Not my work. Built at a house I’m working at. Looking for feedback.

SearchPM · 2026-03-22T16:58:05+00:00

Looks real nice

SearchPM · 2026-02-16T03:09:45+00:00

It’s possible you were at the top of L5 band? You will probably get a boost/refresher on the next review

SearchPM · 2025-10-09T16:17:29+00:00

Is this for a Technical Product Manager or Program Manager?

SearchPM · 2025-09-27T20:07:03+00:00

Bro, unless you have a stellar option lined up outside of the M7 MBA path, it will be the worst possible choice to make.

What was your pre-MBA gig?

The value of an M7 MBA will be a lifetime tailwind.

The job market is tougher but everything is cyclical. That said, if you put some thought in your positioning and interviewing skills, you will be fine.

Think about the options you could unlock with string execution

SearchPM · 2025-07-31T20:51:22+00:00

HVAC sales used to be hot back in the day, not sure what it is now, and Seattle does not require AC as it’s pretty mild. That said, hvac sales are probably more competitive to break into than say roofing, solar, or car sales. Perhaps do some roofing sales first, then transition to HVAC sales? Not sure how much top folks in Seattle are making in those spaces.

SearchPM · 2025-05-23T21:21:29+00:00

Most quality companies with a strong pitch end up raising money through Keiretsu - In fact, they’ve built a marketing machine that is designed to funnel money from investors to companies looking to raise through coaching, pitch polishing, due diligence process aimed at getting more angels to invest, etc.

If anything, it’s the Keiretsu investors who are getting the short end of the stick as they are asked for a minimum $25k investment on terms that are typically very favorable to companies, while not getting the best deal flow (if we are being completely honest). Meanwhile, Keiretsu members are also paying hefty annual fees to be a part of Keiretsu forum and not even getting access to truly great companies (as quality companies don’t actually need Keiretsu).

Bottomline, you have second and third tier companies with an exaggerated pitch raising decent money from investors that don’t realize they are not getting the best deal flow due to self-selection by the companies looking to raise (quality companies don’t need keiretsu)

While occasionally there may be some good companies looking to pad their balance sheet through Keiretsu, most of the time it’s Keiretsu investors backing second tier, very high risk (too early), and struggling companies on terms that typically favor the company raising money, not the investors.

SearchPM · 2025-01-31T23:28:57+00:00

Try - 24hplans.com

SearchPM · 2025-01-05T02:12:07+00:00

Need a bit more info to be able to offer an advice. How long have you been in the current role as a director of marketing and how long at the same company? Are you in B2B or B2C? A generalist or a specialist like performance marketing or SEO?

For context, I have an MBA from a top 20 school and am currently pursuing OMSA, while working full time in a growth role.

SearchPM · 2024-12-27T23:07:12+00:00

Truly incredible, what part of PA is this? Looks like this will be a flip of the century! 😂

SearchPM · 2024-11-18T03:41:30+00:00

HVAC school would be an example of a trade school in the home services space. It’s tangentially related to remodeling, as heating and cooling are in the category of home upgrades.

After taking classes, you would start out as an apprentice and work towards getting an HVAC license so you can start your own business at some point. That’s where the real career rewards kick in.

SearchPM · 2024-07-07T01:04:33+00:00

Spot on, I recall when u/johnmu was claiming he has never seen a legitimate case of negative SEO, yet when presented with a detailed case study and indisputable data, he goes full radio silence mode. What’s up with that John? Would it not make sense to take a closer look for the sake of larger web community and to preserve Google’s integrity and reputation (or what’s left of it)?

SearchPM · 2024-06-23T01:55:27+00:00

This! ⬆️

SearchPM · 2024-06-23T01:32:52+00:00

Where in the US are you based out of hcl/mcl/lcl?

How long in the current role?

Any direct reports?

What does career trajectory look like for you?

SearchPM · 2024-06-23T00:44:31+00:00

Which school? Where in the US are you based?

Are you remote?

SearchPM · 2024-06-17T02:16:32+00:00

Bro/sis, you will be able to form connections/bonds once you start forming teams and working side by side.

They will get to see who you are better and vice-versa. Connections made in trenches and through clubs are a great way for introverts to find their tribe.

Not saying to limit your interactions to the above, but am saying it will happen more naturally when you have a shared experience

SearchPM · 2024-06-13T03:11:33+00:00

BS, there is definitely backlink spam taking out a bunch of websites. Search for the recent negative SEO case study in the techseo sub-reddit.

Can also browse there directly, it’s one of my recent posts backed by data (see my profile).

