The Most Successful SEO Bashings in Web History
One of the best performing linkbait ideas on the Web today is SEO bashing. It’s an ugly but very successful way of gaining links at the expense of others.
It seems the less substance an anti-SEO claim has the more links you’ll gain.
A prerequisite of this link baiting technique is considerable authority though. So if you write in your unknown blog that SEO sucks nobody will link to you.
In fact I used the SEO bashing technique myself when I started this blog.
I added real value to the post though so that it went viral due to the advice it offered. Here is the list of the the most successful SEO bashings in recent web history.
I will link only those that aren’t just linkbait but make some sense at least, the others can be easily found on Google due to the excellent SEO of their authors.
- SEO is Dead by the infamous SEO 2.0 has been translated in more than a 12 languages
- SEO is Bullshit by Jason Calacanis the perhaps most renowned Internet prankster was huge
- SEO is Bullshit by
contrast.ie succeeded twice in a row with no substance whatsoever! - Why Diggers hate SEO by Muhammad Saleem had of course major success on Digg
- SEO has no Future by Shoemoney got some considerable attention with plenty of links from the SEO industry
- SEO Sucks by Shoemoney was a publicity stunt on a search conference that made everybody publish the image
Steve Rubel attempted a SEO bashing linkbait but failed due to not being outspoken enough so he just got a few links, still he went popular here and there.
Most people are not interested in the future of SEO or its status but you’ll find lots of Internet users who are fed up with it or who want their prejudice reinforced.
Those who consider SEO spam are not to be convinced and most people on the web only notice SEO of the worst kind, the indeed spammy one.
It’s no use to tell people who hate SEO that all the major newspapers invest heavily in SEO etc.
In case you want to capitalize on the ignorance of web users make them happy by SEO bashing! They will give you plenty of links. Find more SEO is dead attempts here.
What an utter load of drivel. Not everyone writes ‘SEO Bashing’ posts AS linkbait, some people ACTUALLY write what they mean rather than churning out post after post of meaningless content as you so openly admit to doing!
Look at your homepage!
7 Reasons
10 Organizations
7 Lessons
Top 10 Extensions
How To
7 Ways
Top 10
How To
Top 7
7 Reasons
12 Reasons
10 Facts
7 Reasons
You’re the biggest link-bait whore of them all!
Hey John, what’s your problem? That your post did not perform on Sphinn? Don’t blame me for your failure!
My blog posts are often structured as list for the apparent reason of usability, readability and social media compatibility.
Now that your linkbait did not work you try it with flaming?
Don’t flame me pal cause I was flaming 10 years ago already and you’ll lose this battle.
Also I might as well delete the link to your blog if you don’t like SEO 2.0!
Instead of whining try to check out the other links and to find out why they performed and yours didn’t.
BTW: Show me one post on this list that is NOT linkbait.
;I didn’t submit it to sphinn so why would I care if it performed there? I didn’t actually submit it anywhere at all other than the business section of designfloat where I post regularly. Doesn’t really sound like I was linkbaiting then does it.
“Usability, Readability, and Social Media Compatibility” – Traslation: “I’m a link whore who right content for the sake of it”
As for my ‘linkbait not working’, once you’ve gotten over the fact that it wasn’t linkbait and (omg) you were wrong! You’ll be pleased to know that it received 4,000 visits and 12,000 pageviews in 48 hours, and doubled my subscribers. While that may not be successful by your standards (your content is clearly far better) I absolutely consider it to be a successful post.
SEO2.0 ? Are you kidding me? Put your catchphrases away and try learning something rather than making out that your already know everything there is to know.
As for the link, I really couldn’t care less, I’ve got the same page rank as you so you really aren’t helping me in any way.
Show you one post on the above list that isn’t linkbait? I can’t. Your entire homepage consists of mindless linkbait.
This list is major waste of bandwidth, something that could be best served discussing repotting a dried out hibiscus plant. Perhaps even more interesting at that too.
;-)
John: You have no clue whatsoever what SEO is and you try to gain attention by badmouthing a whole industry you, again, have not even a clue about.
You are not even able to comment in a civilized manner. You are an attention whore.
I would never write a post like “Why you don’t need a web designer” but in fact after reading your crap I probably should. I repeat:
You are the attention whore. You shout so loud you want to heard for your trashtalk. Thus I won’t give you any more attention, so stop abusing the comment function here. Your attacks will be deleted. I’ll remove/unfollow your links too.
Btw. You just proved my point: Senseless SEO bashing attention whoring scores on the Web with the noobs and the ignorant. I can’t imagine anybody serious in the Web industry to be so ignorant of search engines.
Matt: Is that irony or do you want me to punish me for the Obama vs McCain post below? ;-)
This list isn’t anything new, but what is nowadays? The interesting reading on this page is the comments. Riveting! And I’m stumbling this page for the comments, not so much the content.
I had to leave a comment because the comment replies are more entertaining then the post itself. Not saying the post was crap, but I got more from the comments and am laughing. I to will be stumbling this just for the comments alone.
Well it pays to go against the system and have your say. Its a thought for any strategy, not only SEO.
Although he lost his e-temper, I do sympathize with John’s frustration. SEO writing is a hotly contested niche with mostly cookie-cutter and cloned content.
Of course, I’m something of a hippie, right? The promise of Sematic Web, for me, is more oriented towards Wikipedia and useful content, instead of Making Money Online. I think there’s unobtrusive, value-adding ways to make money.
I do think that John is misdirecting his rage, though. There’s a lot of “top whatever” lists on here, but I’ve also found a lot of useful and honest content on this blog.
This post was pretty shallow, though — I would have been interested in something with more meat. Surely you can understand why people are proclaiming the “Death” of SEO, and it’s not just for mere linkbait. Critics do contribute useful feedback, and it would have been more interesting to read your responses to that.
Justin: I appreciate your well expressed and balanced feedback. On the other hand replying to all the libelous SEO defamation does not make sense for two reasons.
Many people have (me too) and it does not work for the smear campaign fans. They seek a scape goat not a discussion.
It’s like explaining that “niggers are not subhuman” (sorry to my African and African American readers, I had to use graphic language here to prove my point). It does not make sense to deal with such an “opinion” in the first place.
Ah the joy of the internet, where people can be as abusive as they want because they know the other person will not find them in RL :P
Well, no matter the reasons for someone writing something, as long as i can get at least 1 thing out of it, its all fine with me.