SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible

Rand Fishkin, CEO and Co-Founder,

SEOmoz

Rand Fishkin has been involved with Internet technologies for almost 15 years. He began working

with a company called Marketlink International and eventually moved to a web-development startup

firm with Gillian (who happens to be his mother). Since coming together, Gillian and Rand have

changed the model of their business, to arrive at the current iteration of SEOmoz.

SEOmoz provides companies around the world with consulting, Internet marketing, and search

engine optimization services. Some of its clients include AllBusiness, Benchmark Capital, Drivl,

National Public Radio, and Shoe-Store.net. Rand and SEOmoz are well-respected names in the

SEO industry. You may have seen Rand at an SEO conference if you’ve attended one in the last few

years. Even if you didn’t know his face, you should be able to pick him out. He’s the one wearing

yellow Pumas.

Jerri: What do you see as the state of the SEO industry today?

Rand: That pretty broad. From a growth standpoint, I think the industry is positive. It continues to

grow at a steady pace.

From a maturity standing, I think we still have a long way to go. There’s been a lot of bad press, bad

companies, and snake-oil salesmen that need to be dealt with. And a lot of companies get caught up

in bad contracts. The industry is still very young, and we have a long way to go before it becomes

mature.

Jerri: What’s the difference between SEO and search marketing?

Rand: Technically speaking, SEO always leans toward the organic side of search marketing — it

doesn’t include paid services. Search marketing as a whole is anything that you do to market your

web sites through search.

Jerri: So how is social media marketing different from SEO?

Rand: Social media marketing refers to a couple of big techniques. The first is viral-content cre-

ation and promotion. There has always been some form of viral content; however, the appearance

of portals like NetScape, Spin, and others has enabled social media to spread like never before.

An example of how this has changed would be the linking structure of a blog. A blog post goes

out, people link to it, those links are spread and before you know, the post is linking to thousands

of other web sites. It’s one of the ways that you can use to grow a link structure very quickly.

The second side of social media marketing is social network marketing and reputation management.

There are more ways available now for companies to grow their reputation. You need to have a pres-

ence on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace. It’s brand marketing — you can build and share

your brand over the Web.

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