SEO is the abbreviation for search engine optimization or search engine optimizer, the person whose job it is to optimize one or more websites for the purposes of improving search engine ranking. This can include making adjustments in the page layout, the site map, the content, the keywords, and the tags, as well as working with Google® AdSense®, links, Facebook®, Twitter® and other means of popularizing a website. Blog is short for weblog, an online log of activities that may be the equivalent of a journal, or a collection of articles, observations, recipes, or other thematic or sequential material with some common point. SEO blogs are generally blogs by and for SEO practitioners who share hints, tips and work-related news, and/or sell SEO-related products and services. There are many different SEO blogs.
Since the ins and outs of the Google® search engine are so important in search engine optimization, Google®-related SEO blogs can be considered a subcategory of SEO blogs in general. “Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO” is in many people’s top SEO blogs list, partly because he is the head of Google’s Webspam team and therefore provides the Google® search engine perspective that people practicing SEO are looking for, and partly because he simply gives good advice. “Google® Webmaster Central Blog” is a blog for webmasters that gives behind-the-scenes looks at the why’s and wherefore’s of how Google® operates that they choose to share. Vanessa Fox, formerly of Google® and builder of “Webmaster Central” has a blog “Nine By Blue” on which she provides insights into Google® and commentary on the websites she has visited, but note that it is very intermittent. “Google Blogoscoped” is an outsider’s unofficial coverage of Google®.
Not all SEO blogs are totally Google®-dominated. “SEOmoz” has a weekday blog with articles aimed at beginners as well as experienced SEO practitioners, a Firefox® toolbar, and “The Top 500” from the Linkscape index of most linked-to pages. “Search Engine Roundtable” has blog posts and forums to discuss news and other developments and incidents of interest to SEO practitioners. There are multiple blog posts per day on weekdays. “Search Engine Journal” (SEJ) takes a broader view of the SEO world and gives readers tips about web browsers, blogware, social media, and new search engines like Nachofoto™, which is a real-time image search engine with a trending topics function.