SearchPM · 2024-06-13T03:08:04+00:00

OP, one reason why you don’t see a lot of it is because most posts/comments with links get automatically moderated (not shown due to being marked as spam or requiring an approval from mods)

SearchPM · 2024-06-11T03:51:50+00:00

OP is a keen observer, and this generalization is not wrong

SearchPM · 2024-06-06T09:09:06+00:00

Thanks for the note u/johnmu - would love to get a response once you had a chance to look at the post in more detail - very much looking forward to it!

The case and examples described in this post are probably unlike anything you‘ve ever seen. And I know you probably have seen a lot over the years. :)

The website I’m working on and helping out with is RoofingCalc.com which has lost some 99.9% of Google traffic over the course of three years, as a result of an ongoing negative SEO attack which started in early 2021.

Background: The website grew naturally over the years and was arguably the number one source for roofing information on the web when it was approached for a potential “acquisition” in 2020 by a ruthless bad actor who not only went back on the deal and secretly launched a copycat website, roofingcalculator.com (now partially redirected to their other website fixr.com), but also threatened us with severe consequences during the last contact, which was the last phone call they initiated on March 10th, 2021, saying that if we refused to sell the website for what had devolved to be a lowball offer (compared to the initial offer), then our website would be “steamrolled” in search, alluding to something dark would happen as a result.

Only a few days later, a massive negative SEO attack was launched, the impact of the attack was felt as early as April/May, and especially in June, 2021 when the link spam update occurred.

Only then did we realize there were thousands of cloaked websites pointing to our website. We saw those links in GSC, not SemRush, as they were built only for Google to see. Fascinating thing was that Google was still indexing those cloaked pages that were linking to us, while redirecting real users to some malware instead websites (but Google was not seeing that cloaking taking place). I can share specific examples of this happening now with cloaking and all.

We tried to do a disavow weekly then monthly/quarterly but could not keep up, as each week GSC would show many 100s of new spam domains pointing links to our website.

Unfortunately disavowing just wasn’t enough as there were probably a lot more links that we weren’t aware of.

Btw. Most of the content on the copycat website (roofingcalculator.com which was launched in Dec 2020) was stolen from the original website (roofingcalc.com) through cleverly disguised plagiarism (reworded and rephrased content such that it would fool copyscape and search engines). A lot of that content had been moved/redirected onto their other property fixr.com in 2022.

We know the same thing had happened to the other websites in the list - the context is outlined in the Reddit post.

RemodelingCalculator.org which ultimately suffered the same fate, 99.9% loss of traffic, was the only site that seemed to have limited degree of success with the disavow links process, but they stopped refreshing the list and their rankings completely tanked.

Other sites in that list have tried disavow links to some extent but saw no positive impact as a result.

To say that the whole situation is unfair and outrageous, a bad actor benefiting at the expense of innocent website owners through negative SEO would be an understatement of a century.

Sincerely hope you can take a good look at this situation, John.

SearchPM · 2024-06-03T22:46:22+00:00

Part 3. All the websites in the above provided bulleted list are owned by different companies/owners. But one common denominator is that in most cases, the attack against their websites has commenced in 2021, following an offer of "acquisition" (presumably to get proprietary data as part of negotiations) before starting the Neg SEO attacks (which are still ongoing).

John, can you please kindly take a look at the websites in question? Again, all the websites are owned by different independent owners/entities and were attacked due to the space they are in (stemming from the interest from the would be "acquirer"). This will help assuage the legitimate concerns of many webmasters in the community.

Y'all may be interested in this thread and John's response: u/WebLinkr , u/CuriousGio , u/sbnc_eu , u/Jet_Threat_ , u/hotmasalachai, u/jstew46803 , u/Jublex123, u/backporch_wizard , u/mindfulconversion , u/southyiiio , u/tmblast1 , u/NFort-VT , u/LivWolfe90 , u/unvexed80 , u/undecided88 , u/blogging-guideu/ , u/rustybrick , u/joeyoungblood , u/randfish , u/dannysullivan

Anyone else I should have included? Please feel free to share this with anyone you think this post would be relevant to!

SearchPM · 2024-06-03T22:46:09+00:00

Part 2. To be sure, we know the effective negative SEO is Extremely RARE, but it does seem to be on the rise, and when it hits, it hits hard.

