This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
Bill Slawski lives in Carlsbad, California, which is in San Diego County. Bill is known for sharing so much knowledge for well over a decade, heck, before I even started. He is known for so much but probably stands out most for being one of the first to really do deep dives on patents and patent applications published by Google and other search engines to fully and deeply understand the workings of the algorithms. He would then go ahead and explain in plain english what these technical patents are saying and then later, when an algorithm shift would roll out, he would be able to sometimes point to the patent he explained before and say - well, this might be related.
He would never give a short answer on an SEO related question. He spends the time to give a full and detailed explanation to your questions. Heck, he does this for free day in and day out in the SEO community. Both at his long time forums, such as Cre8asite Forums as well as on social media and video hangouts.
I have deep respect for Bill and like I said about a few others thus far, he is one of the reasons I started this site. To share his nuggets of knowledge to a wider audience because you should never miss out on advice from Bill.
Bill had two nominations, one was this anonymous one:
I’ve never met Bill Slawski, but if I do one day I’d like to give him a hug. Through his blog I’ve learned SEO, through his Twitter I’ve gained inspiration to carry on my craft, and through his Instagram and Facebook I’ve come to know a humble and caring man, who wears his heart on his sleeve, loves nature and sharing life’s small joys. Bill Slawski is a legend; I’m grateful for all he does for this industry and for his human-ness.
And Gary Steel said this:
Like most of the SEO's that I try to emulate on my Rock Star List, Bill Slawski does not know me and I have never met him. But one thing for sure, if you want to know anything about Google Patents and the real nuts and bolts of search read SEO By The Sea. It's on my daily home screen along with Search Engine Roundtable, The SEM Post, The Moz Blog, Search Engine Land, Google Adwords Blog, and Google Analytics Blog. Thanks so much Bill Slawski for your contribution to our industry.
Bill Slawski Bio: I started promoting websites when I was working at the highest level civil and criminal trial court in the State of Delaware, and a friend who had taught me how to build a PC needed someone to build a website for him. I picked up a book on learning HTML in 2 weeks, and put together a website. I started promoting it after building it. His sister worked for Digital Equipment Corp selling computers, and she sent us an email telling us that her company had just launched a new Website, Altavista.digital.com, and we might like it. We visited, and realized it would be a good idea to be included, and learned how to submit the site to the new search engine. As newer ones, such as Google showed up, I started learning about those as well. I joined Kim Krause Berg as a moderator of a Yahoo small business & Website promotion club. Within a couple of years, we started up Cre8asiteforums along with Ammon Johns, Jill Whalen, Phil Craven, Ruud Hein, Barry Welford, Dave Childs. It was a great atmosphere to learn about SEO. I joined an SEO agency in 2005, and left the Court I had been working at. I joined Go Fish Digital 4 years ago, and moved to Carlsbad, California in 2014.
Favorite thing about the SEO community? I love that people working in the SEO industry take time to learn about each other, and help each other learn more about SEO and how to help customers. One of my favorite sections of Cre8asiteforums was a section called “The Website Hospital” where people could provide feedback to each other about the websites they were working upon, from SEO to Design to usability and more. It was a place were we could share ideas with each other on how to do SEO effectively and how to work with customers. The SEO industry is filled with people ready and willing to reach a hand out, and to help people grow and learn.
One piece of advice to the SEOs out there? Being a life-long-learner is a really helpful attribute for someone interested in SEO. A willingness to learn HTML and CSS and Javascript is a good start. Knowing something about conversions and analytics and user experience and creating calls to action can help you understand how a business might succeed online. Learning about information retrieval and the growing history of SEO are smart steps in getting better at SEO. Get familiar with the Google Guidelines and Blogs, and Developer’s pages. There are sources of information such as social networks and blogs to learn from, so take advantage of those.
Favorite things in general? My favorite color is Navy Blue. My favorite foods are fresh fruits and vegetable and tacos and guacamole. I love exploring new places, and taking photos, and learning history (when I moved to California, I visited the Mission San Luis Rey in Oceanside, and a few of the local old Spanish Ranchos, and a gold mine in the Hills of Julian, California.)
What you want to be known for in the SEO space? I’m trying to learn (from patents and papers and others) and share things that I have learned. To help business owners and other SEOs.
To learn more about Bill and the patents he covers, check out his SEO By The Sea blog and he also blogs on his company blog. I also recommend that you follow him on Twitter.
Bill - you have helped countless people for over 15 years - and you have not stopped. Huge respect!
This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
