An Idea for a new blog

Soon after starting Web Dawn, I came with up with an idea for a new site.

I mentioned previously the SEO discussion forums where I was learning about search engine optimization. One of the hottest topics in forums were those about "Google Updates". At the time (May 2003), Google would update its index with new pages and new ranking algorithms periodically, about once a month, sometimes less often. As such, Google search rankings were quite stable in between updates. For example, if you had a page that was ranked #5 for a certain search phrase, it was unlikely that would change much, for better or worse, until the next Google update. During and after a Google update, the forum activity would spike. Some happy that rankings had improved, other unhappy that rankings had fallen. In addition to the cheering and whining, there was also discussion (speculation) about the algorithmic ranking tweaks that Google may have applied during the update, that had caused rankings to change.

In May of 2003, a major Google Update occured -- a huge shake-up in the rankings. The changes in the rankings were so significant that forum activity spiked even more than usual, much more. New messages were being posted faster than you could read them. There were literally thousands of posts relating to the update. Unfortunately, most of them were of the "cheering and whining" variety -- which doesn't really help anyone better understand the update or contribute anything of value at all. Amongst all this chatter, however, there was one forum member was providing useful insight into the update. And he had inside information. Going by the forum nickname of 'GoogleGuy', and anonymous Google employee was a member of the forum, providing helpful and insightful information from time to time. Of GoogleGuy would never reveal any of Google's 'secret recipe' of ranking algorithms. But even though his posts were necessarily vague, they did contain useful information, some posts more than others. During the flurry of posts during this particular update of May 2003, GoogleGuy was virtually the only forum member that was providing valuable information. The problem was that his post became increasingly difficult to find. Forum activity was so fast and furious with the cheering and whining, that you would have to wade through hundreds of posts before coming across one from GoogleGuy. I found myself scrolling through page after page, trying to keep up, scanning for posts from GoogleGuy.

At this point I came up with an idea to start compiling GoogleGuy's valuable comments -- for my own SEO reference, making them easier to find in future. As I pondered this idea, it occured to me that others might find such a compilation valuable. And there was only one way that I could compile GoogleGuy's comments in a public way without a huge effort on my part: a blog! Well, perhaps not strictly a blog, but a blog-format site. The conventional blog format was well suited to the task at hand. Reverse chronological sorting, with the lastest updates at the top of the page. Each blog entry could be stamped with date and time. I decided to name the site "GoogleGuy Says" (http://www.markcarey.com/googleguy-says/). I also decided to categorize each quote as low, medium, or high importance. I did this because some of GoogleGuy's were more valuable than others, from the perspective of adding to our understanding of the Google search engine. I customized the templates such that each importance level had its own RSS feed, enabling people to subscribe only to "high importance" quotes, for example.

When the initial templates were designed and customized, I began to post some quotes to the site. I spent a few hours posting all of GoogleGuy's comments from the May 2003 update, then going back in time a few weeks before that. I probably posted 30-40 quotes that morning, which means the site already had grown to 30-40 pages. I tried to give each quote a relevant, unique title -- keeping in mind potential search phrases as I did so.

The next step, of course, was the hard part. Spreading the word, attracting visitors to the site. I started by posting a blog entry on Web Dawn, leveraging that traffic. But I knew that would only help get the word out to a small portion of the blogging community. I also wanted to reach the SEO community, people who may really see the value in the resource. So I emailed the author of "Google Weblog", a popluar blog about Google (though not affiliated with Google, Inc.) Aaron Schwartz, the author or Google Weblog, soon posted a blog entry about GoogleGuy Says. This event was the tipping point. Instantly, a virtuous cycle was sparked. With Google Weblog as the starting point, word begain to spread. References and links to GoogleGuy Says started to appear rapidly, mostly from blogs and forums. While I was convinced that it was a valuable resource, I was blown away by the broad-based interest. Everyone, everywhere in the world, were interested in Google. Using Technorati to track links to the site (as well as my web stats), I discovered links from blog and forums in over ten different languages, some of which I did not even recognize. As more people learned about the site, more people linked, and still more people visited the site. The RSS feeds seemed to be popular, a way to be notified of new quotes by GoogleGuy - it seems that I wasn't the only one frustrated by scrolling through endless comments to locate the valuable posts by GoogleGuy. Soon after the site was launched, traffic to the feeds was outpacing traffic to home page.