Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden Online Marketing, Reader Polls, Search Marketing, SEO

reader poll

Search marketing moves fast. Keeping up to date can be a full time job so finding quality resources of information is critical to stay ahead of the game. Books (print) are often outdated by the time they hit the shelves and conferences are expensive.

Many newbies and experienced search marketers turn to forums as a way to share knowledge, speculation and socialize. But which forums provide good info and which are full of tin hats?

Which leads me to this week’s reader’s poll:

Update: I rarely add updates but this is important. Regrettably, I did not include Crea8asite Forums, which was purely an oversight.

What is your favorite SEO/PPC Forum?

WebProWorld (25%, 42 Votes)
High Rankings (19%, 31 Votes)
WebmasterWorld (18%, 30 Votes)
Digital Point (13%, 22 Votes)
SEO Chat (7%, 11 Votes)
Search Engine Watch (6%, 10 Votes)
Syndk8 (5%, 8 Votes)
Search Engine Roundtable (4%, 7 Votes)
V7 Network (3%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 165

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I’ve limited the choices so you can list your favorite forums in the comments. Like anything, there is the element of, “it depends”, and I understand that. I invite you to share any other forums that have been particularly useful for staying on top of good information related to search marketing that are not mentioned above.

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Tags:search-marketing-forums, seo-forums

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http://www.seobythesea.com Bill

Ok, so I’m one of the administrators. But I’m going to list it anyway

Cre8asite Forums
http://www.petertdavis.net Peter Davis

I get so frustrated when looking in the forums for SEO tips. So much of it is misleading.
http://www.seo4fun.com/blog/ Halfdeck

The two forums I visit regularly are cre8 and wmw.
http://webforumet.no Kenneth Dreyer

We are a rare spiece, but if there happen to by any _Norwegian_ webmasters out there, head over the the norwegian clone of DP: Webforumet
http://www.layoutgarden.com John Smith

I visit wmw mostly, but I am a bit tired (not in a bad way, read as saturated) of the same old information. It is difficult to find some good and rare info even there.
http://www.toprankmarketing.com Lee Odden

Bill (and Kim) – A big OOOPS on my part! I totally meant to include Cre8asite forums – it was a gross oversight on my part.
http://www.seopractices.com Beginners Guide to SEO

I have been participating at Webproworld forum for quite a while and have been able to get good information there. Also have used Digital Point (great forum) and High Rankings (not very friendly). Right now I’m more into reading blogs, as I have found that I can get more updated info in those.
http://www.joedolson.com/ Joe Dolson

Yep, I’m voting for Cre8asite Forums, too. Could be I’m biased, too, but it’s my vote.
Kim Krause Berg

Cre8asiteforums. I rarely go anywhere else.
http://www.seobythesea.com Bill

No problems, Lee.
http://www.improvetheweb.com Yuri

Lee, I hope you realize that without Cre8asite Forums the results will not be as precise as you wanted them to be
http://www.improvetheweb.com Yuri

P.S. To make it abundantly clear: I vote for Cre8asite Forums.

Thank you for running the poll, too.
http://www.solaswebdesign.net Miriam

Casting my vote for Cre8asite. The generous, accepting and professional atmosphere of this forum sets standards, in my opinion!
http://www.vieux-sorel.com Bob Bonomo

Us readers at Cre8asite are “slashdotting you”.

Cre8asite and SEOmoz are about the only 2 I regularly visit.

Touch WebProWorld and WebmasterWorld plus a few more once a month or so.
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respree

I don’t see it listed, but I like Cre8asite Forums a lot.
http://www.staygolinks.com/ Barry Welford

Since Cre8asite Forums is the only one I visit with any regularity, I guess this is where my vote has to go.
http://www.seo-scoop.com DazzlinDonna

Cre8 and seorefugee.com are my favorites.
http://www.seobythesea.com Bill

Be nice to see seorefugee on this poll, too.
http://www.thinkprospect.com.au/blog Sophie

Cre8asite Forums for me too.
iamlost

Cre8asite Forums.
http://www.petertdavis.net Peter Davis

WTF, is Cre8whatever full up with spammers or something?
http://www.jrothraministries.com John Rothra

I’ve visited a few of those forums and they offer their own strengths. However, I didn’t see the forum I use regularly: SEORefugee.com. I enjoy this forum for both its atmosphere and the information I learn from those on it.
http://www.endlesspoetry.com/ Michael VanDeMar

@Peter Davis – I doubt it, just many supporters.

