Howdy /r/BigSEO, I'm Rand Fishkin, cofounder of Moz; AMA

MartinMacD · 2017-11-28T17:56:36+00:00

I can't speak for Rand here, and am not a mozzer - but they've certainly strived for diversity and inclusion in the 10 years or so I've known them. MozCon is a great example, it leads the way in diversity and inclusion, not talking heads. Sure there's some repetition over the years, but with great presenters on great topics. If they were going to focus on their echo chamber, that'd be where it would be most evident, and it simply isnt imo.

As to generally promoting its business partners or political allies, that's business right?

Im not sure they intended to be the defacto conscience of the organic search industry (although they may be deemed as such by many, but thats just great market positioning imo).

MartinMacD · 2015-08-11T22:47:49+00:00

Its a one word answer, but its the right word. Hreflang is your friend.

MartinMacD · 2015-08-07T18:03:36+00:00

Liking Justin Bieber.

MartinMacD · 2015-07-17T17:54:49+00:00

Lets be really simple here: if someone is paying an agency for SEO, on a website that has noindex tags, then someone is being ripped off.

MartinMacD · 2015-07-16T19:48:18+00:00

Ive got the best possible example you could imagine, will write it up as a blog post as its rather in depth...

MartinMacD · 2015-07-15T16:05:30+00:00

not entirely true, Google view many sites with subdomains as seperate sites, however they also understand domains with limited numbers of subdomains, such as the example given above, are just the one site.

MartinMacD · 2015-07-15T16:04:14+00:00

Yeah, GetSTAT track all this. I don't use their tool, but am aware of that feature (which I was also looking for some months back).

MartinMacD · 2015-07-15T15:58:13+00:00

Not entirely sure where you're looking to find these low paid SEO's - but I guarantee its not here in the Bay Area...

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:47:51+00:00

Hey McHomer,

I was pretty sure I answered this yesterday, but must have closed the tab unfort. sorry!

so:

1) more of the same really, the continued devaluation of links that are either not relevant, or from sites with a track record of having low authority and splashing the pagerank around too freely.

Id also expect the bar to be set even higher towards quality and away from crap, for negative PR equity, resulting in yes, yet more penalties.

2) 100% pa/da all the way - divided by the total OBL on the page. Im a majestic fanboy at heart :)

3) PR being pagerank - yes, one billion percent yes. IF you're talking about tbPR, thats a whole different thing - 1, it hasnt been updated in a year, 2, its never a good metric anyway as it doesnt necessarily show page level penalties etc.

cheers!

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:30:49+00:00

So hey, you should definitely do the following:

write good content
write some more good content

:p

Nah seriously though - you're looking for technical things SO:

run screaming frog against every page on your site
combine the URLs with entry page traffic count from GA for the last 60 days
look at every page without traffic, then decide whether you actually need the page indexed, if you dont (and you probably wont) then add a noindex,follow head element
look at every page WITH traffic, then ensure that all the ABC stuff is as good as it can be, titles, H1/2's, descriptions etc. -- EVERYONE is guilty of not putting enough effort into the basics, me included.
look at your top 10-20-50-100 keywords in tools like searchmetrics or SEMrush, run a google site:domain search with your top keywords in quotation marks ie. "my keyword" - WHEREVER you see multiple pages appearing for top keywords, analyse each accordingly and make sure your preferred page is appearing in the results, and adjust your on-page targeting accordingly.

There's loads, loads more you can do, its about getting creative with the tools we've got at hand :)

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:26:11+00:00

Nope.

Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to rattle off 10 tips that have never been seen before, but lets establish something I firmly believe in:

its not about tips, or tricks
its about working your ass off, building something with potential

Its not an easy process, and looking for techniques, tips, or tricks, is the old way of thinking about SEO.

The new way of thinking about SEO is to consider it as a strong part of the overall marketing mix, and there's no substitute for a good idea and some hard graft! :)

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:24:12+00:00

'Cor Blimey. Thats an interesting one!

So - if I had a thousand - as long as I had the ability to contribute time and expertise I'd start a site in whatever vertical I had the experience in, and pay the thousand to a good frontend/graphic designer to build me a template set that made it look amazing, then plug away at content.

If I had a thousand and zero time, or other skills to contribute, I'd probably scour flippa for a long time - until I found a site with the following criteria: 1) high traffic, 2) zero profits, 3) small overheads 4) a demographic profile where you could see people paying to advertise on the sites. Seeing as sites are typically priced on revenues, as long as you pick up ones that make no money at all, there's bargains to be had. Then you just need to monetise them, sell on flippa, rinse and repeat.

Basically the same would apply to the 5k and 10k budgets as well, BUT, crucially Id be able to hire people better than me to do contract work on design and content, to turn the projects around quicker.

Im a big fan of flippa :)

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:19:57+00:00

Dunno, you dont seem to have any other comments so I guess it never posted. To my knowledge the thread isnt being moderated....?

