Although I'd known Bill for years, it was mostly handshakes at various conference mixers, and head nods across crowded rooms up until a little over a year ago.

I reached out over Messenger to let him know that I was picking up my writing again and if he wouldn't mind taking a glance over things occasionally to make sure I didn't sound like a mad man.

I sent one of my articles early, a piece about the sad state of research studies in the SEO industry, and his notes filled the screen. So much so that I had to ask him, "Yeah, but is it correct? Do I have something here?"

"Yeah, you've got something."

When the piece was published, I sent him a link to see the final product. He unexpectedly shared it to his Twitter followers with an endorsement I never expected. The tweet gave the article more exposure than I could have ever done on my own. Discussions on the subject unfolded under his original tweet. Reactions were written and published. The article bruised some egos, but more importantly, people made commitments to do better.

Bill later asked if the book was going to be like that article. I told him its real purpose was as a textbook for my students at UCLA, and hopefully, a commercial release, but definitely more of the same.

"That should be interesting."

That was the shot in the arm I needed to redouble my efforts on the book writing.

I continued to send him snippets from the book or the bones of another work-in-progress for the Journal. His notes were always invaluable.

Just before his stroke, we chatted about an idea for a new article that would be a takedown of a metric based on a disproven theory that we both felt got way too much attention in our beloved industry. He was all for it. Of course, he'd take a look.

After the stroke, I checked in on him. I will keep our discussion private except to say that it was encouraging.

Get better, my friend.