Rand Fishkin

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@bentossell I list some of my favorites here: https://moz.com/rand/recommended... But, recently, I've loved: -- http://www.goodreads.com/book/sh... -- http://www.goodreads.com/book/sh... -- http://www.goodreads.com/book/sh... -- few more here: https://twitter.com/randfish/sta...

7 share tweet・a year ago

Dan Price

@hellodanprice · Social Media

Hey Rand! If you were starting Moz TODAY. What would you be doing to grow it? Snapchat? Daily vlogs?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@hellodanprice I think visual content is huge and growing, so I'd seriously consider creating a visually-focused blog (simple graphics that illustrate important trends, stats, tactics, practices, etc) promoted via visual platforms like Instagram, Pinterest, etc. as well as the traditional means.

1 share tweet・a year ago

Brian Sparker

@brainsparker · Product Marketing @ReviewTrackers

@randfish Hey Rand! I love inbound.org. What's the most important aspect of running a successful online community?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@brainsparker I think finding the intersection of these 3 things is absolutely essential: 1) Your personal passion (I don't think people build great things unless they have real, driving, personal passion in the field) 2) An area where you can deliver unique value (above and beyond what anyone else is doing in the field) 3) A platform/channel/community your customers/audience will actually use (e.g. if we'd done an Instagram community or a Slack channel, it probably wouldn't have worked as well for our web marketing-focused audience).

Jeremy O'Briant

@jobriant · San Francisco, CA

@randfish What are the biggest trends in SEO/SEM to keep an eye on in 2016?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@jobriant I'm going to do a predictions post about this in January (as I always do), but as a teaser, here's a couple: 1) I think we'll need to watch app indexing very carefully. If Google promotes app content like they did Google+ content in the early days, it may make sense to make web apps even if you have no other good reason to do so (which will get some abuse unfortunately). 2) Google's use of deep learning and their application of user/usage metrics are going to keep hurting sites that can earn the traditional ranking signals of old (links, keywords, content, etc) but can't delight users.

Arpit Gupta

@arpitgupta · Product Manager

@randfish How do you "optimize" your life and what metrics are you trying to hit?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@arpitgupta I've been liking my Fitbit for tracking activity and sleep. More broadly, my big metrics for life success are: -- Helping as many people as I can with the skills/talents I've got (which tends to be marketing knowledge about all sorts of weird stuff on the web, but hopefully that's enough) -- Being a great husband to Geraldine -- Being a voice and champion for disadvantaged and underrepresented folks, particularly women, people of color, and the financially under-privileged. I hope, over time, to be more than just a voice. -- Building a successful company, meaning we get to a meaningful liquidity event (an IPO or sale) that has a positive impact on our employees, community, investors, and customers.

lily smith

@lilysmith88 · Accountant, Blogger at SageNext Infotech

@randfish what you really think about friendship. Did this one plays an role in success of your life.

upvote share tweet・a year ago

David Sottimano

@dsottimano · CMO, Huballin & Strategist, Define MG

Hey @randfish, if you had to give one piece of advice to a new startup, what would you tell them?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@dsottimano Totally depends on the startup! If I didn't know anything about them and had to be totally broad, I'd say - consider what you want the company to become and what will make you feel that you've had success. Talk to entrepreneurs who've built venture-backed businesses, businesses that failed, ones that were acquired, ones that they just kept running as a "lifestyle business" (that term is used as a pejorative by Silicon Valley, but it's actually an amazing thing that the 8/10 startups who raise funding but die are jealous of), etc. Don't go into the startup world thinking there's only one path you must pursue.

1 share tweet・a year ago

Eetu Karppanen

@kyyjonssoni · Digital Marketing Specialist @ Suuntaus

Hello @randfish - thanks for doing this! I've noticed that the movement with Google is that they're trying to answer as much as they can in search results page. What's your opinion about search in the future? Will SEO be anymore cost-efficient way to achieve visitors like two-three years forward?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@kyyjonssoni For questions that can be answered in a few lines of text on a search result page, I think we're going to see Google disintermediate websites as much as they can. That's going to mostly hurt the single-visit type searches and sites that provide little ongoing value or connection and usually monetized through affiliate or ad revenue. But, on the flipside, I don't think Google will ever be able to offer answers to queries like "best marketing automation software" or "training courses for auto mechanics." There's still an immense and growing number of queries where websites have huge opportunity in SEO, and that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

1 share tweet・a year ago

Adam Owen

@adamowenit · Search Engine Marketing Consultant

Hey Rand, great to see you on PH! With Google gradually increasing the number of PPC Ads (taking up more and more above-the-fold space), as well as pulling information directly into SERPs using 'cards' - meaning the user doesn't even have to click through to a website, do you think marketing will shift more to paid channels over the next few years?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@adamowenit I think some marketers will invest more heavily in PPC as a result, but IMO, they're not the smart ones :-) Google is adding more paid ads in some places, but overall, ad CTR in search has remained stable or even dropped (source: http://www.rimmkaufman.com/resou...). The problem is that Google has to make ads more and more prominent, and less obviously ads, in order to keep CTR stable. Otherwise, everyone just wants to click on the organic results (which are generally better and better perceived for obvious reasons). Thus, IMO, smart marketers are going to watch where the opportunity shifts and go there. Right now, organic search is as good a bet as its ever been, and doesn't seem likely to shrink soon (granted, it's more complex, challenging, and competitive than ever, too).

Douglas Lee Miller

@videoin · Sr. Media Strategist

Hey there - as marketers we tend to treat human attention as though it is this vast inexhaustible resource, but clearly it isn't. Should we at any point take a stand and start to develop a language and standards for treating human attention sustainably, as other resources have demanded?

@randfish · Wizard of Moz

@videoin Ooph. That might be out of my paygrade and even out of my realm of expertise. I would say that the nice thing about human attention is that we evolve, we filter, and we learn to ignore stuff that doesn't resonate pretty well over time. It may not come to the need for regulation.