2013 has been a really hard year for me. In many ways, it’s been harder than even the 2002-2006 era when my Mom and I went deeply into debt and worried about paying the rent and being chased by creditors. Some of that is attributable to the less-than-what-I-hoped-for results the business achieved (mostly because we
Launching Adventure Teams at Moz
By 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
How Can a CEO Lead Social Media Efforts for Their Company?
By 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
Why “Checking the Boxes” Doesn’t Work for Hiring or Promoting
By As founders, managers, and interviewers, we’ve all been tempted. The person we’re seeking for this position needs to be X, Y, and Z. We’ve already got someone on the team who checks those boxes. Let’s do the easy thing and promote from within. It looks good to the team because we’re showing that there’s a
The First Existential Threat to SEO
By 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”
The T-Shaped Web Marketer
By 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.
10 Traffic Graphs from the SEOmoz to Moz Domain Migration
By A lot of folks have asked me about how the domain migration from seomoz.org to moz.com has gone after the past few months. Ruth Burr, who runs our in-house SEO, did a great job of sharing some details in her blog post on Surviving the Perfect Storm of Site Changes and her more in-depth webinar
7 Unlikely Recommendations for Startups & Entrepreneurs
By 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
Ambition vs. Obligation
By 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
Vanity Metrics May Not Be All Bad
By 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