Long-Time SEO Jill Whalen Moves On, Praises Google For Rewarding Content More

Jill Whalen, one of the first major personalities in the SEO industry, who has been practicing SEO for nearly 20 years, has announced she is moving on from SEO.

The reason why, may shock some of you.

One of the reasons is that she feels that she no longer needs to be the voice “reason in the industry.” Why? Because Google now works. The tricks to beat and spam Google, Whalen said, no longer work as well. Since Google released Panda and Penguin algorithms, as Jill said, the voice of reason is now found virtually on all SEO blogs, forums and at events and conferences.

Jill wrote:

Finally, however, Google put their money where their mouth was with their Panda and Penguin updates. At last the only real way to do SEO was what I had been espousing all along. And it’s a beautiful thing! Today’s SEO blogs and conferences are bursting with SEO consultants talking about how, when you create amazing websites and content for your users, the search engines will follow.

That leads Jill to say, this “means, my friends, that my work here is done.”

Congrats to Jill for making this big move and for being the voice of reason throughout all these years. Personally, I remember from conference to conference, you sitting up on the panel, vouching for content over other methods. We wish you best of luck and don’t be a stranger to the industry you helped build.

For more on Jill’s next steps, see her last newsletter.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.