Upgrade to PRO for Only $50/Year—Limited-Time Offer! 🔥
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Fear and Loathing in Las Malaga: Move On, Be Br...
Search
Wayne Barker
June 17, 2022
Marketing & SEO
0
160
Fear and Loathing in Las Malaga: Move On, Be Brave And Take The Bullshit By The Horns
This is where I encourage SEOs to ditch the checklists and use their eyes and brains.
Wayne Barker
June 17, 2022
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Wayne Barker
See All by Wayne Barker
Dark Patterns and Weaponized Design
wayneb77
0
33
Star Wars, SEO Mistakes, And Why Nothing Is Ever Your Fault
wayneb77
0
33
Game over? The fight for quality and originality in the time of robots
wayneb77
1
52
Spoilers and Plot Twists: AI, Changing Search and The Human Touch
wayneb77
0
57
Be More Punk. Fuck The Experts
wayneb77
0
140
Fear and Loathing At The Malaga Digital Marketing Meetup
wayneb77
0
110
When Wayney Met Petey
wayneb77
0
100
Why SEO Won’t Look The Same This Time Next Year
wayneb77
0
250
AI; Should You? A Cautionary SEO Tale
wayneb77
0
100
Other Decks in Marketing & SEO
See All in Marketing & SEO
Sitekwaliteit is dé nr. 1 ranking factor - Eduard Blacquière - SEO Benelux meetup (mei 2025)
seoproacademy
0
180
Have SEOs Ruined the Internet? - User Awareness of SEO in 2025
akashhashmi
0
160
BrightonSEO - Matt Beswick
bezz1234
0
320
How to maximise AI Search visibility through query fan-out insight (and KGraph)
gfiorelli1
0
430
100,000 SEO Articles Later, What Actually Ranks in 2025
lukeheinecke
0
240
Automating content optimisation with the help of semantic value
frankvandijk
1
860
How digital authority PR is redefining brand influence
bubblegumsearch
0
260
WebTop100 2025: AI a AI Overviews, AI mode: Od pochopenà dramatické změny ve vyhledávánà k optimalizaci
pavelungr
0
110
How embeddings unlock the path to intent-driven optimization
frankvandijk
1
270
BrightonSEO 2025 - Lies, Damned Lies & SEO Reports
slickettsdigital
0
210
Topical Authority na Era do Entity SEO
felipebazon
0
460
Optimizing your website for AI agents
zachrattner
0
270
Featured
See All Featured
4 Signs Your Business is Dying
shpigford
186
22k
Writing Fast Ruby
sferik
630
62k
CoffeeScript is Beautiful & I Never Want to Write Plain JavaScript Again
sstephenson
162
15k
Done Done
chrislema
186
16k
BBQ
matthewcrist
89
9.9k
How to train your dragon (web standard)
notwaldorf
97
6.4k
[RailsConf 2023] Rails as a piece of cake
palkan
58
6.1k
Six Lessons from altMBA
skipperchong
29
4.1k
Embracing the Ebb and Flow
colly
88
4.9k
GitHub's CSS Performance
jonrohan
1032
470k
RailsConf & Balkan Ruby 2019: The Past, Present, and Future of Rails at GitHub
eileencodes
140
34k
jQuery: Nuts, Bolts and Bling
dougneiner
65
8.1k
Transcript
None
Hi. I’m back after a break.
A lot of you might not know me now we’re
online
So. A bit about me.
Yeah righto. Who gives a fuck. You wanna learn stuff.
So here we go.
I have a formula for this stuff.
Pop culture + something + SEO (maybe introduce quotes) =
presentation
Everyone claps. Wayne still goes home with imposter syndrome.
So. Going against the earlier slide I may say something
about me.
Love me. Feed my ego.
Right. 2020 was a bit of dick right?
Break the rules. I'm not saying anything for a while
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
I thought you did funny presentations Wayne.
And shouldn’t this be about digital marketing?
Hold your horses.
I've not done being depressing yet.
Remember I said that 2020 was more than just a
little bit shit?
Well I’m not one to brag but… mine was worse.
Sorry.
I’m not looking for sympathy. Trust me.
This has been shit for all of us. But I
do have a reason for talking about it.
I think.
Sorry.
So this is what happened to me during lockdown.
April 21st
4pm
YOU CAN LOOK AWAY NOW AMY
None
None
None
YOU CAN LOOK BACK NOW AMY
Lockdown was fun. 2 months in a hotel. 2 days
in a hotel. 3 months in temporary accommodation. 2 more days in a hotel.
Then…
None
We took the bullshit by the horns and packed all
our shit and moved to Malaga.
“A man who procrastinates in his choosing will inevitably have
his choice made for him by circumstance.” ― Hunter S. Thompson
Couple of days in a hotel. Airbnb for a month.
And we now have a home again.
So. Wayne. Why are you telling me this?
Things change. Be brave. Take the bullshit by the horns.
“Never turn your back on fear. It should always be
in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed.” ― Hunter S. Thompson
So. This does relate to SEO.
None
Shit changes. A lot.
Don’t rely on old SEO checklists.
I’m not saying don’t do the basics.
But best practice doesn’t cut it when everyone is doing
it.
Google is going to throw you curveballs.
Take the bullshit by the horns and step out of
your comfort zone. Be brave.
Spotting changes.
None
None
Don’t go back to your trusted checklists.
Its about using your eyes and gathering data. Not out
of date checklists.
Don’t fear the scraper. Don’t blindly trust experts. Trust your
eyes. Step away from what has come before.
None
None
None
None
None
None
SEO isn’t just words and HTML and stuff. …It’s everything.
Don’t fear stepping away from that checklist and process.
Ask for forgiveness not permission.
What do the sites that rank well actually look like?
None
None
None
None
You now have a bank of images of the design
of sites that do rank
Not a sodding old checklist
Lets dig deeper
ALL THE THINGS
Benchmark. No old fashioned checklist
None
v
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
None
Figure out who owns the SERPs.
None
None
None
None
Benchmark. That’s your new checklist.
It takes guts to step away from how you’ve always
done things. Be brave. Have no fear
It doesn’t matter how bad shit is. There’s always something
that can be done. Even the worst can look beautiful.
None
There’s ALWAYS light at the end of the tunnel.
It’s not always perfect.
None
None
But you have to make decisions for the long term.
Be brave.
Skate where the fuckin puck is going.
That’s how you win long term.
It will work out.
None
We can win. Just be brave. Don’t follow…
Just don’t follow….
The fuckin sheep…
Be brave. Don’t follow the herd.
Bye from Malaga. See you in person soon.
“Good people drink good beer.” ― Hunter S. Thompson