Critical Thinking

Learn How to Fish

When asked what the single most important thing for any SEO to learn is, my immediate response is: Learn what to believe, and what to label “Bullshit!”

And that lesson may be both the most difficult and the most inherently dangerous.

When I set out to learn SEO, I immediately built a list of blogs authored by well-known SEOs, and visited them regularly. Names like Cutts, Sullivan, Slawski, Fishkin, Wall… and a dozen or so more, were regular reading for me. I also signed up at a handful of internet and webmaster forums and spent a lot of time reading, asking questions and laying the foundation of my burgeoning SEO knowledge.

Only thing is, that foundation was laid in a bed of quicksand. I learned a lot of things that were flat-out wrong!

Some of the folks I followed knew what they were talking about. Others knew some things, but talked like they knew it all. And an alarmingly large percentage was pumping pure garbage.

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I’ll be publishing Critical Thinking for the Discerning SEO here, chapter by chapter, a couple of chapters per week. When it’s all done, a complete download will also be available. I hope you get as much benefit from reading it as I did in putting it together.

Dedication

Many of us have watched friends or loved ones slowly fade from some obscure illness, or suffer some loss that may have destroyed their life or piece of it. Whether stricken by cancer, a home burned to the ground, or a crushing financial loss, there is one thing that often can make the difference between a sense of defeat and renewed hope.

When friends and family appear at your side, offering whatever help they can, it means a lot. Some of you may have experienced this, many of you have probably offered that support to others. In either case, you already know how much it can mean to someone that’s experiencing total hopelessness.

But for someone in such a state to realize that there are many people out there that care enough to offer their support, even though they’ve never met you and probably never will… the impact is even greater.

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