SEO 101 Ep 533: Episode 533: Google Search Console, AI in Content Creation, and Remembering an SEO Pioneer

We'll start with something a little somber.

Unfortunately, we found out that Bruce Clay, known as the father of SEO, has passed away.

I didn't know Bruce that well.

My first experience with him wasn't the greatest, but I thought I'll share this because it was a funny anecdote.

I went to my first conference way later in my career.

I was never really that social per se.

But I went to it and I met a bunch of people and I was introducing myself.

And when I got to Bruce, I said, hi, I'm Ross.

And kind of waited for him.

He says, you don't know who I am? I said, no, I'm Bruce Clay.

Like, oh, okay.

A bit of a weird first impression.

But, you know...

I didn't really have any more interactions with him after that.

Again, I wasn't super strong in going to conferences and stuff where he was a lot, but I, I definitely came to respect his content and, and his knowledge.

It was a lot of good stuff that his company put out and, uh, it has helped a lot of people and, uh, A lot of the anecdotes from my colleagues who have spent a lot of time with him were just glowing.

So I know it was a big loss to the industry and it was a shock.

Apparently he passed away in May.

Like it wasn't even new, recent.

It just didn't get out there somehow.

I guess he was retired.

I don't know where he was at, but his company spanned all English speaking countries, as far as I know, and perhaps even others.

It was huge, absolutely huge.

And yeah, excited to hear that he's passed.

Yeah, I didn't know him either, obviously, but I certainly learned a lot in my early days from writings and things like that.