Jill Whalen Says The SEO Industry No Longer Needs Her

Oct 31, 2013 - 8:34 am 18 by
Filed Under Search News

Jill WhalenThere are few people in the SEO industry who have been as consistent and giving as much and for as long as Jill Whalen.

To many, Jill is the Queen of SEO. She has been working in SEO for almost 20 years, even before the term SEO was around. She has been speaking, writing, education and servicing in the industry for longer than most. Heck, I've been writing about search for 10 years, she has been doing it for almost twice as long. And I am considered a SEO geezer by most my readers.

Well, Jill announced in her last high ranking newsletter she is hanging up the towel after two decades and moving on to new things.

Why now? She said thanks to Google's Penguin and Panda algorithm - SEOs no longer need her preaching about great web sites and great content. Now, SEOs are preaching it because the alternatives are incredibly hard or impossible.

Here is how Jill put it:

Finally, however, Google put their money where their mouth was with their Panda and Penguin updates. At last the only real way to do SEO was what I had been espousing all along. And it’s a beautiful thing! Today’s SEO blogs and conferences are bursting with SEO consultants talking about how, when you create amazing websites and content for your users, the search engines will follow.

Imagine that!

Which means, my friends, that my work here is done.

We cited Jill on this site hundreds of times. Heck, she is one of the incredibly few SEOs to have a Wikipedia page. She is and will forever be an icon in our industry.

For some reason, her saying goodbye to the SEO industry doesn't feel like a real goodbye. For some reason, I still expect to see her at future events. I know, probably not - but hey, the best in all industries do make guest appearances.

Jill, thanks for everything and wishing you the best going forward.

Forum discussion at Facebook.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Follow

Search Video Recaps

 
Google Core Update Rumbling, Manual Actions FAQs, Core Web Vitals Updates, AI, Bing, Ads & More - YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Publishing Content In Bulk Is Not Spam

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:41 am
Bing Ads

Now Important Google Ads PMax To Microsoft Advertising PMax - Fully

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:31 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Canonicalizing From WWW to Non-WWW Won't Impact Your Search Rankings

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:21 am
Google News

Google Changes: Liz Reid New Head Of Search, Pandu Nayak Steps Down As Search Quality & Rankings Lead

Mar 19, 2024 - 7:11 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 18, 2024

Mar 18, 2024 - 4:00 pm
Google Updates

Google Urges Patience As The March 2024 Core Update Continues To Rollout

Mar 18, 2024 - 7:51 am
Previous Story: Search Extensions Being Tested By Google AdWords