I completely credit Bill for keeping me in SEO. At about my year 10, I was ready to call it quits frustrated at "keywords + content" being the 'only' thing. You all remember I'm sure "Content is King" and SEO is dead, frustrated and a bad writer, I considered leaving the 'biz'.
I attended Bill speaking at a conference ( shoutout PubCon), when I saw him speak about patents and the impact of these in the future, I was immediately drawn back to SEO with a technical spin. I began learning everything I could in regards to Technical SEO, unbeknownst to him he saved me from a mundane SEO'less future. I've since moved through my career at year 26, I know I'll never stop. Currently, working with automation and applying robotic process automation to 'bots' to use alongside the industry tools, I am learning something about SEO absolutely every day.
Speaking with Bill at recent Pubcon ( woohoo Vegas), his humility and brilliance, was refreshing and I found myself just standing near him so I could listen to others' questions and his responses and I STILL learned something.
Thank you, Bill - get well soon!