My votes would also go to SEORefugee and Cre8 (although I usually only lurk there)
http://www.petertdavis.net Peter Davis

Well, you see the irony there is that I seem to recall not too long ago the owner of that site complaining about the behavior of some people from Digg on her blog. The first couple of comments would seem like supporters. The fifteenth makes it seems like a coordinated effort.
http://www.kichus.in kichus

I couldn’t find my favorite one in the list… seorfugee – a group of Wit, earlpearl, Donna, Skitzzo, RMC get ignored here… and that’s sad.

IMHO
http://www.improvetheweb.com Yuri

Peter, let’s see this in more detail.

Lee included many notable forums in the list, but not Cre8asite. Now, anyone can vote for those forums in the list by pressing the button. Last time I checked, there were 9 voters for High Rankings and DP.

The only difference it makes is that Cre8asiters have to comment to get their votes on. And yes, I personally created a thread, urging Cre8 members support their forums, so yes, it is a coordinated effort of loyal, long-time members.

Likewise, we are not posting deragatory remarks on Lee’s blog, but doing what he effectively had asked us to do: comment and mention the forums we like.

Cheers.
http://www.seologs.com Badi Jones

SEORefugee Forums
http://www.petertdavis.net Peter Davis

Yes Yuri you’re right of course. I think Lee could probably put together a list of forums just as long as his list of blogs. I just love the irony. It amuses me to no end.

I also love this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ7YedEopp4
No matter how many times I watch it, I still crack up. It’s always good for a laugh.
http://www.endlesspoetry.com/ Michael VanDeMar

Yes Yuri you’re right of course. I think Lee could probably put together a list of forums just as long as his list of blogs. I just love the irony. It amuses me to no end.

I must be missing something. Lee flat out said he had meant to include Cre8, and that people should vote in the comments. How is that in any way related to what was said about the Digg members on another blog? (admittedly I did not see the post in question there)
http://www.14thc.com rmccarley

As mentioned above by one or two (or 10) other people, I like SEO Refugee and Cre8asiteforums best.
http://cre8tivestores.com Paul

“La plume de ma tente!” (That’s for our French readers!:))”Ou est la Forums de Cre8asite dans votre liste??”

Cre8asite rocks! Cre8asite rules! Cre8asite is king! (or “queen”, actually as KKB might be reading this )

In short – I vote for Cre8asite.

I thank you.

Paul
John

Definitely cre8asiteforums.com !

John, pro-cre8
http://ekstreme.com/thingsofsorts/ Pierre

I’m a big fan of Cre8, SEOR, and Syndk8 (in that order).

Pierre
http://www.n3o.co.uk Lee

wheres cre8asiteforums in the list?? thats the only one I use..
http://ww.homebrew4u.co.uk/ Rynert

Cre8 gets my vote.

Given the low number of votes I suggest you add Cr8 ASAP
http://www.toprankmarketing.com Lee Odden

Hey Rynert, adding Cre8asite forums now wouldn’t make any sense since so many people have already voted.

Omitting Cea8asite forums was absolutely unintentional and is a consequence of a rushed blog post. I am happy to see enthusiasts for Cea8asite and SEORefugee or any other forms show their support in the comments.

Clearly, we need a comprehensive list of SEO forums as has been suggested. I think a Google custom search engine on such a list would provide an interesting and useful resource.

Thank you to everyone who voted and commented!
http://www.staygolinks.com/ Barry Welford

If my math is correct, it looks like a dead-heat between High Rankings (31% of 61 votes = 19) and Cre8asite Forums, which by my count had 19 write-in votes. Sounds about right to me.
Kim Krause Berg

Holy @##%$#!!

