Subscribe in a reader
HOME
Interview Rand Fishkin
Mr. Pratt Interviews Rand Fishkin
Rand Fishkin made himself known when he linked to the interview I did with Jim Boykin, thank you! I will not go into Mr. Fishkin’s history any further because he has a very good section on SEOmoz.org already. In fact, he has a very useful, easy to navigate website that will be our main focus in this interview. Here is my interview with Rand Fiskin.
Mr. Fishkin or should I call you Rand? Are you aware that the name Rand has a nice buzz to it just like SEOmoz, which leads me to another thought, what does SEOmoz stand for? Were you brand conscious when you registered that domain? Is the “moz” in SEOmoz like DMOZ, a kind of play on words? Are you following me here?
Rand is much better than Mr. Fishkin. As for the SEOmoz name, it comes from a desire to give SEOmoz an image of being a free, open community that serves information and tools - like DMOZ, Chefmoz, Mozilla, etc. It was also something very short for folks to type into their browsers and a name that was memorable - it fit the bill in all the naming convention departments.
Let’s get right to the stuff that matters. You recently completed a Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization. You appear to be aware of the value of offering knowledge with no strings
attached, tell us about your beginner’s guide.
It’s a resource I’ve wanted to have on the site for a long time. I get alot of people asking through email, forums, even over the phone about the very basics of SEO, and rather than explaining it all to each of them and answering questions one by one, I wanted a resource I could refer folks to. It needed to be something that really explained the ins and outs of SEO to someone who was not familiar with the Internet or WebDev but had no real concept of what an SEO does.
You clearly state on your website that you are “white hat” but I need to be fair to those I have already interviewed and asked this question. What color hats have you worn and what is up with those yellow boots?
I’ve certainly donned a grey hat in my time with regards to link acquisition. It’s one of those things that I think every SEO needs to try, just so you’re aware what the search engines can and can’t catch when it comes to artificial link manipulation. I never practice it with my clients’ sites, or on SEOmoz, but it’s a piece of knowledge that’s part of a professional’s repertoire (and you have to know when it’s being used by a competitor, too). Things like cloaking, stuffing, ip delivery have never been up my alley, though I’m fascinated by folks who practice them. As for the yellow shoes, they’re something I used to let people recognize me at my first SES conference, and they’ve been a trademark ever since. I actually just bought a second pair and I keep them in a cryogenic steel locker behind a :D painting.
I believe that the marketing matrix (community) needs to be further defined into understandable groups, for example: Say I have a 2 year old website that is in the litterbox, I would go to a guy like Greg Boser and spam his blog for help because he appears to not be afraid to questions authority and probe it’s ports. You on the other hand appear to be a straight shooter and are glowing with confidence like a high school teacher; this puts you in the role of a “trusted” marketing educator and consultant. Do you agree that all of us, no matter what schoolyard we play in are useful and relevant? Have you become exactly what you had planned to be?
I really didn’t set out to be anything in the SEO field. It was more a stumbling slip into each sector. Some folks might remember back when SEOmoz was hosted behind SOCEngine and it simply served as a repository for a few reports I compiled on behalf of clients that I made public for peer review.
I think that “trusted” status comes from being totally open and honest. If I have some bit of knowledge or insight (with rare exception), I’ll share it with the whole community. In that way, I’m something of an exception, because I have no reason to keep knowledge to myself (unless I’m protecting a friend or colleague).
I certainly agree that guys like Greg (who’s a very fun guy in person, as well as on the web) are a great part of the community. I think we need more people like him actually - brazen, straight-talking and ready to challenge common beliefs.
I have questions about your search engine optimization tools. Do you have to constantly change them to be able to pull results? Why does your sandbox detection tool take so long?
Sadly, the tools right now are suffering. They were built for a smaller audience and the number of people using them has gotten to unmanageable levels. Luckily, I’ve had a developer working on a new set of tools for the past 3 months and they should be ready in another 30-40 days. At that point, the tools will be a much more valuable part of SEOmoz.
The time issue with them is just search engines and websites not returning data and us sending queries again and again to attempt to reach them. The sandbox detection tool alone is sending a few thousand queries, so even at a fraction of a second each, you’re talking about a long wait when lots of people are running them.
What kind of computer hardware and operating system do you use?
We run Apache on some fairly standard boxes. We might be upgrading in the future depending on how well the current servers handle the load.
What’s in your SEO toolbox?
Lots of tracking :D I like to watch a lot of details about the SERPs I monitor and every site that goes up or down. Besides that, I don’t do much with on-page. I’ve been trying to implement Dr. Garcia’s on-topic analysis into something we can use, but as yet, it’s been unsuccessful. Maybe something to look for in the future.
Close you eyes and tell us the first thought that comes to your head.
Two weeks - Sunday - Seahawks vs. Colts - possible preview of the
Superbowl?
Thank you Rand.
Thanks, Aaron
Similar Post:
- Google hooks up with Stopbadware.org
- How blog comments influence search engine rankings
- Interview Jill Whalen
August 13th, 2007 at 5:22 am
Can Rand be trusted? how many female profiles does he manage?