What are the best Search Engine Marketing blogs to follow? Which are the most popular? The chart above from Feed Compare shows a comparison of the RSS feed subscriber counts published by Feedburner for: Google Webmaster Central (red), Search Engine Land (blue), Search Engine Watch (green) and our very own Online Marketing Blog (purple).
As evidence of how successful a well executed business blog can be, TopRank’s Blog has about as many RSS subscribers as top industry publication Search Engine Watch (37,517/37,028). It’s a great position for an agency to have that kind of reach and also to be able to bring first hand, successful business blogging expertise to our consulting clients.
Blogs covering the search engine marketing industry, including our own Online Marketing Blog, started popping up around 2003 and we’ve been covering SEM blogs pretty well with our BIGLIST of SEO Blogs for the past 3 years or so. One of the dimensions worth considering when deciding which blogs to subscribe to is the social proof of how many others have subscribed to a particular blog. There are other factors at play obviously, like topic, writing style, frequency and level of engagement by other readers, but SEM blogs have been around long enough for the good ones to attract a noticeable following.
Below is a list of blogs that cover Search Engine Marketing topics ranked according to how many RSS subscribers they have as of August 6th, 2010. It’s important to note that not all blogs run their feeds through Feedburner, nor do all blogs that run their feeds through Feedbuner enable the Feedcount option which makes the chicklet counters below possible. That said, it’s a pretty good list. If you want a much larger list to pick from, be sure to visit the Online Marketing Blog BIGLIST of SEO Blogs.
1. Google Webmaster Central
The official blog from Google that supports the resource center for webmasters.
2. Matt Cutts Blog
Google Web Spam team leader Matt Cutts’ personal blog which includes a mix of personal and Google content posts which can affect search marketers. Recently there’s such a mix of content topics that I almost didn’t include this blog in our list.
3. SEOmoz Blog
A staple for popular SEO advice for years that has experienced substantial growth, especially the past 3 years since we’ve been tracking RSS subscriber counts on SEO blogs.
4. Search Engine Land
One of the most cited, read and trusted sources of information on search engine marketing.
5. Online Marketing Blog
Started in 2003, TopRank Marketing’s blog has posted over 2,000 tips, interviews, conference liveblogging, videos, polls, book reviews and many other forms of content covering Search Marketing.
6. Search Engine Watch
An industry original, this blog has been a source of essential Search Marketing news, articles and insight for many of the most respected internet marketing professionals in the business.
7. Search Engine Journal
One of the oldest and most popular Search Marketing blogs on the web, SEJ is a goldmine of tips, opinion and news.
8. Search Engine Roundtable (Normal feed)
No other Search Marketing blog provides the unique perspective that SER does by rounding up important threads from Search Marketing forums, tracking news on search engines and is a pioneer of liveblogging SEM conferences.
9. Marketing Pilgrim
A must read for Search Marketing industry news, Andy Beal and crew deliver perspective and smarts you can’t always get elsewhere.
10. HubSpot
Source of the popular phrase, “inbound marketing”, this blog has become a source of practical search & Internet marketing information for tens of thousands of marketers world-wide.
Obviously there are many other blogs writing about search marketing like SEOBook and some might even have over 22k RSS subscribers, but they’re not pushing their RSS through Feedburner and/or not enabling the Feedcount feature. Therefore, those blogs are not on this list. I will note that the Search Engine Roundtable blog publishes more than one feed as do a few other blogs, but we’re picking the most popular feed for the purpose of this list and that’s the only one being counted.
One of the interesting things about this mix of blogs is the variance in their designs. It’s obvious that some blogs are doing a great job of slimming down their pages of images to increase page speed, which we’ve obviously completely ignored with posts like the one above. The addition of certain social sharing buttons is also more explicit on most blogs.
When looking for great resources to learn more about Search Engine Marketing, should you always go with the most popular blogs? Of course not. There are plenty of newer blogs putting out useful information. A mix of tenured blogs plus an effort to discover a few new blogs always makes sense in my book. That’s how I started the BIGLIST of SEO blogs, by reviewing new blogs to see what else was out there.
Which 10 Search Marketing blogs would make up your top ten list?
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
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About Lee Odden
interesting… i would have thought a little different order, RWW didn't make the list?
RWW content is not predominantly search marketing.
that makes sense =)
Did you see the other list of 10 SEO blogs posted over the weekend? Great minds think alike?
Very cool list.
Currently I just read toprankblog.
You gave me some good blogs to add to my rss reader.
Thanks a lot!
Kindest,
Nabeel
Congratulations! I look at those SEO blogs as blogs for SEO professionals and your blog as more for Marketers. Not that we don't have to be a little bit of both but I like the way you break it down. My funnel is full and I can only absorb so much data so I like reading the experts that put it in layman's terms.
Thanks Tamara – we do offer more business and marketing focused SEO/SEM advice that's true, vs. specific SEO code level tactics. Glad to hear you like our blog 🙂
Lee
Right on the money. We (at eCairn) have compiled a community list of ~500 SEO blogs and those ones are in the top 20 (just a proof point that they are many 'longer tail' SEO/SEM blogs out there).
L
Hopefully the BIGLIST was of assistance in compiling that list or maybe you did it with a crawler.
My top five would be (in no particular order):
1. http://www.huomah.com
2. http://www.searchengineland.com
3. http://www.searchenginejournal.com
4. http://www.seobythesea.com/
5. Bing Webmaster Blog: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/blogs/webmaster/default.aspx
Thanks Marjory – that's a great list. Huomah has a LOT of great info as does Bill.
I'm an ignorant maybe, but never heard of huomah.com But I will give it a look right now.
Great list Lee, unfortunately some of those blogs have really deprecated lately, or this is my opinion at least…
A pleasure to read this blog though. 🙂
Which blogs would you replace them with?
Gave me some good blogs to look at, thanks!
Great list, I'll be referring to this list for marketing tips. Top Rank Blog is a good site for tips. Marjory i didn't know about huomah until now thanks.
Thank You for the provided list. I do read blogs when I have free time for learn more about online marketing and “Search Engine Land” is always providing valuable articles 🙂
# 5 Top Rank – I found it recently but must say that it really owes its success to its loyal readers and faithful followers 🙂
Congrats for having such a famous blog !!
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Villas in Spain
Very good list. I am also a fan of huomah
I like this list of blog, but really, i always prefer first to go with top rank, i always enjoy to learn new topic into toprank blog.
Great list…I'ma start using it right now.
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Your blog is very good. But unfortunately, not in German. When he is on German available?
Thanks Silvio, I don't think we'll be doing a version in German ourselves, but maybe Google translate can help? http://tprk.us/9x7W4u
you have write some great blog .really thanks for share with us. It is such a great list.
http://www.linkbuildingservices.com/
Great list, most I visit on a daily basis. Too bad there's not an aggregate site that RSS's all the content for us 🙂
Justin Howley
Some of my favorites made it on this list, but yet again I’ve never heard of some of them.nnI just discovered your huge list of SEO blogs today – incredible information; look forward to digging my teeth into it.nnMy personal preference though is small “boutique” SEO blogs, where you can share ideas, discuss, debate, and benefit from beyond simply reading the posts.nnI am surprised that you still find time to answer some of the blog comments personally, Lee. That’s a sign of a truly dedicated blogger.nnBest,nAna Hoffman
I dont know if that was intention but it’s a great list to follow actually and another thing, i just checked your Biglist of SEO blog but i couldnt see Kristi Hines’s blog. I think she deserves a spot in there.
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It is very interested post. Thank you
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