Trouble follows me wherever I go. I sorta see the irony. I complained about the mob hit one of my blog posts got at Digg, for a post I did not submit or promote in any way. (An experience that was educational in a positive way when it was all said and done.) Now, the forums itself is holding an impromtu party over here, begun by a thread I had no involvement in.

Lee is my friend, so I know this was accidental (but allows me to constantly kid him about it for the rest of his life.) It’s an honor to be recognized in the same space as the other forums.
http://www.tomanthony.co.uk Tom Anthony

It’s got to be Cre8asite Forums! Brilliant community of active, knowledgeable and friendly people.

The fact that so many Cre8asite members are passionate enough about a set of forums to come here and post a comment to vote is a demonstration of the quality of the forums.
http://www.hyperformancemedia.com Scott

Now it appears to have turned into a game instead of a poll of a “users” preference.
AppleVenus

Cre8asite and SEOR for me, the two best forums around.
http://www.sundance-communications.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi Tom

I have visited many in the list but only really frequent Total Web Talk and Cre8asite.
http://ww.homebrew4u.co.uk/ Rynert

Now it appears to have turned into a game instead of a poll of a “users” preference.

Maybe it was missed off as a mini-link bait scheme to pull in new readers

Joking aside – it bought me, and no doubt a few others to this blog, which I have added to my bookmarks after reading around a bit – so, regardless of cause or effect of the absent poll option – it seems good all round.

New readers is good for he whole ‘community’ and as those of us that wanted to vote for Cre8, can’t, the results for the “users” remain just as valid!
http://www.seomoz.org randfish

Another vote for Cre8asite here. High Signal to Noise Ratio, fun crowd, lots of top experts and still an underdog – gotta love that.
http://www.toprankmarketing.com Lee Odden

Hey Rynert, I’m probably not that creative and certainly not that desperate for visitors to omit Crea8asite Forums intentionally.

It looks like despite the inclusion in the actuall poll, Crea8asite and SEORefugee are very well represented!!
http://www.searchmarketinggurus.com Li Evans

My vote goes to Cre8asite
Although I go to HR (and that’s where I started), too! – Jill & crew there have a great forum too!
http://NANCM doll

I am not sure why the Cre8asite Forum is not listed. Since it isn’t, I will just do this write in. I see others are doing the same as well.
http://www.seo-portland.com SEO Portland

Wheres SEO Refugee? Oh well, that’s my vote.
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http://seorefugee.com/forums earlpearl

Hey, I don’t want to make this look like a group spam attack but I saw this poll mentioned at seorefugee and cre8asite also and decided to stop by and vote also.

I also spend time at wmw.
http://www.nynerd.com SEN

Another write in vote: http://www.seorefugee.com/forums
http://andybeard.eu/ Andy Beard

I am going to suggest adding the Warrior Forum to the list

Reason?

I recently posted a comment on a popular SEM blog specialising in social networking and asked whether they have experimented in using grey boxed pop overs on exit for specific sources of traffic.

The blog owner didn’t know what I was talking about, whereas someone who frequents a marketing specific forum would at least immediately grasp the concept.
http://www.digitalpunkt.no/ Kjell Bleivik

I do not put too much emphasis on votes like this. I am an economist, and two important concepts should be taken into account whne judging such polls.
- Multicolinerity.
- Psychophantism.

My experience is that Mike and Chris at WPW are the most professional Admins I know about. I was deleted as a member without warning from WMW. May be you should read this post:

“The camelot, the straw man and the faceless community”,

that I posted at WPW March 09 2007.

Source: http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=72872
http://www.seo4fun.com/blog/ Halfdeck

Some people may not yet consider it a forum exactly, but Google Group Webmaster Help is also one of my pitstops (besides cre8site, of course). SEO Refugee I’ve checked out and it looks promising as well. WMW is still one of my favs because inspite of the noise I find some darn insightful comments that puts all the flashy “No follow is evil”, “paid links is ethical”, “Personalization is evil”, “digg users don’t get it”, “seos are pretzels” blog posts to shame.

