SparkToro Blog

Posts by Rand Fishkin:

Product Startups Team

Launching Adventure Teams at Moz

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Like many software companies moving from the early to growth stage, we’ve experienced our fair share of challenges and pains. At the start of 2012, there were ~50 Mozzers, a very flat management structure, and things like process, communication, and planning were fairly simple. But over the next 12 months, we more than doubled to nearly 120 (today 130+) and…
Marketing Startups

How Can a CEO Lead Social Media Efforts for Their Company?

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
One of the best parts about Foundry’s investment in Moz last Spring was the incredible access to other CEOs, founders, and companies in their portfolio. I’ve had at least a half dozen phone conversations, more than a dozen in-person chats, and a few invaluable get-togethers with my Foundry cousins and learned a tremendous amount every time. It’s something I hope…
Marketing

The First Existential Threat to SEO

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
There have been thousands of articles over the years proclaiming the “Death of SEO.” The topic is usually just a punching bag for page-view hungry publications with no interest in facts. But, this past week, with Google’s indications that keyword (not provided) would be headed to 100%, I wondered whether the next “SEO is Dead” article might actually have some…
Hiring Marketing

The T-Shaped Web Marketer

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
There’s been a good amount of talk on the web about the “T-Shaped” marketer becoming a model for the future. Several articles will go into more depth than I can, but I did want to share my thoughts on the topic and an illustration I made for a recent presentation.…
Startups

7 Unlikely Recommendations for Startups & Entrepreneurs

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
If you’ve been reading this blog much, you know I’m something of a contrarian. One of Moz’s core values is, in fact, to be the exception to the rule, and a big part of that comes from my personal ethos of going against the grain. I love the startup world, but I really love the weird, atypical, non-Valley, non-20-something-Ivy-Leaguers-trying-to-be-Zuckerburg startups.…
Personal Psychology

Ambition vs. Obligation

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Tonight, I’m up late, like I am almost every night. I wanted to write a different post – to put up a “big content” piece I worked on over the weekend while my wife was visiting family in California, but I got too behind on email and other obligations and so it will have to wait. But I couldn’t help…
Data Marketing

Vanity Metrics May Not Be All Bad

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
It’s becoming common wisdom in the SEO, startup, and marketing worlds that so-called vanity metrics are accursed trolls of numbers, sent from the fiery deep to confuse, mislead, and prey on the weak-minded marketer. E.g: In a lot of ways, I agree with posts like those Eric Ries has written on the topic. Pivoting based on actionable metrics vs. those…
Marketing

Google’s Updated SEO Advice is Almost Correct

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Here’s what Google used to say about how to improve rankings in their search engine results: “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.” Here’s what they say today: “In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by creating high-quality sites that users will…

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