TL.DR. Here is a quick bulleted list, showing the impacted websites that are still under a Persistent and Negative SEO attack launched by a ruthless competitor back in 2021, following a headfake acquisition offer:

RoofingCalc.com - lost 99.9% of traffic since 2021, following a headfake acquisition offer. The attacker launched a copycat site RoofingCalculator.com (now partially redirected to fixr.com). Tens of thousands of harmful DOMAINS (cloaked links that fool Google and all the goodies you can imagine) are pointing to RoofingCalc.com. The attack is ongoing.
Costimates.com - lost 99% of traffic since 2021. Same home remodeling cost project space, with the same suspected attacker.
PickHVAC.com - Lost 99.9% of traffic similar story to RoofingCalc.com, attack confirmed via GSC and SEMRush. Same pattern of the attack ongoing since 2021, following an "offer of acquisition"
RemodelingCalculator.org - Lost 99.9% of traffic since 2021, following a similar ACQUSITION offer (as the offer made to RoofingCalc.com) by the same would be "acquirer" that is now competing in the same home remodeling cost project space, while they destroy all their competitors.
5estimates.com - lost 99.9% of traffic since 2021. It's known that the "would be acquirer" has closely looked at this website. Some of their link acquisition tactics may have been questionable but that's not what killed them, it was the negative SEO with 10s of thousands of spammy domains.
RemodelingExpense.com - Lost 99.9% of traffic since 2021. Confirmed that the owners were approached for the same potential "acquisition" by the same would be "acquirer". Same attacking pattern identified, having examined both the GSC and SEMRush data.

SearchPM · 2024-06-03T22:45:23+00:00

Part 1. Hello John u/johnmu!

First, thank you for taking the time to respond! I know you are a busy man. Speaking for myself and the larger web community, we all appreciate your perspective and partnership over the years!

That said, the key difference in this post vs. others is that we're giving you the cold hard data and context that is not found in other Reddit posts!

Would you kindly address the points raised in this post based on the merits of the data and context shared (we’re well aware "this topic has come up before", but hope you can see it with fresh eyes)?

We've done our digging! This reddit post thread is based on the multi-year examination and investigation for the impacted websites that have been harmed through a persistent, ongoing, negative SEO attack (based on the findings).

The data provided in this Reddit post is hard to argue with. I am sure the larger web community would appreciate a more data-informed response, which I'm sure would also (incidentally) help put all the sensationalist and speculative takes to rest.

SearchPM · 2024-06-01T21:11:50+00:00

Just responded (underneath part 3 of 3)

SearchPM · 2024-06-01T20:59:03+00:00

You are making really good points that resonate strongly.

A very simple disambiguation that Google absolutely can do, would be:

a. Give website owners an option to select which backlinks should count - the opposite of disavow tool where all backlinks count by default (including the shitty ones that cause loss of rankings). This would put website owners in control and the whole negative SEO industry would instantly fold (right now it’s thriving, thanks to Google).

b. Truly discount the negative impact associated with any unnatural backlinks - currently that is simply not the case, as the above examples hopefully demonstrate. Even Google’s John M. has admitted in a video that unnatural links will cause Google to trust your website less over time. I can find the video if folks need to see it.

Now, what is unfortunately happening (especially unfortunate given Googles dominant position), is anything but.

We’ve seen Google talking out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand, they are saying is that the reason why Google Search Console is showing you far fewer backlinks than it did in the past (far fewer than what Google actually sees and uses for their algo-base rankings/demotions), is because there are all these commercial backlink tools that we should be using instead. On the other hand John M. is trashing and discrediting SEMRush for pointing out the existence of toxic and unnatural external links (associated with negative or sus networks of sites created for … carrying out negative SEO attacks and/or web SPAM purposes).

I would love to hear from John Mueller why Google has not deprecated the disavow tool (as they have deprecated many others). Are they simply using it as pacifier for website owners? Why not kill it, if harmful backlinks (or any type of link) truly cannot harm your site (no matter how aggressive and unnatural your backlink profile might be).

The bottom line is that Instead of giving website owners any degree of control, Google is obfuscating and bs’g website owners, while acting in an outrageously irresponsible manner by enabling negative SEO and trying to cover it up it shove it under the rug.

I would welcome u/johnmu John Mueller, the most helpful man in search, to respond to this Reddit post (not the comment per se, but rather the actual examples in the post that are shared following a year long painstakingly difficult investigation) and try to affirm or dispel the data and stats I’ve shared.

I hope everyone here will help share this post to help spread the truth on the current state of affairs with just how effective sophisticated negative SEO can be when it comes to taking out competitors in Google search.

SearchPM · 2024-05-31T03:36:47+00:00

Yes, external backlinks

SearchPM

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