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Posts by Rand Fishkin:

Personal

On Being Wrong and Not Knowing the Answer

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
There’s the naive view of expertise – the one that we all have as young people – where we think that Eddie Vedder must know absolutely everything there is to know about rock music and Peyton Manning must know more than anyone else about the game of American Football. And then, there’s the more nuanced view of expertise we all…
Startups

The 5 Best Things I [______] this Year

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
It’s quiet out there on social media. I’m in San Diego with my wife’s family for the holidays, as per usual. And, as per usual, my email’s a little slower than normal, my Twitter feed a little more empty, my Google+ feed likewise. It’s nice. But then, I find myself with 30 minutes on my in-laws’ couch, waiting for someone…
Marketing

Some Non-Obvious Advice on Thought Leadership

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
I don’t particularly like the phrase “thought leader” or “thought leadership” for two reasons: 1) just *thinking* about something doesn’t make you a leader, nor does being a leader enable you to simply think about things AND 2) the term has pretentious and sometimes negative associations. When I hear people describe me that way, I have a viscerally uncomfortable reaction.…
Moz Personal Psychology Startups

A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Yesterday morning I woke up early to speak at the Business of Software conference in Boston. It was my first time there, and it’s an exceptional group. Then, after some meetings, I spoke in the afternoon at Hubspot’s Inbound conference (thankfully just across a long skybridge that connects Boston’s World Trade Center from its Convention Center). This morning, I woke…
Data Hiring Startups

Making Agency Numbers More Transparent

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Benchmarks are an incredible tool for business owners and operators. They tell us where we sit on the spectrum and make our strengths and weaknesses transparent. Without them, we’re often left to wonder – am I any good at this? (Kitchen pie chart via Jotun Türkiye) Here’s a conversation I recently had with the founder of a marketing agency: Founder:…
Data Marketing

Queries & Clicks May Influence Google’s Results More Directly Than Previously Suspected

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
For a long time, folks in the search, technology, and marketing worlds have surmised that Google is using query and clickthrough data to bias search result rankings. I recently observed several examples of this via some industry colleagues (that, unfortunately, I cannot share publicly), and thought, “what the heck, let’s give it a spin.” On April 30th, at 6:03pm Pacific,…

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