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I was chatting with some people you might call "influencers" in SEO recently.

When I mentioned how stoked I was on how we've been doing here on Pro Webmasters lately, replies echoed "Old school, love it!!"

If I'm being honest, 90% of regulars here know more about Search Engine Optimization than anyone that might identify as "influencers" within the SEO community.

And it's a G%^ D%$N shame.

But I wonder if part of the reason our site is not as popular/known anymore is that it is perceived by newer "SEOs" as being less relevant for up-to-date stuff.

I'm fine with not being cool in fact I prefer it in most cases, but there's a lot of knowledge here that doesn't get the credit it deserves.

Personally, I love this site for what it is. We blend SEO, with Systems Administration, to even backend stuff that I'm often inclined to flag to go to Server Fault but don't because I'm proud that we handle it here.

Are people still becoming "webmasters" tho?

How do we best ensure the longevity of this site?

Food for thought. Not like we have much control over such a thing.

But just saying I own serpoverflow.com and I'm happy to part with it.

Unfortunately we're stuck on a subdomain......forever.......

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    There are some great observations here! I do agree that "Pro Webmasters" has a very old-school ring to it. You're right that it's a term that's not really used a lot anymore. Just to throw a random idea into the hat for the sake of brainstorming: "Website Administration Stack Exchange".
    – Maximillian Laumeister Mod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 8:21
  • Appreciate the support, Max. My initial brain dump: "Website Administration", in my view, retains the ambiguity that may plague us. In my opinion, while we once had a broad term "Webmasters" to define a group you'd go to for a variety of things, as you've agreed...we don't use it anymore. I think by becoming more specific, we shed that ambiguity whilst bolstering all related SE sites around us. ServerFault and WordPress SE come top of mind.
    – Mike Ciffone
    Jan 4, 2022 at 8:51
  • What do you mean by "becoming more specific?"
    – Maximillian Laumeister Mod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 8:59
  • seo.stackexchange.com vs webmasters.stackexchange.com
    – Mike Ciffone
    Jan 4, 2022 at 9:01
  • 2
    While SEO is our biggest tag, it is just one of the topics we cover. I don't think we'd want to focus our name just on that. I personally hate the acronym SERP. I usually replace it with "search results" when I edit posts.
    – Stephen Ostermiller Mod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 9:07
  • It's just an example dude @StephenOstermiller you get what I mean
    – Mike Ciffone
    Jan 4, 2022 at 9:10
  • 1
    Forget about the domain, that's a forgone conclusion. I'm attempting to help solve a clear problem.
    – Mike Ciffone
    Jan 4, 2022 at 9:14
  • 6
    I've never like the "pro" in "Pro Webmasters." See Why "Pro" in "Pro Webmasters". I'd be happy rebranding our site to something like "Website Administration", but I worry that "websites.stackexchange.com" would be too ambiguous. I'd want to keep the webmasters subdomain but change the logo and page titles if we did that.
    – Stephen Ostermiller Mod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 9:15
  • 3
    To me, "webmasters" is outdated because it isn't a viable career option. Companies don't hire a webmaster. They either hire teams of specialists to build a website or contract with a company for their website. Nobody has "webmaster" as their job title. "Website Administration" describes the process rather than career and doesn't feel outdated to me.
    – Stephen Ostermiller Mod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 10:28
  • 1
    @MikeCiffone I get what you mean now by being more specific with the brand, I just personally struggle to think of a good candidate name that encompasses the breadth of this SE. I'm open to ideas!
    – Maximillian Laumeister Mod
    Jan 4, 2022 at 21:20
  • 3
    I think we need a N00bWebmasters to complement Pro.
    – Mentalist
    Jan 6, 2022 at 5:38
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    @MikeCiffone Some quick concepts. These are community property, any SE member should feel free to download, edit, remix. Would love to get others making concepts too. The more ideas the merrier! dropbox.com/s/ki1frgr5vxexnhq/webmasters-logo.ai?dl=0
    – Maximillian Laumeister Mod
    Jan 6, 2022 at 7:24
  • 1
    I say we iterate on the second one. The first looks too much like my modem (Surfboard), and I think using the same logo would be counterproductive to rebranding.
    – Mike Ciffone
    Jan 6, 2022 at 7:29
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    Chiming in from another site: it's very unlikely you're going to be able to get your logo changed, and perhaps less likely that Stack Exchange will use a logo suggested by the community. Plenty of other sites have suggested logos, and of those that did get a custom design afterwards (since 2014), none of them have got their community design. The company doesn't use community designs, as far as I'm aware.
    – wizzwizz4
    Jan 10, 2022 at 23:24
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    "But I wonder if part of the reason our site is not as popular/known anymore is that it is perceived by newer "SEOs" as being less relevant for up-to-date stuff." I do hope that this Q&A site is not only for "SEO" questions, but everything related to running a website. So in that case, various groups of people will come and go depending on their interests and the values they perceive out of this website. You can imagine later a wave about "Web3" topics for example.
    – Patrick Mevzek
    Jan 17, 2022 at 19:48

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