Top 10 Search Engine Experts

For some reason I Googled “search engine expert”

I had thought that it looked impressive to be on the top of search for the phrase “search engine expert.” But when I Googled the phrase, I was somewhat surprised. I found my business on page one of the results at #7.

At number 1 is Scott Hendison in Oregon. I know Scott from workshops back in 2003. I think to my self… That is great! he has cleaned up his past darker-hatted ways and now he’s at the top for a good phrase. Congrats on Numero Uno Scott!

SEOlogic has #2 and thier SEO quiz is #3, Kule!

Then I find #4, Brad Fallon, listed, which brings up some emotion in me, maybe fear, as I held #1 for the phrase “SEO Expert” unchallenged for just over three years, and yes, kudos to Brad, he was one who stepped up, with his Blog of all things, to dethrone me. And he has kept it from me for two years also, so I gotta tip my hat to Brad. BTW, Brad has a couple of my old buddies held hostage over in his stomper camp.

At #5 Webreference has an interview with Danny Sullivan and at #6 is Search Engine Watch, which I think is latently semantically related to Danny, so I give the #5 & #6 spots to Danny Sullivan who is now with Third Door Media Sphinning out SMX events. Now If I were Google, and granted I am not, lol, but if I were, I would just whitelist Danny in as #1 for “Search Engine Expert” and leave it be.

Then there is my little listing there at #7 (I have never specifically targeted that phrase either as it was not part of my findings).

At #8 is Jill Whalen from High Rankings. Jill is going tit for tat with me on a couple of top positions for some of my personal favorite phrases, but I think I am winning where concerned, and I agree that Jill should be on this list. YOU GO GIRL!

And at #9 is Aaron Wall from SEOBook.com Dude, when I saw that domain launch, I knew a storm was coming! Of what I know about Aaron which isn’t a lot, he seems very sensible and very logical, two qualities that can get you to this page. I should read your blog more, I know.

And #10 would have got an honorable mention except their link server 404’d and left me hangin’ with the backie.

So, this may have even been important. So, being me, I whip out the lappie and I pulled up the Keyword Discovery, to see if I can’t do a little discovery. And what I found was that out of 60 Bugillion+ queries last year, only 1 search was for the phrase “search engine expert”. And, well, hmmm…

This is a great ego result, meaning that it feels good to ones ego to find themselves listed as a top 10 search engine expert. Hey, I even built a searchie but she broke from malnutrition, or maybe it was manipulation. Anyways, “ego” results don’t bring home the bacon.

I did find it interesting though, that KD says there are three decent phrases stemming from the phrase “search engine expert” and I went and looked and I am #1 for all three of those phrases, and these phrases bring me business and they all three have a higher count than does “SEO Expert”.

So I guess the reason I thought this might make a good blog post is because the target phrase only had a count of 1. Maybe I was wrong and that is completely uninteresting.

Ok, so that bozo at #10 who didn’t get mentioned today, well he kinda needs a replacement, so I am just gonna through in a wild card. If I were Google, I’d put John Alexander from Search Engine Workshops on page one, because for starters, as I am tiring from typing this long-assed post, I reflect on his wisdom, when he warned us three years ago about the eventual commodification of SEO as a service.

I’m dun!