There 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.
