Category: Marketing

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.…
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 Marketing

11 Tips I Gave to Marketers this Morning

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Today finds me blogging from Australia, where I had the privilege of keynoting SMX Sydney and participating in a site clinic (wearing an SMX lab coat, which is always fun). While looking through the show’s program guide, I discovered that I was also supposed to be on a panel today! The description read something like this: Bill Hunt and Rand…
Data Marketing

What Do Correlation Metrics Really Tell Us About Search Rankings?

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
I’m excited to see the marketing field getting more interested in correlation data and metrics around SEO. There’s a lot of folks citing data from SearchMetrics’ UK Study, from Mark Collier’s Open Algorithm project, and from Moz’s own ranking factors and follow-up reports. (Searchmetrics’ study at left, OpenAlgorithm at right) The trouble is how this data gets perceived and interpreted…
Marketing Psychology

Why “Optimization” is a Terrible Way to Think About SEO

Rand FishkinBy Rand Fishkin
Sometimes we make assumptions that lead us in the wrong direction. I’ve made plenty, and I’ll continue to make them for as long as I’m alive. And sometimes, we’re inadvertently responsible for wrong assumptions made by others. When that’s the case (and we notice it), there’s an obligation to correct the misunderstanding. I recently encountered an example of this in…

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