About SEO Forums

How should you choose an SEO Forum?

No SEO forum is perfect. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Some forums are more active than others. Some forums are more chatty than others. Some forums panic at the first sign of change. Some forums barely notice an update. When you choose an SEO forum, you should do so on the basis of the professionalism and resourcefulness of the forum community members and leaders.

Professionalism is important. Some people behave very badly and rudely in online forums. They insult other forum members, they ridicule people, they badger and harrass people they disagree with, they use pejorative nicknames for people they don't like, and they generally display a lack of concern or consideration for the feelings of others. Now, some people don't mean to be rude. Especially in a technical community, where analytical thinking is encouraged or at least tolerated, there may be individuals who say things that they don't intend to be harmful or rude. You have to learn to distinguish between unintentional rudeness and intentional rudeness.

When evaluating the expertise of a forum community, there is not much that you can do if you are not yourself very expert in the technical issues the community discusses. You will also find that many topics arise over and over, and that regular community members become so jaded in addressing those issues they will often neglect to explain their positions. A good forum usually provides useful information in the way of citations from verifiable sources.

For example, in the search engine optimization industry, there are many tecnical documents and publications that are freely available on the Web. Each of the major search engines (Ask, Google, MSN, and Yahoo!) publish some guidelines for Webmasters, explaining what types of content the search engines will penalize. If a forum community never links to these documents, the views they present on other issues may not be supported by citations, either. If you cannot verify what people say for yourself, why should you trust what they say?

There are many myths and rumors circulating the search engine optimization industry. If forum members consistently repeat vague information in an authoritative way without providing a source for that information, the odds that the information is wrong are usually better than that it is right. People will believe anything if it is repeated often enough. Be careful not to be swayed by endless repetition of logical-sounding nonsense.

What type of help should you seek in an SEO Forum?

SEO forums are not very good places to learn about search engine optimization. You have no way of knowing who is really an expert and who is just trying to attract new customers. Many SEOs participate in forums almost solely in the hope of attracting clients who seek out those forums for help. SEO forums can therefore be good places to find SEOs who want to take on new clients. But you must be careful whom you contract with.

There are so many questions asked in SEO forums every day that some forums offer "sticky" threads. These threads are permanently located at the tops of the forums for anyone to read. They usually contain the answers to many frequently asked questions. You should browse the sticky threads before asking for help with a specific issue.

If you are unfamiliar with technical information, you may see the answer you need and not recognize it for what it is. It is usually acceptable to ask for help about a specific topic without knowing that the answer has been shared. Often enough, a regular forum member will provide you with a link to the previous discussion. Do not take offense at such responses. Instead, read the previous discussion to see if the answer you need is already there.

Some people turn to SEO forums for tips and techniques. Sharing knowledge and experience is a natural part of the forum community spirit. But when you ask for tips and techniques, you may either receive conflicting replies or vague information. There comes a point where you have to experiment and see what works for you. But if it's unclear to you whether suggestions will help, check Webmaster guidelines at the search engines and ask people how those suggestons work for them. Some people will share search results and some people will not.

Search Engine Optimization Forums

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of SEO forums on the World Wide Web. We cannot possibly review them all. The following forums are suggested because of their generally informative and usually professional behaviors. Many forum community members participate in multiple forums. They may speak highly of forums which may not be listed here. You should approach other forums with care. Individual experience and perspective vary. You have to judge for yourself where you think you will benefit the most. These forums are selected because they generally have more useful information than useless nonsense.

• Google's Webmaster Central Forums
• Highrankings Forums
• Small Business Computing SEO forum
• The Webmaster Forums

The material included on this page is Copyright © SEO-Consulting.50Megs.Com. All Rights Reserved. Except where noted, or where obvious trademarks and/or copyrighted materials have been adapted under "fair use" doctrine from other sources. All such intellectual properties remain the properties of their respective owners. The links on this Website are not endorsements and should not be treated as such.