This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
Duane Forrester has been in the SEO/SEM industry for a couple decades now, he currently lives in Los Angeles but he is from the more northern regions. I've known Duane from his early days in the industry, working as an SEO, working as a search rep, working again as an SEO and now again working at a search related company. Duane has been around the block, to say the least, and you can probably say he has been around the block a few times.
He has experience working as an SEO in an enterprise, experience as an SEO at an agency, experience as a search representative at Bing and much more. You'll read all of that from his bio.
Duane has always had sharing and giving in his blood, right from the first time I met him. He is always super friendly, very approachable and very caring. He is also known to be a rockstar within the industry, giving some really entertaining presentations on stage, being extremely animated on social about cryptocurrencies or his guitar adventures or about friends and colleagues in the space. He is the type of person that anyone can go to for advice and he would and will give you his full attention and try to do anything to help you succeed.
If the SEO space had a hall of fame, Duane would 100% have seat available for him there. He is a figure for the space and is a noteworthy and fundamental personality in our industry.
Gary Steel nominated Duane and wrote:
Duane is a rock star among the rock stars. Thanks to Duane, we have a clear-eyed view on 'The Other Search Engines'. I really appreciate the way he speaks, rights and reports.
Duane Forrester Bio: Prior to becoming the VP of Industry Insights for Yext, Duane Forrester accumulated over 20 years’ experience in the search and social fields. He is the author of How To Make Money With Your Blog and Turn Clicks Into Customers, through McGraw-Hill. Along the way, Duane has worked in marketing & PR with Caesar’s Palace, run his own websites, communities and consultancy, worked for small and enterprise publishers online.
Past work included almost 9 years with Microsoft and Bing where he helped run their Webmaster Tools program, as well as the SEO program at MSN. In between the bookends of Yext and Bing, Duane ran operation for Bruce Clay, Inc., one of the oldest names in digital marketing.
For several years, Duane's focus included writing for SearchEngineLand.com, moderating in the original SearchEngineForums.com and being a Board member with SEMPO, where he founded the InHouse Committee and SEMPO’s annual Industry Salary Survey.
Favorite thing about the SEO community? The huge amount of support we provide for each other. Whether you're established or new, you'll generally find people willing to answer questions, help with a problem or work with you to crack a tough nut. It's been that was for most of the industry's history and I hope that never goes away!
One piece of advice to the SEOs out there? Learn more skills. Hands down the most important thing I can encourage people to learn things beyond just SEO. Learn to manage paid campaign sin both paid and social. learn social deeply, learn how to edit videos, learn what other people in your business do. Spend time looking over shoulders, asking to job-shadow people. The bottom line is this - SEO won't always be a space with lots of upward growth involved, so prepare yourself by being more valuable. Learn more skills. And don't stop learning.
Favorite things in general? Chinese Food by far; Thing to do: these days, build guitars, talk about Voice and listen to new music.
What you want to be known for in the SEO space? That I was willing to help others be more successful.
To learn more about Duane, connect with him on LinkedIn, follow him on Twitter, check out his blog posts on Search Engine Land and on his Yext blog.
This is part of the say something nice about an SEO/SEM series - feel free to nominate someone over here.
