How to Learn a Lot from Moz Q&A

[EGOL]

You can learn a lot from Moz Q&A without asking any questions.

The way to do that is to watch for topics that you are uncertain about, then subscribe to that question by clicking the "Email Updates" button.  Then, when people reply to that topic, you will be able to read what they have to say and will likely learn many things (and see a few entertaining arguments

Give it a try.  You might subscribe to more questions than you think and learn many things that will improve your skills and expertise.

[Gordon_Hall]

When I started out, I spent hours on Google searching all kinds of stuff. Unfortunately at the time I didn't realise that most SEO advice really was SnakE Oil advice, and I can't begin to think of how many hours/days/weeks were wasted picking through forums, dodgy SEO companies and sales sharks, until I came here.

Things changed rapidly, and I did exactly as Egol advised - I just spent hours learning (and still do) through the forums, the various webinars and just gleaning the good solid advice from those who are in the know.

I remain amazed at how open the community of real professionals really are... and these Q&As are one of the reasons my subscriptions continue each month. I couldn't find this sort of advice elsewhere without paying a fortune for it!

[EGOL]

Thank you Gordon.  I enjoyed reading your reply and can relate to it.

Since Google has changed so many things about the way that they rank websites, a lot of the advice for improving your rankings that was given just two years ago is now deadly to the health of your website.  And, there are some SEO forums today where an awful lot of the advice that is given is really bad in general and often inappropriate for the question being asked.  (Moz Q&A is generally pretty high quality IMO and part of that is because the Moz staff keeps an eye on it, participates in some threads that are jumping the track and uses endorsements to highlight good information.  There are a lot of forums where bad stuff persists and grows.)

I am sure that I have given a lot of bad advice simply because of my beliefs and understandings are different from how google works - or I might not understand the person's question.  And, that is where a forum works well.  Since nobody knows many things about Google we answer questions that start an argument and many times being wrong advances ultimately advances your knowledge and understanding.

For years I have read most of the questions that have a title like.... "Wah!  My traffic dropped".... or "Wah!  My site fell out of Google".  Those are the most valuable to understand and when my traffic dropped from a Panda problem, I had a really good idea why and how to fix it.  If I was not watching those threads I would have been wondering "What happened?" and not realize that something can be done about it.

Q&A is where you can keep your ear to the ground.  And if you are helpful here, people will really be extra helpful to you when you ask a question.  Thanks to all who have answered questions for me.