Whoa, It’s Been a Year?! Reflections On 53 Weeks of Hamsterdam SEO News Recaps

By Ethan Lazuk

Time flies when you’re having fun, or maybe eyeballs deep in muddy waters. (That’ll make sense toward the end.)

This morning, I went to my site’s Hamsterdam page to make a few tweaks, and it hit me.

This week is the one-year anniversary of the first SEO news recap!

I didn’t realize it when I created the latest article (Part 53), so I felt like taking a few moments now to talk about the project and what I’ve learned so far.

But Ethan, WTH is Hamsterdam?

Ah, I don’t blame you for asking. My goal is that by the time we hit the two-year anniversary, no one will have to. 😉

Hamsterdam is weekly recaps of SEO and AI news, tips, and resources that get published every Sunday as blog posts and then shared on X, LinkedIn, and in a newsletter. There are also two spin-off projects for SEO history and AI research.

Hamsterdam started as blog posts for personal use.

I was liking all these great tweets about SEO every week, but I’d hardly look at them again. It seemed like a waste.

Hamsterdam was created as a repository for those tweets.

The project was originally called “The Twitter Files,” but then in week 15, Twitter rebranded to X, so The Twitter Files rebranded to “The X Files.”

If you’re unfamiliar, X-Files was a TV series created by Chris Carter and starring the characters Scully and Mulder. My household growing up was obsessed with it.

The funny part is, The Twitter Files was already X-Files themed!

The design was also intentionally made to appear cobbled together and low-budget.

Both were tributes to my childhood, ha.

In the early Twitter Files recaps, I simply copied over some tweets, added a few boilerplate sentences, and called it a day. Several of those then got designated “Crawled – currently not indexed,” the ultimate Google diss.

So I started adding introductions and user-centric adjustments.

I also got inspired to expand the project beyond X (Twitter) content.

That necessitated changing the name again, this time from The X Files to “Hamsterdam.”

The concept behind Hamsterdam is that everyone is welcome, there are no agendas, and the only criterion is the information shared must be a thoughtful SEO or AI insight.

Some of the early recaps are now lost to history, unfortunately, but I still have the very first one!

I’m also proud to say that Hamsterdam has been published for 53 weeks straight, except that one week we got hacked, so I did a two-weeker the following week.

But why the name Hamsterdam? It sounds ridiculous. Or maybe not …

Hamsterdam sounds like an odd name for an SEO project at first, doesn’t it? After all, there’s no inherent SEO reference.

Or is there?

Hamsterdam was a group of fictitious communities in the TV show The Wire, as well as the name for Season 3, Episode 4:

In The Wire, Hamsterdam was set up by a Baltimore police officer named Major Colvin, who created unofficial “free zones” to move street activity away from neighborhoods.

These free zones soon came to include social services for all types of people.

The name Hamsterdam was a joke of sorts, based on a mispronunciation of “Amsterdam.”

At the same time, the concept was serious business.

Similarly, while SEO can be a more light-hearted job than some, the work we do can also impact people’s lives.

Behind the clicks in Google Search Console or traffic trends in Semrush or Ahrefs are people making decisions for their welfare based on content we create, not to mention the impacts on businesses and their employees who depend on quality traffic.

The dichotomy of Hamsterdam to me analogizes the nuances of SEO work, hence the name.

Interesting, but it’s been a year of these recaps now, so what did you learn?

Back when I was an SEO manager agency side, I used to share these recaps with the team because I believed they are a wealth of knowledge.

It’s also helpful for research to look at the context of a time period, such as the speculations in July or August of 2023, just before the third helpful content update rolled out.

Besides SEO learnings, I also had a few personal ones. Maybe they’ll be of use to you in your projects, as well.

The first thing I learned is that I have biases

In the early years of my career, if an article or tweet related to “SEO,” I was interested.

However, I realized that over time I’d gravitated toward certain schools of thought, based on the resources I was following.

Since Hamsterdam recaps encapsulate what I see in my feeds each week, it’s not really a comprehensive or even an objective SEO recap. It’s just my recap.

That was the first lesson.

The next thing I learned was to follow my passion

Rick Rubin, a music producer, once shared a sentiment that impacted my work:

“It turns out that when you truly make something for yourself, you’re doing the best thing you possibly can for the audience.”

– Rick Rubin

I apply a tempered version of this when I advise clients on their content, but for my own blog, I follow a more literal version.

