It’s December 2006 which means like last year, Search Engine Journal will be hosting and holding our annual Search Blogs Awards. Last year was our inaugural year and the 2005 Search Blogs Awards were a grand success, with corporate, industry and private bloggers walking away with the honor of top blog of their niche SEM grouping, as voted by their peers.
Search Engine Journal is now opening nominations for blogs to be included for this year’s Search Blogs Awards in the following categories:
- Best SEO Blog
- Best SEM Blog
- Best Search Agency Resource Blog
- Best Link Building Blog
- Best Social Media Blog
- Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines)
- Best Contextual Advertising Blog
- Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
- Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog
- Best Web 2.0 Blog
- Best Search Linkbait of 2006
To nominate blogs, please leave a comment below with the category and your favorite blogs : You can nominate as many blogs as you want (but if someone has already listed one, please don’t feel like you have to list it again. Nominations will be open until December 12th and voting will being on Thursday December 14th.
We’ll be adding some surprise categories into the mix which should make this contest a bit more fun again AND this year we’ll be giving out BEST _______ BLOG badges to our winners. Now, let the nominations begin.
Original comment thread (through 46 comments)
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 8, 2006 at 4:40 pm
And yes, you can nominate your own blog 🙂
David Walters on Dec 8, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Best SEO Blog : graywolf
Best SEM Blog : jensense.com
Best Link Building Blog : stuntdubl
Anthony Iaffaldano on Dec 8, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Loren – Glad to see these awards back again this year!
How would you define a Search Agency Resource Blog? (vs. something like a general SEM blog?)
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 8, 2006 at 6:07 pm
Good question.
Well, a Search Agency Resource Blog could be something like SEOmoz, where a good deal of the postings center around tips for running an SEO or SEM firm, and not only news about paid links or sponsored listings.
So, in this respect, SEOmoz could fall under multiple categories, but its strongest field could be Search Agency Resource Blog.
Jensense, on the other hand, would not.
Did I just nominate SEOmoz as a Search gency Resource Blog? Heck yes.
Anthony, does this help?
Anthony Iaffaldano on Dec 8, 2006 at 6:14 pm
Absolutely. Thanks! (Now to make some decisions…)
bobmutch on Dec 8, 2006 at 6:19 pm
* Best SEO Blog = super geek Matt Cutts http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
* Best SEM Blog = the one and only Rand Fishkin http://www.seomoz.org/
* Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog = Barry Schwartz http://www.seroundtable.com/
pittfall on Dec 8, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Best SEO Blog –
SEOBook, SEOmoz
Best SEM Blog –
Searchblog
Best Search Agency Resource Blog –
SEObytheSea
Best Search Engine Corporate Blog –
webmastercentral
Web 2.0 –
SEJ
The others are too close to call
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 8, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Pitfall, thanks! I forgot to mention that like last year, Search Engine Journal is not part of the competition, since we are putting on the awards 🙂
Michael Martinez on Dec 8, 2006 at 8:26 pm
Bill Slawski, SEO By the Sea, for Best SEO Blog (really not the right category, but you don’t offer an appropriate SEO Tech Blog category).
Google Booksearch Blog for Best Search Engine Corporate Blog.
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 8, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Michael,
Perhaps SEO Tech Blog would be an interesting niche category… heck, no rules against nominating categories in this thread 🙂
Any other blogs you would like to see in the running for best SEO Tech Blog?
While we’re nominating categories, how about Best Blackhat SEO Blog?
Richard Ball on Dec 8, 2006 at 9:53 pm
Hi Loren – Some obscure, some well known:
Best SEO Blog: SEOmoz.org
Best SEM Blog: blog.merjis.com
Best Social Media Blog: pronetadvertising.com
Best Search Engine Corporate Blog: adwords.blogspot.com
Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog: seroundtable.com
Best Web 2.0 Blog: blog.programmableweb.com
pittfall on Dec 8, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Loren,
What about up and comers in these areas?
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 8, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Yes pittfall, we want up and comers. For example, last year Bill Slawski’s SEO by the SEA was a brand new blog and hardly known… this year it seems half of the nominations are for Bill’s blog.
Matt McGee on Dec 8, 2006 at 11:30 pm
I’ll just list a couple I haven’t seen mentioned yet…
* Best Search Agency Resource Blog
Marketing Pilgrim
* Best Link Building Blog
Jim Boykin
* Best Social Media Blog
TopRankBlog.com
* Best Search Linkbait of 2006
Top 21 Signs You Need a Break From SEO
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/2006/09/22/top-21-signs-you-need-a-break-from-seo/
🙂
Lee Odden on Dec 9, 2006 at 1:44 am
God this is hard.
