Searchfeatured: Rand Fishkin

Rand Fishkin was nice enough to talk with Search Feature about his life, successes and answer some search questions that come up often.

For those of you experiencing the Internet for the first time, Rand is CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz. SEOmoz is a leader in the search marketing industry and provides webmasters, and the common folk, with search education, tools, resources, and paid services.

Here’s the Q&A with Rand and Mike

Q: Rand, first of all thank you very much for this interview. It’s been about 3 years since we have actually met face to face. How have you been since and what would you call your biggest accomplishments within that period.

A: I’ve been very well, but overwhelming busy. My days are packed with tasks, meetings, emails, calls and contact. It’s a hectic life, but I’m really enjoying it and it’s a great feeling to see the impact the company has on the search marketing world. As for my biggest accomplishment, I’d probably have to say that personally, it’s my engagement to my wonderful fiancée and our upcoming wedding this fall. Professionally, the construction of a team of 15 dedicated, smart, passionate people at SEOmoz (from a size of 3 in 2004) has been an eye-opening, but rewarding experience.

Q: Rand, a lot of discussions have been started regarding “Page Strength“. Which mistakes have you made in the past and what have you done to fix them?

A: By mistakes, I’m guessing you mean with the tool itself? There have been quite a few - it was never built to support the level of traffic it receives, and until this October, when we re-launch rebuilt versions of all the tools and the tool processes from scratch, it will still be slow at times, and have occasional inaccuracy. The demands of creating a tool to grab and process that level of data thousands of times each data is non-trivial, and we’ve certainly been humbled by all the work it entails.

Q: Rand, everybody looks up to you and at you for SEO advice. Who do you consult with when you get stuck or need some input on a blog post or some new developments in the world of SEO?

A: I have a huge community of people that I’ve always looked up to and that constantly feed my thirst for more information. Internally, my engineers are great for getting feedback and insight, as are Rebecca and Jane. Externally, I spend a lot of time locally with folks like Vanessa Fox, Nathan Buggia, Natala Menezes, Todd Friesen and when possible a much wider community from all over the search. I also get a ton of value from participating in the SEOmoz PRO Q+A, where hundreds of people ask questions about their specific sites, giving us a peek into the problems of real webmasters running sites of all sizes.

Q: Rand, a lot of people have been criticizing Matt Cutts as manipulating the SEO world in order to benefit Google. Do you visit Matt’s blog on a regular basis and do you take his advice when he gives it?

A: I’m a fan of Matt, and while I don’t think he’s ever able to give the “whole truth” on any subject, he’s also very sensitive to being at least truthful in his presentation of material. As far as advice goes, I certainly listen and judge his input respectfully. I believe he’s earned at least that from every webmaster. Recently, he noted that getting a pedometer has been shown to have a positive impact on improving your health and weight, so I’m definitely planning to get one

Q: OK here is something I’ve always wanted to ask you: You have some excellent team members on your blog. How did you find them and what are you looking for when selecting somebody to contribute to SEOmoz?

A: I’ve found bloggers through all sorts of means. Rebecca joined SEOmoz as an intern, and is currently the oldest member of the team besides myself and Gillian. She’s grown up in the SEO world and has become an impressive presence on the blog, in public speaking and here at the company. Jane was recruited off Craigslist and has become an expert on many parts of the social media sphere that I barely understand : ) Scott Willoughby, who produces all of our Whiteboard Fridays, came to us from the world of Hollywood, and his efforts have had a huge impact on our multimedia capabilities. Sarah Bird, our in-house counsel, was a long-time friend and has turned into one of the foremost legal/tech bloggers in the field. Eric Enge was an industry contact and friend and when he left SEW, I was thrilled that he thought of us.

A lot of the SEOmoz bloggers have disparate backgrounds, but pulling them together has been a great experience.

Q: Let’s say I’m new to SEO, other than SEOmoz.org and Whiteboard Friday, were should I go to get tips and information I need?

A: I’d probably start with the Beginner’s Guide to SEO, and possibly the Search Ranking Factors documents. From there, reading the blog is great, but it might pay to go back through some of the categories and find relevant beginner-level posts, too. Our PRO section also features a lot of training materials and, of course, the Q+A, where you can ask us questions of any level and see a database of 1,000+ questions from our members.

Q: Where do you see the search engine optimization (SEO) industry in 5 years?

A: Five years is a really long time in terms of the web. I think by then, we might find that search has fractured into verticals or social media has taken over as a leading referrer of web traffic or search engines are using entirely different metrics and inputs to calculate relevancy. I don’t ever see the industry disappearing - so long as the Internet exists, there will be a need to find information on it and robust, scalable, computerized systems for sorting (with marketers trying to optimize for those sorting processes).

Q: Alright, a lot of people think that SEO experts know a lot of little secrets that can’t be found on forums and blogs - is there any truth in this assumption/claim?

A: Probably some, but the few tricks and tips are remarkably small in number and limited in application. For 80%+ of SEO campaigns, it’s just applying the basic-intermediate knowledge in a smart, strategic way, and being creative about content and marketing. Those “secrets” are only really valuable on 1/10 or maybe even 1/50 projects.

Q: Have you heard of the latest Real Estate Webmasters SEO contest where people compete over the keyword “Greatest Real Estate Agent in the World”? What do you think about SEO contests and how much do you believe people can learn from them?

A: I had heard about the contest briefly, and while I’ve personally never participated in the contests, I think it’s probably a great way to learn the practice and hone your SEO skills (and to see some real creativity in action). Of course, Greg Boser has a different take on them, and I can certainly empathize with that point of view as well.

Q: Last, but not least: You are one of the biggest SEO success stories out there. Any regrets?

A: Absolutely. I’ve made mistakes in firing and hiring and management, had issues with the blog posts I write and my comments around the web, made decisions financially or professionally that weren’t the smartest ones, and, like anyone else, built up a lot of knowledge from these mistakes. I think that anyone who participates in business or in life in general is bound to make mistakes and have regrets about the way they’ve done things - it’s what makes us human. I hope I never meet anyone who does all of this perfectly