Every Hamsterdam recap has music, a history lesson, and an introduction about a contemporary topic, all of personal interest.

Is that the best way to create an SEO news recap for the most reach and engagement?

Probably not, ha.

Furthermore, I usually don’t tag people who I include in recaps on social media. The reason is that I like to include everything I find valuable, and it’d be impossible to choose only a few to mention — no dampening factors. 😉

I’ve also taken more of an interest in AI news lately, specifically for machine learning and neural networks. It’s a cool topic, but also more of a niche subject for an SEO recap.

I’ve also started a couple of spin-off projects in Hamsterdam History and Hamsterdam Research, which cover SEO history and AI research, both topics borne of personal interest.

Have some people doubted Hamsterdam, including its name, concept, and even value? Yes, for sure.

However, I’ve found that following my passion gives me the drive to create these articles every week.

Passion fuels effort, inspiration, and overcoming doubt and even discouragement. It’s also what makes it all fun and worth it!

That was the second lesson.

I also learned that with a voice comes responsibility

Even though I create Hamsterdam articles according to my interests, I’m also sensitive to the fact that your time is valuable, and the articles should honor that.

I’m still learning how best to do all of this.

The Hamsterdam Newsletter was created by your request, for example.

And I’m also still working out the best ways to structure these news recaps and other articles.

However, I’m also motivated to gain visibility because I see how Hamsterdam can shed light on other important topics.

One of my favorite introductions so far featured the African-American history museum in Orlando’s Parramore district.

As the Hamsterdam project evolves, I hope to use the news recaps to promote more social and cultural causes.

The last thing I learned (well, continued knowing) is that I have a great wife

Dania affords me time every week to work on these Hamsterdam recaps and side projects.

I’m a full-time independent consultant, so I’m fortunate to have a flexible schedule, but Hamsterdam is also, quite literally, a free-time project.

The recaps take time on the weekends that we could spend going on hikes with our dog, Wuffiyah, or even just going to the store together.

If Dania wasn’t supportive, I wouldn’t be able to do this (or most things). That also fuels my drive to work hard at making Hamsterdam worthwhile.

Having said all of that, life is short, so I’m also learning how to publish recaps a little faster or even get a head start to make more time for us (and, of course, Wuffiyah, too).

That’s a perpetual lesson.

Sounds great, so what does the future look like for Hamsterdam?

Glad you asked! Three words.

My first goal is to keep finding more voices to follow for SEO and AI insights.

The only requirement for inclusion in Hamsterdam is that someone shares helpful information. Everyone is equal.

Google Discover has been a helpful resource for following topics and discovering more authors.

I’m also aware that X today isn’t what SEO Twitter used to be, so I’m committed to being better about visiting LinkedIn, Mastodon, and other social platforms. That includes Reddit.

The second goal is to level up the quality of the spin-off projects.

I want to learn about and help shed light on SEOs’ past contributions as much as present ones. Most recently through Hamsterdam History, I was fortunate to discover the legacy of Eric Ward, for example.

I’m also committed to learning more about AI and machine learning so that I can help SEOs and businesses understand the evolution of search.

Still another goal is to improve the quality of these articles.

I want to get better as a writer in order to construct more concise and engaging posts that every learner can get the most value from.

My last goal is to keep doing what I feel passionate about and living in the moment.

Sometimes projects like Hamsterdam can feel like wading eyeballs deep in muddy waters, with no clear direction or purpose.

But it’s the satisfaction in small moments that builds the bigger picture.

I hope to always remember this project is about sharing serious SEO knowledge in a fun way, where the effort is the reward.

Or to quote The Wire’s smartest character:

“A life. A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s the shit that happens while you’re waiting for moments that never come.”

– Lester Freamon

One year down, Hamsterdam. Many more to come!

“Eyeballs deep in muddy water”

You can visit the Hamsterdam page to learn more, or sign up for the free newsletter.

Like all Hamsterdam articles, this one needs a musical track.

You’ll often see references to TOOL’s music throughout my blog, and in true Hamsterdam spirit, I chose a song that felt passionately right in this moment, which is also the best thing for you, the audience, or so I heard. 😉

See you next year for another anniversary, and, hopefully, every week in between now and then for new weekly SEO news recaps.

Until then, enjoy the vibes:

Thanks for reading. Happy optimizing! 🙂