It seems like there should be a “Search Engine News†category. If there was, I’d put Search Engine Watch Blog, Search Engine Journal and Marketing Pilgrim there.
Loren, deciding on these was absolutely agonizing. 🙂
* SEO Blog :
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
* Best SEM Blog
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com
http://www.searchviews.com
* Best Search Agency Resource Blog
http://www.seomoz.org/blog.php
* Best Link Building Blog
http://www.stuntdubl.com
* Best Social Media Blog
I want to put http://www.toprankblog.com but who nominates themselves? Oops, I just did. 🙂
* Best Search Engine Corporate Blog
http://www.ysmblog.com/
* Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog
http://www.seroundtable.com
* Best Web 2.0 Blog
http://www.somewhatfrank.com
#
Hawaii SEO on Dec 9, 2006 at 6:32 am
In no particular order…
(Yes… I subscribe to, read and comment on all of these blogs and many more.) Somebody stop me!
Best SEO Blogs
(I guess this means an individual, personality or charismatic leader like myself 😉
Graywolf’s SEO Blog
Shoemoney
SEO Book
Matt Cutts
Sugarrae
SEO Egghead
SEO by the sea
Things of sorts
Tony Hill
Traffick
Daggle
Cristian Mezei
Girl From Marketing
Scoreboard
Macalua
Best SEM Blog
(This is where I get my daily SEO news)
Search Engine Journal
Cartoon Barry
Search Engine Land
Threadwatch
WebProNews
Daily Search Cast
Googling Google
Google Blogscoped
Google OS
V7N SEM News
Best Search Agency Resource Blogs
SEOmoz
Out of My Gord
Bruce Clay
Best Link Building Blog
Jim Boykin
Christoph Cemper
Stuntdubl
Link Building Blog
Martinibuster (On the rare occasion he actually blogs)
Best Social Media Blog
Pronet Advertising
TopRankBlog
Themulife
John Chow
Guy Kawasaki
Seth Godin
Best Search Engine Corporate Blog
Inside Adwords
Yahoo! Local Blog
Best Contextual Advertising Blog
JenSense
Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
5 Star Affiliate Programs
PepperJam
RevNews
Super Affiliate
SuperAff Blog
Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog
Search Engine Roundtable
Other Nominations…
Best Black Hat Blogs
Webguerrilla
David Naylor
G-Man
IrishWonder
Oilman
SEO Black Hat
Biggnuts
Best Local Search Blogs
Screenwerk
Small Business SEM
Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local
Mike the Internet Guy
The Local Onliner
Hawaii Online Advertising (Me)
Best blogs about… Blogging
Copyblogger
Problogger
Fun SEO blogs that I read.
Kid Disco
First Page Fitness
Greg Hartnett
ShandyKing
SEOFangirl
IncrediBILL’s Random Rants
rogerdodger on Dec 9, 2006 at 1:28 pm
Best SEO Blog : ShoeMoney, Graywolf, SEObook
Best SEM Blog : jensense.com,searchmarketinggurus.com
Best Blog Blog : Problogger
Best BlackHat Blog: SEOBLACKHAT, Shoemoney, David Naylor
rogerdodger on Dec 9, 2006 at 1:30 pm
* Best Contextual Advertising Blog – jensense
* Best Affiliate Marketing Blog – shoemoney aojon
* Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog – digitalpoint.com
* Best Web 2.0 Blog – performancing.com
* Best Search Linkbait of 2006
tom on Dec 9, 2006 at 2:08 pm
they should be in there too:
http://valleywag.com/
http://www.locallytype.com/
http://yodel.yahoo.com/
http://www.seobook.com/
http://www.seo-scoop.com/
tom
Chris Hooley on Dec 9, 2006 at 3:22 pm
* Best SEO Blog – SEOmoz
* Best SEM Blog – Shoemoney
* Best Search Agency Resource Blog – dunno… Maybe Lee Odden’s?
* Best Link Building Blog – SEObook
* Best Social Media Blog – err, we need a real good one.
* Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines) – Does Matt Cutts’ count? If so, his.
* Best Contextual Advertising Blog – JenSense, Shoemoney
* Best Affiliate Marketing Blog -SugarRae, Shoemoney
* Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog – DigitalPoint (if the question is forum) SEOmoz if blog. If either, I can’t call it.
* Best Web 2.0 Blog – SEOmoz
* Best Search Linkbait of 2006 – DrinkBait (self vote!)
There are a ton of blogs that deserve to be in this list as well that for some reason didn’t seem to fit into any of these categories. SERoundTable, SEW, and SEL are all great for industry info. StuntDubl needs to be in my list somewhere too, but I think didn’t make it because the categories. Seth Godin for marketing in general is a great one, SEO by the sea for patent analysis stuff, Gray Wolf, SEO BlackHat and a slew of others kick butt.