Pros:

- I hooked up with a few clients via GGWH. I’m not sure why they’re willing to pay, considering they get an unlimited supply of free, site-specific advice on GGWH from reputable people (softplus, for example). I haven’t seen many fortune 500 companies post there though, but in the future, who knows?

- if you want a response straight from Google, posting there is your best shot. Adam Lasnik, Thu, Vanessa Fox and others don’t answer everything (there are gazillion posts made there every day) but they read many of the posts posted on GGWH and they do answer you on occasion.

Con:

- Since the majority of posters are webmasters and not SEOs, alot of threads revolve around site-specific, technical issues. Though there’s been plenty of discussions revolving around stuff like PageRank, nofollow, cloaking, supplemental results, and duplicate content, most readers on GGWH are just interested in getting practical advice.
http://www.toprankmarketing.com Lee Odden

Good point Halfdeck. I had actually considered Google’s Webmaster Help but it’s a group or a discussion thread more than a straightout forum. I will actually be doing a poll next week about those including SEM 2.0, SearchReturn, etc.
http://www.counciltenantsmortgages.co.uk ctabuk

I voted for WPW – there again I would -I mod there.
But http://www.davidcastle.org/BB/ should be included as well!!

Well one day!

Cheers David
http://www.toprankmarketing.com Lee Odden

It’s interesting how much a few posts asking for help with votes can sway the results!
http://www.petertdavis.net Peter Davis

after all, a talented SEO should find it second nature to manipulate results, eh?
http://andybeard.eu/ Andy Beard

It is actually sad

If I started a new forum and asked readers to come here and vote, I would have had 50+ votes already.

I actually have accounts on half of those forums, but my participation is nothing compared to WF or the HowTo forum.
http://www.staygolinks.com/ Barry Welford

Well I don’t think it’s sad. It’s just human nature, which we must all remember as we try to work with Social Media. We’re not talking about spamming here by some automatic process. You’ve just got to get the mechanics right. If there are glitches then enthusiasts and supporters may try to exploit them.
http://www.digitalpunkt.no/ Kjell Bleivik

You don’t use cookies to checque for double voting? I am on a dynamic IP …

I have only voted once.
http://www.toprankmarketing.com Lee Odden

It’s kind of interesting as we’ve been running polls on Wednesdays for a month or more and no other topic has attracted this much attention.

We may need to find another tool for conducting polls.
http://andybeard.eu/ Andy Beard

Lee you hit that controversy button

It is actually very similar to some of the linkbait Quadzilla writes, such as his top films posts.

There are so many possible top films and everyone has different opinions.

By only including a few forums out of the 100s in the niche – there really are that many, I am actually amazed the comments section is so quiet.
And then there are the private forums… those can drive a lot of very high quality buying traffic, not just the tire kickers.
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http://www.megrisoft.com Kevin

Check http://www.talkingcity.com and http://www.seoforum.info
http://www.luxurymortgageblog.com/jason-fox Jason Fox

My favorite has always been WebPro World.
http://www.adaptivmedia.com/ Adaptiv Media

Digital Point but it’s extremely hard to keep up with the threads. I like to read each thread of a forum but doing so on Digital Point would just be too time consuming. Although there are some forums on the list that i have never heard of before – thanks for sharing.
nanoteco

Interesting social network.

All greetings!!! My name is Ilja and I from Russia of Moscow!
At us the most popular network in Russia in contact, I suggest also to you to join us, at us it is very interesting!

You will find the and new friends!!! Welcome!
At us the photo and many other things is full of video, music.

We are registered here – http://vk.com/reg3085355

Let's meet in a network;) At us it is interesting!

50, 000, 000 persons there are more than us!
nanoteco

Interesting social network.

All greetings!!! My name is Ilja and I from Russia of Moscow!
At us the most popular network in Russia in contact, I suggest also to you to join us, at us it is very interesting!

You will find the and new friends!!! Welcome!
At us the photo and many other things is full of video, music.

We are registered here – http://vk.com/reg3085355

Let's meet in a network;) At us it is interesting!

50, 000, 000 persons there are more than us!