I know. This is an oddly specific title for just my third post 1. Am I running out of ideas already?

Why write about the Seer Interactive Q&A chats on Google Plus that were put to bed over two years ago?

Besides having a minor man crush on Seer’s CEO, Wil Reynolds, the truth is I think this company is legit. I imagine it has its flaws like any other place, but from an outsider’s perspective, Seer seems to have the complete package.

• Great leadership – Take a look at Wil’s hiring philosophy, example of humility and challenge to the SEO community
• Great content – The IFTTT Recipe, How Tech Companies Make Money and Screaming Frog posts come to mind.
• Great company values – From social responsibility to their alumni network, they stand out in this area. 2
• Great results – Check out their case studies page.
• Great people – Here’s what a few employees have to say about their company culture.

Okay, let’s get back to the Q&As. I always appreciated them, not only because of the knowledge shared, but what it said about Seer as a company. First, it shows they care about the SEO community. While helping people do SEO better certainly has an indirect impact to their bottom line, it’s not like Seer’s target audience consists of SEO professionals. No, it’s companies that need SEO professionals. Secondly, it shows Seer is committed to excellence. Want to make sure someone knows their stuff? Make them answer really tough questions, without any preparation and put it on display for the world to see. It’s hard to fake that. So let’s move past this love fest and get to what I actually learned.

The only constant is vicious, rampant change in the world of SEO. While that’s the reality we know all too well, some facts do remain. Here are a few:

• Keyword Planner 1 is a PPC tool.
• Keyword Planner is made for PPC keyword research.
• Keyword Planner is NOT intended for organic keyword research.

STOP using Google’s Keyword Planner to measure organic competition!

Ok, that was a little much. The point is it’s imperative to understand where Keyword Planner can be an effective tool for SEO keyword research and where it can lead you astray. One of those ways it can trip you up is by misunderstanding the “competition” score from the tool.

Straight from the mouth of Google, the Keyword Planner competition is:

I lied. Sadly, they’re all true.

I’ve had an atypical background for someone in the SEO industry. I didn’t grow up tinkering with websites, publishing articles, writing code, crunching numbers, daydreaming about Madison Avenue or anything else related. I was a normal kid from the country who