SEOBoyBand – honorable mention for funniest blog I posted this week onm y own personal blog.
Li Evans on Dec 9, 2006 at 4:40 pm
How about a best “NEW†blog category for blogs that just got started in the last year?
If you make that category – SearchMarketingGurus.com 🙂
best search linkbait of 2006 – HatBait.com
Paul on Dec 9, 2006 at 4:44 pm
Best SEM Blog:
http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/
Archh…in Dutch 🙂
Chris Hooley on Dec 9, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Oh man, after I commented I realized there are TONS on my list that got slighted. This is hard!
Also, thanks to Hawaii SEO for posting your list, I have about a dozen new blogs in my feed reader today and I’ve already gotten some blog happy from them 🙂
I think the following categories would be cool too:
Best Video Blog: WebProNews
Best New Blog: pick me! pick me! (fat chance over Search Engine Land lol)
Funniest SEO Blog: pick me! pick me! (fat chance over anything Rebecca Kelley posts, SEOLoser, or Men of SEO)
Best BlackHat SEO Blog: SEO Black Hat
Best WhiteHat SEO Blog or Forum: HighRankings
Best Commenter on This Blog Post: Easy… Me. Hands down. Neener neener neeener!
Michael Martinez on Dec 9, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Loren: “Any other blogs you would like to see in the running for best SEO Tech Blog?â€
Hm…Okay, how about Lee Odden’s TopRank blog?
And what about Dr. Garcia’s Mi Islita blog? If he’s not heavy on the tech side, I’m stumped.
I can’t think of any others that are still active (although I would nominate Fantomaster in a heartbeat if he were still blogging). Most of the people who discuss the tech stuff only do it occasionally, or they lose focus and drift into too many side topics.
And, of course, I don’t agree with the links-are-everything opinions that drive most SEO blogs anyway. Those people still have a lot to learn about search engine optimization.
Todd on Dec 9, 2006 at 8:38 pm
Best SEO Blog
-wolf-howl.com
-seobook.com
* Best SEM Blog
-toprankblog.com
-shimonsandler.com
-ewhisper.net
* Best Search Agency Resource Blog
-seomoz.org
-bruceclay.com/blog
* Best Link Building Blog
-jimboykin.com
-linkbuildingblog.com
-textlinkbrokers.com/blog/
* Best Social Media Blog
-pronetadvertising.com
-copyblogger.com (only place i saw it fit)
* Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines)
-mattcutts.com/blog/
* Best Contextual Advertising Blog
-jensense.com
* Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
-shoemoney.com
* Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog
-webmasterworld.com
-seroundtable.com
-threadwatch.org
-cre8asiteforums.com
* Best Web 2.0 Blog
-sexywidget.com
* Best Search Linkbait of 2006
-drinkbait.com
-hatbait.com
http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/2006/09/22/top-21-signs-you-need-a-break-from-seo/
http://seogenerations.ning.com/ – by Marc at macalua.com
I think a “new blog of the year†award should be created as well:)
Scott Clark on Dec 9, 2006 at 8:51 pm
Best SEO Blog
————————–
http://www.seomoz.org/blog.php (SEOmoz)
http://www.seobythesea.com (SEO By The Sea)
Best SEM Blogs (very hard choices)
————————–
http://www.shoemoney.com (Shoe Money)
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com (Marketing Pilgrim)
Best Community/Forum Blog
————————-
https://www.searchenginejournal.com (Search Engine Journal)
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com (Search Engine Watch Blog)
http://www.seroundtable.com (Search Engine Roundtable)
Best Corporate Blog
————————–
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog (Matt Cutts)
http://adwords.blogspot.com (Inside AdWords)
http://www.ysearchblog.com (Yahoo Search Blog)
Social Media
—————————
http://sethgodin.typepad.com (Seth Godin)
Always a smile
—————————
http://www.resourceshelf.com (ResourceShelf)
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer (Bill Tancer – Hitwise)
http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk (David Naylor)
Are Non-Coastal blogs allowed?
————————
http://www.sitecreations.com/blog (Scott Clark – SweetSpotSEO)
Kim Krause Berg (cre8pc) on Dec 9, 2006 at 9:24 pm
I’d love to see some niche categories for things Funniest SEO blog and Best “B List (the latter is necessary so I can nominate mine. cough)
I’m happy to throw my support behind newcomers who pounce on the scene with energy, talent and humor, such as Lisa Barone writing for Bruce Clay’s blog.
graywolf on Dec 9, 2006 at 9:46 pm
How about best new SEO blog, domain has to be less than 1 year old, or reasonably establish less than 1 year of blog material.
