SparkToro Blog

Posts by Rand Fishkin:

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…
Events

I’m Swapping CEO Roles with Wil Reynolds of SEER

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
For the last 6.5 years, I’ve had a fairly singular role as CEO of a venture-backed, software startup in Seattle. While that job has brought massive amounts of growth and learning and challenges with it, I’ve often wondered what it would be like to step into someone else’s shoes and live their life for a while. Thanks to my friend,…
Events Moz Team

Vision-Based Framework

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Some companies exist primarily (or exclusively) to make money. Others exist for a variety of non-financial (or pseudo-financial) reasons. But in much of the research about companies that have gone from startup to scale to world-changing status, observers found a common architecture. This architecture is vision-based, and mission driven. It starts with a core purpose and core values, then builds…

Keep up with SparkToro®