he 1) was able to get some stellar people that knew their shit to contribute, and 2) had a unique spin to a common discipline.
Good stuff Jacob.
Thank you for your wise counsel, they are the best.
Im gonna write a post on my blog about useless SEO content around the web and list this one as #1
I’ll be anxiously waiting that sweet link.
Cruel, but true. No one who is considering himself sane, will never share their stuff in public (duh). “SEO expert” roundups sucks in general, but links are links and somehow you have to get them.
Links are links, and yes they have done me right ;-)
This is awesome Jacob, thanks for sharing. I’ve been featured in a number of these “expert” roundups and I have literally NEVER read one of them.
Why?
Because they’re long as fucking shit. This blog post is exactly what web content should be – light a fire under people’s ass with a good argument, back it up with data and write it short and to the fucking point.
I don’t have the time to read half of my fucking emails let alone a 5,000 blog post full of quotes. Well said my friend.
I hear ya bro! Fyi your comment went to spam.
“Remember the decay and fall of guest blogging? Good times, until they weren’t good times and Matty boy put his team on the scene.”
If you are doing guest blogging for links and SEO, then you are doing them wrong. Guest blogging can help you get traffic and leads, SEO is a byproduct. The same with these roundups. It’s not about SEO or rankings, is about quality and conversions. My two cents anyways :)
Ha, well this was quite entertaining to read. Thanks for putting this together. Good laugh for the morning. Lol.
It isn’t just the SEO wannabes doing this, though that’s where the bulk of it is. This group that calls itself YEC does expert posts from “young entrepreneurs”, none of whom seem to be worth the space. The group is somehow tied to Citi, and they manage to get these things onto a lot of major sites like Inc, Forbes, and other familiar and trusted sites. Here’s one they did on increasing conversions on SEJ: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/12-tweaks-increase-customer-conversion-rates/123368/
Hi jacob, the
Another dude I’ve never heard of :
He is Kulwant Nagi of Bloggingcage. com from India . Hope you correct the source link, Thanks.
____
Don’t do any SEO if you want to survive for long term. :)
I am not saying to quit it completely but my point is; don’t try to over optimize your articles for SEO as Google knows what you are doing to get higher SERP
After reading this post I noticed one thing in common, you must do SEO but do it wisely. Never over do it and don’t use keywords in anchor text while building links.
i haven’t build links ever. I just write on low competition keywords and have never received any penalty from google. My traffic is going up day by day.
I think if you build links, some day you would be penalized by google therefore the best way is to focus on quality content and keyword research and links will flow naturally.
That’s really nice.
Quite a few (popular) names still missing.
Well let’s hear em!
I would like to say
While doing SEO for any website if any Webmaster somehow got back links by using Anchor Text there felling like, Army man received AK-47 in a WAR.
Ok lol
I also thinking about same thing from last 3 months. yeah u r right most of them not revealing about their strategies only they are all saying the old stuff. but they are not get their position so easily they done their hard work and don’t judge them based on it. how do u feel if someone copies your answer papere and gets more than u. teachers also don’t tell the questions appear in exam u have to prepare for that and don’t expect someone comes from sky and tells everything they gain. they only shows path not hold ur hand and make u running. sorry for my bad English
Yup obviously I’m a dirtbag bottom line.
Hi Jacob,
I came here looking for expert advice and left disappointed.
Wink wink ;)
Thanks for the funny share.
Ryan
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for dropping in Ryan!
Thanks Jacob, very amusing :-)
The good news however is that with all of this contradictory advice there is still a need for you and me in this business!
Jonathan
Great post dude. I’m just waiting for the day we see someone publish “50 Expert Roundup Experts Share Their Expert Tips for Conducting Expert Roundups!”
Boom: http://www.elite-strategies.com/interviewing-seo-experts-group-roundup-posts/
Seo just ate itself
Not just the content, you are the king of comments as well. Laughed way too hard at David’s comment “Seo just ate itself”. Certainly one of the most entertaining and hilarious “SEO” posts.
I go 10x with my comments after reading some advice from a roundup with Rand Fishkin.
Agree with your post completely Jacob and also kudos for one of my favourite SEO/Internet Marketing titles for a long time. It was so good in fact (the title), that I couldn’t help but reference it in my latest post for Ahrefs https://blog.ahrefs.com/anchor-text-analysis/
Ey thanks for the link dudeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
“Experts” indeed. I actually pity people that read this round ups and take them serious.
Sorry man, i only skimmed through, too busy doing blackhat here. That SEO that just doesn’t work. I swear it doesn’t! For real. Like no results at all, I only do it because I am masochistic and love to see being penalized over and over and making no money. So, just don’t touch blackhat, actually stay away from SEO altogheter – is the safest route and you know money doesn’t bring happiness, yada yada…
Thanks for the post though, the quotes put tears in my eyes and gave me belly cramps.
Cheers!
Guys, I’m not using offsite SEO like the Girl said – how long is it supposed to take???
But in all serious, If these “experts” didn’t come up with miracle unicorn fantasy land strategies every week they’d have nothing to write about. I see this as a good thing – let them confuse themselves.
BTW, reading Kevin Bland’s comments killed me. “Tier 6 SEOs” LMAO
I find it amusing that so many people that work in the same niche/industry can have so many different perspectives as to what and how the big G is thinking these days. I guess that is what makes SEO a constantly unfolding landscape.
No they are just full of shit