Andrey Milyan on Dec 9, 2006 at 9:50 pm
Best SEO Blog: SEO Book, SEO by the SEA
Best SEM Blog: Jim Boykin’s Blog, John Battelle’s Searchblog, Marketing Pilgrim
Best Search Agency Resource Blog: SEOmoz
Best Link Building Blog: Stuntdubl
Best Contextual Advertising Blog: JenSense
Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog: Search Engine Roundtable, V7N Blog
Best Search Linkbait of 2006: http://www.geekcapital.com/2006/11/30/get-me-out-of-this-job/
8354 diggs, 267 comments, ninth most dugg article in 2006
diddy1 on Dec 9, 2006 at 10:08 pm
Best SEO Blog: http://www.seonewsblog.com/
Julie on Dec 9, 2006 at 10:46 pm
I nominate the v7 seo blog for best seo blog. 🙂
Richard Ball on Dec 9, 2006 at 11:09 pm
If you do create a category for new SEO/M blogs, please consider mine: Apogee Weblog. Started blogging 12/26/05. Recently accepted into 9rules network. Thanks.
Marshall Sponder on Dec 9, 2006 at 11:23 pm
I’ll nominate my own Know More Media blog … www.webmetricsguru.com as the best Search Blog .
SEO Buzz Box on Dec 9, 2006 at 11:58 pm
SEO Blog
Peter Da Vanzo @ http://blog.v7n.com/
SEM Blog:
Lee Odden @ http://www.toprankblog.com/
Linkbait 2006:
More to come!
Matt McGee on Dec 10, 2006 at 12:10 am
Wow, I’m honored to see my blog listed here a couple times. Thanks to those who did. And yes, Loren, if you create a New Blog category, I’d be honored to be listed with the others mentioned above.
Navneet Kaushal on Dec 10, 2006 at 12:13 am
This is a new kid on the block.
If possible will like to have it nominated for some unlisted categories:
Best Search Engine News Blog: http://www.unofficialseoblog.com
Best Upcoming Blog: http://www.unofficialseoblog.com
Nav
Matt Cutts on Dec 10, 2006 at 3:52 am
Okay, I’ll throw some votes in:
* Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines)
Tough one. Google Reader Blog for me.
* Best Contextual Advertising Blog
Gotta be Jensense.
* Best Search Engine Community Blog
I’m going to go with SEOmoz for this year. The signal is high and lively compared to the noise.
* Best Web 2.0 Blog
TechCrunch
Matt Cutts on Dec 10, 2006 at 5:07 am
BTW, someone turn this into OPML for easy importing. 🙂
Matt, who really doesn’t consider himself a corporate blog.. 🙂
Yuri on Dec 10, 2006 at 6:15 am
Well, since I can nominate my blog, how about
Best SEO Blog
Best SEM Blog
www.improvetheweb.com
Then again, Matt is likely to get the SEO award, eh?
GDS on Dec 10, 2006 at 8:42 am
Best Web2.0 / user experience blog:
Reaction
Carsten Cumbrowski on Dec 10, 2006 at 9:18 am
* Best SEO Blog
http://www.seomoz.org/blog.php
* Best SEM Blog
http://www.ewhisper.net
* Best Search Agency Resource Blog
http://www.pandia.com/sew/
* Best Link Building Blog
http://www.SEOBook.com
* Best Contextual Advertising Blog
http://www.Jensense.com
* Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
http://www.ReveNews.com
Yoshi Nakamura on Dec 10, 2006 at 10:02 am
Best Web 2.0 Blog:
CenterNetworks
http://www.centernetworks.com
Rae Hoffman on Dec 10, 2006 at 10:16 am
Best SEO Blog: Graywolf
Best SEM Blog: ewhisper.net
Best Search Agency Resource Blog: SEOmoz
Best Link Building Blog: Stuntdubl
Best Social Media Blog: Graywolf
Best Search Engine Corporate Blog: YPN Blog
Rae Hoffman on Dec 10, 2006 at 10:21 am
Almost forgot:
Best Search Linkbait of 2006: Drinkbait.com
Any other categories, I’m not big into reading… felt unfair to vote.
SEO Buzz Box on Dec 10, 2006 at 10:25 am
Matt Cutts – Any time someone uses the phrase “signal to noise†I get a little nervous. It usually means someone is being denied voice because they are considered the “noise†factor.
Communities like Digg have used “noise†to deny a whole section of our society a voice in the conversation. (republicans)
That aint cool and you of all people should be aware of this.
Aaron
Loren Baker, Editor on Dec 10, 2006 at 11:26 am
“BTW, someone turn this into OPML for easy importing.â€
Matt, I like what you’re thinking 🙂
