Best SEO Blog of 2005 : Best Search Blogs Awards
What perhaps may be the most expanding niche of search engine related blogs in 2005, SEO blogs have followed the transformation of the Search Engine Optimization industry in 2005 into a legitimate marketing vehicle for both innovative & traditional businesses. Following the path of SEO out of the link trading and keyword stuffing of yesteryear, SEO blogs have risen to discuss such strategies as link baiting and natural link building, exposing spammers, and picking apart search engine technology patents.
The inaugural 2005 Search Blogs Awards nominations included a handful of SEO blogs from different schools of thought within the SEO community, ranging from SEO Black Hat to Greg Boser’s WebGuerrilla, and from Aaron’s SEO Book to Matt Cutts of Google’s Matt Cutts Blog. Over the reader voting period I did receive some complaints over the grouping of so-called “Black Hat” blogs with a blog from a Google Engineer, but I strongly feel that such grouping is a reflection of the ongoing morphing of our SEO world, and that letting the readers decide on the most valuable blogs will ultimately expose SEO preferences.
This being said, here are the nominees for the 2005 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Blog: SEO Book, Link Building Blog, Matt Cutts Blog, TextLinkBlog, SEOMoz, FishSEO, SEO Black Hat, StuntDubl, Jim Boykin’s Blog, Greg Boser’s WebGuerrilla, Stepforth SEO Blog, SEO by the SEA, and SEO Speed Wagon.
And the winner of the Best SEO Blog of 2005 Award is :
Matt Cutts Blog.
Here is a bit I wrote up about Matt last week for something else I was working on which still reflects my thoughts on the man and his mission : Since Matt started blogging and making himself more accessible online and at conferences, he has been handed the task of holy search messenger by Google to help bring some sanity to the SEO world.
And SEO has changed over the past year. No longer is the industry loosely associated with such short term results targeted & senseless practices such as keyword stuffing, link mining, and article & content reprinting. Instead, Matt has helped tremendously to add legitimacy & professionalism to SEO by persuading practitioners to focus value on original content, valued earned links, and natural language text.
Additionally, Matt’s diplomacy has assisted in shining the spotlight a bit brighter on usability, bringing long time forums such as Cre8asite and its moderators into the ‘SEO’ tutorial & expert mix.
Enough placing Matt on a pedestal, here’s a rundown of the SEJ Blog Awards reader voting :
Matt Cutts Blog : 3.53
SEO Book : 3.14
SEOMoz : 2.98
StuntDubl : 2.89
Greg Boser’s Web Guerrilla : 2.8
Jim Boykin’s Blog : 2.77
SEO Black Hat : 2.72
SEO Speed Wagon : 2.68
Stepforth SEO Blog : 2.64
Link Building Blog : 2.6
Text Link Blog : 2.54
SEO by the SEA : 2.51
FishSEO : 2.49
Although Matt blew away the competition, it should also be noted that Aaron’s SEO Book was a strong runner up, as he and Matt were the only two blogs to be rated above a 3.
Winners of the Search Engine News Blog, SE Community Blog, and the Zawodny-Cutts voting will be released on Tuesday December 27th. I’ll also have an awards wrap-up.
