5 untapped SEO resources you need to know about

It's no secret that the SEO industry is chock full of blogs and resources -- all ranging from horribly misinformed to incredibly prolific -- but there are a handful of true gems that I'd like to share with you today. I have way too many favorites to call these 5 my absolute favorites of all time, but I find myself frequenting them the most these days and I've a feeling most of you have never heard of them. Even if you're a seasoned SEO pro who would rather have your butt kicked than to add yet another SEO blog/resource to your list, I urge you to check out any of these you've not heard of. And now, in no particular order of importance:

1 - Advanced Google Querying: For those of you who keep up with my "Search Ninja" series (see: part 1 and part 2), you know how much I love to use advanced Google querying to unearth great content. Well, true to form, the query that I link to below was birthed out of my desire to find SEO-related documents residing on .gov Web sites. It's not as refined as I would typically make a query before presenting it to you fine readers out there, but it definitely gets the job done. Either way, the moral of the story here is that Google is an incredible resource that remains largely untapped by most people, even to this day. I don't know about you, but scoping out SEO-related documentation on .gov Web sites sounds like an interesting venture to me! And just to give you something else to check out after this query, I wonder what you might find if you use site:google.com instead of site:gov in the query below... ;) Link: "Search Engine Optimization" site:gov filetype:pptx | filetype:ppt | filetype:pdf | filetype:doc | filetype:docx

2 - Esrun's Blackhat SEO Blog: I know black hat SEO methods are frowned upon within the industry, but I'm always incredibly intrigued by them. No, it's not the same old boring spammy tactics that intrigue me, but rather, guys like this Esrun individual who take things to the next level and actually create their own tactics. Even if you don't like them or agree with them, you owe it to yourself to read first-hand from someone who is willing to show you just how easy it is to game search engines and Web sites. My only complaint is that I wish he would post more! Highly recommended reading. Link: Esrun's Blackhat SEO blog

3 - SEOrisk: SEOrisk is a new endeavor that seeks to strip the black/grey/white hat labels from the SEO industry and simply assess SEO methods individually by their level of risk. What a simple but marvelous concept! Now, although I, personally, don't mind the various hat labels, I think this type of approach to SEO methods is sorely needed. As noted, it's a new venture, so the site is very much a work in progress. Your participation and support will help it flourish, so if you like the idea, go check it out! Link: SEOrisk

4 - Reddit's SEO Community: Hands down, this is one of my all-time favorite SEO communities. The individuals who contribute their advice and opinions are well-informed and plenty of fruitful discussion takes place as people post, either seeking answers to their SEO questions or looking to share some bit of news or advice they found/have to offer. It's a small community, despite Reddit being as popular as it is, but it's perhaps the only SEO community I actively take part in these days. Link: Reddit's SEO subreddit

5 - SEO Meetup Groups: One more for the "resources" side of things, meetup.com has a section of the site solely dedicated to locating SEO/Internet marketing groups around the world. These meetups are great for hearing from local people who are actually down in the trenches, getting their hands dirty with real SEO work. This helps to ground and counterbalance the things you read from the talking heads of the SEO community. Additionally, as I noted in a previous post, going to local SEO meetups is a great way to find someone local to do SEO work for you. So go check out the official SEO meetup.com page and see what all it has to offer you. Link: Meetup's SEO section

6 (Bonus) - SlideShare: Touching back on a facet of the first point I covered, there's a lot of great SEO-related information residing inside of documents and presentations on the Web. While Google is one way to find them, so is SlideShare. It's arguably the most popular presentation-sharing Web site out there and it's the preferred site of some of the industry's finest to store their presentations, such as Wil Reynolds from SEER Interactive, Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz, and more. But aside from those, there are some real gems posted there from individuals who give SEO presentations at corporate events, conferences, and other events completely unrelated to popular industry events. It's the juicy presentations with secretive tactics that are given to private parties that I love finding the most. Starting this journey is as simple as visiting the site and searching for "SEO," as I've provided in a link below. Play with the search terms and don't forget about advanced functionality, such as sorting results by latest, etc. Link: SlideShare SEO search

And with that, I'll go ahead and wrap up this post. I really hope you find some combination of the resources above a valuable addition to your SEO repertoire. Likewise, I encourage you to share any similarly unorthodox resources, methods, or blogs in the comments below! Thanks for reading.

-Stephen Chapman

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