Some of us were in a marketing group going at it about who the best SEO is. Egos everywhere.

Bruce Clay shut it down without trying to. Here’s what he actually wrote:

A real exchange with Bruce in the Help Me Out group.

Bruce died last month. The Father of SEO. He coined the term “search engine optimization”– the literal name of the thing a few hundred thousand of us do for a living. And there he is in a Facebook group, telling everybody to knock it off and go help somebody.

“No room for ego. Why bother… too busy.”

That’s Bruce. The whole man, in one line.

The best advice he ever gave me

He did this for me personally too. More than once.

The one I’ll never forget: years ago I was undercharging. Badly. I’m running paid search for Yahoo, American Airlines, JC Penney– and still talking myself into discounts. Who am I to charge real money, right?

Bruce set me straight. Declare yourself the best at your thing, he said. Half the people will think you’re crazy. The other half will figure you must be. So say it out loud– and raise your prices to match.

“If you declare yourself to be the best at your thing, half the people will think you’re crazy– and half will conclude that you must be.”

I did it. It worked. A big chunk of whatever reputation I’ve got started with that one chat. It’s underneath why we don’t sell SEO anymore and most of what I tell agency owners about pricing.

He’d earned the right to say it. Bruce was one of the first to turn SEO into a real, multi-million-dollar business– back when nobody could even agree what to call the work.

What Bruce actually did

Typed “search engine optimization” lately? Those are Bruce’s words. He coined the term. Danny Sullivan confirmed it years ago.

He started Bruce Clay, Inc. in 1996, on his dining room table, and ran it for thirty years. He wrote the SEO Code of Ethics when nobody in this business cared about ethics. Content siloing? His. The 746-page SEO All-in-One for Dummies? His. He taught more than 5,000 people, with offices from Tokyo to Sydney to Milan. He sponsored the first SEO conference there ever was.

Thirty years at the top. And he still answered my messages.

How I knew him

Bruce and I worked the same conference circuit for years– SES, SMX, Pubcon. Back in 2009, his team wrote up my paid-search talk in Sydney on the Bruce Clay blog. Think about that. I’m a nobody PPC kid and the Father of SEO’s company is covering my session.

That was Bruce. He pulled people up.

Ask anyone who knew him and you get the same answer. Barry Schwartz said he was probably the most caring guy in any room. Roger Montti said if Bruce was talking to you, you were the most important person there. Somebody called him the Yoda of search. All of it’s true.

Thanks, Bruce

“We need more people like you.” I told him that, in that same chat up top. Meant it then. Mean it more now.

And yeah– I built this page right. Clean code, real links, real schema. Felt wrong to cut corners on SEO for the guy who invented it.

Thanks, Bruce. For the name. For the kick in the pants on pricing. For never being too big to answer a message and help somebody out.

— Dennis

More on his passing: Bruce Clay, Inc., Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Roundtable.