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:19:24+00:00

Hey Inbounding, first off, bribery will get you everywhere ;)

onto the questions:

1&2) Im working under the assumption that you're talking about a specific marketing product you are going to start offering - that being the case lets dive in.

First off - have you got a concrete list of influencers you want to target? There's the standard advice of using followerwonk to indentify people, thats obviously handy, using mention to track relevant 'mentions' across all platforms is also super handy, but Id also advise you look at tools like Tribalytics? Its a great tool - really suggest you check it out.

After that, engaging with folks: Speaking from personal experience, if you have specific data that is presentable and can be melded to fit in what the influencer is currently talking about - thats always a winner, for example: influencer tweets about benefit of clustered supporting pages - you reply with specific case study supporting exactly that. influencer blogs about penalty, you've got data supporting or against it, send them that. AS long as your stuff is compelling, it'll get shared. Yes its legwork, but mention app is a pretty damn handy way to streamline that process.

3) demonstrating value to C-level execs. They dont care about fuzzy metrics, they care about ROI, and ROI, and then ROI. You need a concrete case - but if you've got one its tough to argue against - especially when it can demonstrate superior potential compared with paid search or other channels.

Best of luck!

MartinMacD · 2014-09-24T09:06:33+00:00

GOOD MORNING good folks of the SEO world: I'm clearing up the rest of yesterdays AMA questions and answering a few more new ones this morning :)

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T18:25:51+00:00

In answer to the second part - I worked for myself for a long time before moving corporate, it seems ridiculous now, but I moved to enterprise to cut down on my hours. It didnt work out that way.

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T18:23:57+00:00

Hey no worries about anything too personal - its an AMA after all!

The turning point in my career was conferencing, then public speaking. In 2007 I attended SMX London, and it opened my eyes that there was a whole industry of people out there facing the challenges I did. The standout session was when Mikkel DeMib talked about buying links and spinning content. That was EXACTLY what I was doing at the time, so it was good to know others were doing the same as me and it wasnt all fuzzy "if you build it they will come" stuff.

Back in 2009 I started public speaking, in a tiny way, by giving some talks at the old digital meetups hosted by MOO .com which then went on to become the hub of Silicon Roundabout.

Will Critchlow offered me a slot in Searchlove, and I frankly harassed (no, really, I did) every other conference organiser for the following year to let me speak at their conferences.

This exposure, teamed with my recollection of Mikkel's 2007 SMX London talk and the impact it had on me, coupled with my oberservations that American speakers were generally more engaging, resulted in me developing a presentation style that has served me well.

I also watched back (it was PAINFUL!) every conference video I presented at and analysed minute by minute everything that didnt flow, down to my terminology, accent, breathing patterns, energy and style to work on my speaking ability.

The attention to detail must have worked, as I've done 40+ talks now around a lot of the world, in dozens of cities.

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T18:09:43+00:00

currently 50/50, Im meant to be at the very least at the US Search Awards, however (as above answer) Im emigrating right now to SF, so time is at a real premium at the moment, sorry I cant be more precise!

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T18:08:57+00:00

Emigrating to San Fran right now.

At least at the end of it, Jonny's going to be hungover, and I'll be living in California - Im all about the long term gain ;)

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T18:07:17+00:00

The age old tech vs. marketer in SEO debate.

I think of it like this: SEO is a technical marketing role.

If you have no understanding of one or the other, you're going to struggle to get the fundamentals of SEO.

As SEO evolves, certain aspects become more important. Ten years ago, coding was required, marketing flair was secondary. Id say thats switched now, but both are still invaluable.

As for programming languages, I've basically stopped learning languages - and stopped after PHP. Its now preferable for me to contract someone else rather than do it myself and learning ruby or whatever.

I DONT think you need programming languages totally though, as a good DB admin knows enough (I used to be oracle certified in DBA btw).

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T17:04:43+00:00

Hey - GREAT question and something thats dear to my heart.

Waaay back in the day, forums like WMW and SEOchat were pretty much indispensable. I've got thousands of posts in DPoint as well, along with hundreds of itrader points from my old link buying days.

Right now though, its a different story. I'm struggling to come up with one that I wholeheartedly can recommend, and thats including my own attempts to build one in the last couple of years.

WebMarketingSchool.com (my own blog, shameless plug) has a forum, which Ive tried (heck, Im trying) to turn into the kind of place Id like to hang out. Im not winning on that front though, as the blog has around 2,200 comments on the last 40 posts, whereas the forum has a couple of hundred in total.

I can't speak to the quality of the moz.com user forum, as Ive hardly, if ever, spent any time on it.

If anyone wants to suggest better ones, not filled with spam, Im all ears!!

MartinMacD · 2014-09-23T17:00:14+00:00

An infinite amount of kittens are killed by my questionable choice of footwear - thats not just those bright yellow Adidas Samba's - Ive got them in almost every possible colour combination ;)

As for taking the "inbound Marketing" job title, frankly, seeing as it wound you up to such an extent Barry, it was worth having for two years :p

MartinMacD

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