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What does the moz in SEOmoz mean?
Rand Fishkin

What does the moz in SEOmoz mean?

I think I get asked this question on average 4X per week, more during conferences and after we've been in the press and less when I hide in the cupboard and make Brandon answer the phones. It's certainly a valid one, though and deserving of a definitive answer. Here's what the "moz" in SEOmoz means: We're building off the history of organizations like DMOZ, ...

Rand's Unofficial Guide to Speaking at SES
Rand Fishkin

Rand's Unofficial Guide to Speaking at SES

More than a few speakers have written to me asking about the SES conference series - how they should prepare, what they should bring, how the conference is organized for speakers, etc. There's an irony here that shouldn't be overlooked - when I was a first-time speaker (just a couple years ago), I had these same questions, and plenty of nervousness. I'm going to address this purely from an SES ...

The funny little thing called TRUST
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The funny little thing called TRUST

Understanding and managing trust is an essential skill in search engine business. In terms of sociology, trust is the willing acceptance of one's power to affect another - allowing actions that otherwise would not be possible. Trust is a mighty tool when it comes to signing up new clients, achieving credentials and referrers or building a (social) network...

Landing Pages for SEO
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Landing Pages for SEO

What is a Landing Page?A Landing Page is a page that focuses information targeted towards a particular user – and according to Seth Godin, optimised specifically to encourage 1 of 5 actions: Get a visitor to click (to go to another page, on your site or someone...

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When Search Marketing Firms Turn Clients Away
Rand Fishkin

When Search Marketing Firms Turn Clients Away

Thanks to a small team and a lot of publicity, SEOmoz turns away a significant amount of work - sending folks to specific references or our recommended list or, occassionally, recommending they hire in-house SEO help. We're lucky in that we get to picky about the folks we choose to work with - some of the reasons for turning away busi...

SEO Salaries - How Much Should You Make (updated Jan. 2011)
Rand Fishkin

SEO Salaries - How Much Should You Make (updated Jan. 2011)

This is going to be a tough and contentious issue and one that isn't easy for me to write about. Along with the obvious internal conflicts of interest in disclosing salary numbers, there's bound to be a lot of companies and individuals who will come away feeling that my numbers are wrong (or that their employers are cheating them). That said, it's a topic that needs to be addressed and if my ex...

WordZe Discount for SEOmoz Readers
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WordZe Discount for SEOmoz Readers

I worked out a $20 discount with WordZe for SEOMoz readers. This is reduced from the normal price of $45. It only lasts two days, so take advantage of it quickly before the price goes up. Just to refresh your memory, if you're wondering what WordZe is, it's a new keyword research tool. ...

A Long List of Competitive Link Searches
Rand Fishkin

A Long List of Competitive Link Searches

Last week, I covered searching for potential links through highly ranking sites at the engines. Today, we'll talk about competitive link searches - finding the links your competetion is using to rank well. As an example, I'll use Farecast, a local Seattle company that I've mentioned in the past (full disclosure: David Shim, who works there, is a friend). Si...

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When an Action Comes Around, You Must Track It
Rand Fishkin

When an Action Comes Around, You Must Track It

I should be eternally castigated to the fiery furnace for spoofing a Devo tune, but hopefully redemption can come in the form of this post's value. We've been spending some time in analytics programs lately, both for our own in-house projects and for some clients. In every instance, the addition of action tracking makes a huge difference to how well we can optimize and make changes to internal ...

How to beat the Google Sandbox
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How to beat the Google Sandbox

Introducing the problemIn setting up a ranking system based on links, it soon became clear to Google that link manipulation remained a threat to the objectivity of their search results.With patents filed in the early 2000’s such as Hilltop, ...