Hello everyone! We all at Serpact wanted to share a little something about Bill. I’m saying “we” because we are a SEO agency and every single one of the team has learned a ton from the great expert and person that Bill is.

I still remember how nervous we were to invite him to our monthly webinar series… and surprisingly he not only said Yes, but we had one of the most amazing experiences with him while streaming the webinar.

Throughout the years he helped many specialists and companies, translating in understandable language the Google patents, etc. Not only an extremely good expert, but a human with a golden heart as well!

We learned so much from him not only because he is a great professional in the SEO industry, but a sharing and carrying person as well. And I know from the bottom of my heart that he will continue spreading knowledge, sharing SEO wisdom and macro pictures of flowers from CA as he keep on doing till now.

We are all keeping our fingers crossed for a fast and seamless recovery as soon as possible!

And Bill, thank you! Thank you from every single one of us!

And for the curious ones - here you can see the webinar that we did together: serp.ac/mlv

I had already been involved in SEO for 3 yrs, when in 2010 I came across Bill on Twitter. I have tweeted with him on numerous occasions and always look forward to his blog posts on upcoming patents and what they could mean about the way our wonderful world was evolving.

I actually managed to inspire a blog post (one of my proudest moment) when I tagged him in a heated debate about paid guest blogging with a mummy blogger. I even got a link back from his site! This was before I had even heard of outreach!!

Amazing chap and has definitely influenced me in SEO

I’ve known Bill for over a decade now. He took our thoughts about correlation to a more literal causation with patents from Google so we could connect the dots. Everyone in the industry is grateful for his continuous research and reporting about Google algorithm changes. Whenever I am having serious questions I honestly would go to him before a clearer answer than even folks that work at Google for the most part. I am thankful to call him a friend. Here’s to another decade Bill!

Bill is just an all-around great human being, but the thing I appreciate about him most is his dogged determination to get to the truth of things, to never settle for hearssay or popular takes. So many times he’s pushed me in my thinking.

December 28 2005, some of the headlines from Danny Sullivan's "Search Engine Report" included "Revisiting The 'No Banners On Google' Declaration," "Craigslist Not Blocking Major Crawlers," and "Patents, Google and Acquisitions..." where Bill listed some impressive insights on patents Google collected from purchased companies. SEObythesea.com became a go-to source for understanding the components and thinking from the search engine's point of view. Bill's concise descriptions and unbiased insights educated me and thousands of others early in their SEO career. We spoke at the same conferences, but didn't end up on the same panels.

So in 2019, I caught Bill in the hall at Pubcon Vegas and thanked him for his work. The conversation quickly went into law, careers, Python for automating tasks and measurement, and of course, the hot topic, at the time, of knowledge graphs. Bill's generosity and depth of knowledge were even more apparent in person. I mentioned what OMCP was doing for digital marketing standards and Bill didn't hesitate to offer his help, should we need it in the future.

A month later Bill joined me on a podcast for OMCP to help folks study up for SEO exams. He didn't ask the audience size, or for anything in return. He just jumped in and shared. And of course, the content remains authoritative and helpful for future SEOs.

That's how we met. And even with a setback like last week's Bill continues to post, help, and encourage those within the digital marketing world and beyond. Here's to a speedy recovery and a hope that all things work out for good. -Michael