SEO Tinder: PBNs, Blogging, Python and E-A-T

Welcome to the first edition of SEO Tinder!

I’ve crowd sourced topics from our Slack Channel and Facebook Group to field your burning questions on SEO related tactics.

Today, we’ll be covering:

• PBNs and Web 2.0s
• Blogging
• Link building
• E-A-T and YMYL
• Python

If I like the tactic, I’ll ‘swipe right‘, if I don’t, I will ‘swipe left‘ and break down why.

Let’s get into it!

1. PBNs and Web 2.0s

When I first got into SEO about 10 years ago, PBNs were my main source of links.

Things have changed since then, significantly.

The amount of effort it takes to find, setup and manage private blog networks / web 2.0s is NOT WORTH IT. Not only are PBNs bad links, but Google is likely ignoring them as well.

Instead of wasting time on PBNs, you could setup some simple outreach campaigns that are less effort and return better quality links.

Verdict: Swipe left 👈

2. Blogging

I’m a huge fan of creating content (clearly).

Our blogs have consistently generated high quality traffic and leads for our business and provide a linkable asset to other publishers to generate high quality inbound links.

Specifically, blog content allows us to tackle “top of funnel” keywords that satisfy a different type of search intent.

Verdict: Swipe right 👉

3. E-A-T and YMYL

While I believe the E-A-T guidelines provide value and cover important topics, I don’t think it’s worthwhile for SEOs to focus a ton of attention on them.

The reason is simple – I believe in doing less work, while getting more output.

If you’re simply doing SEO the right way (not cutting corners or using “hacks”) then these guidelines and concepts aren’t worth your time to read.

Don’t over complicate SEO – focus on the core elements that rank websites. Do things right the first time and you don’t have to sweat these things.

Verdict: Swipe left 👈

4. Link building

Pretty much every reputable SEO source on the web agrees that links are [still] the most important ranking factor.

Now, I know I just dumped all over PBNs

Verdict: Swipe right 👉

5. Python for SEO automation

Python has been a trending topic in the SEO community over the last year. Some SEOs are using the scripting language to automate a number of SEO tasks like keyword intent tagging.

My business partner David Krevitt (arguably the industry’s leading expert in automation) has tested out a number of these scripts.

His conclusion?

They’re good for headlines and clickbait, but not for everyday use.

That’s not a teardown of the AWESOME work done by these SEOs, it’s more of a warning to not waste a ton of your time learning Python solely for that reason.

So I need to make sure I’m fully clear here – we love Python and use it everyday.

However, we don’t think it’s a good use of every SEO’s time to learn it.

Verdict: Swipe left 👈

Links from video

• WEBRIS link building guide
• Is Python necessary for SEO automation?

Wanna see if we match?

We’re looking for submissions for our next version of Marketing Tinder! Simply join our Slack Group and drop me a DM once you’re up there with the topic you want advice on.