If you are an SEO and you are asking yourself Who the hell is Rand Fishkin, well… I am very worried for your clients and/or your boss.
Rand Randfish Fishkin is surely one of the best known personalities in the Search Industry.
CEO and Co-Founder of the Web’s most popular SEO Software provider, SEOmoz, Rand is almost a brand by himself (and I am not just thinking about his famous Yellow Pumas).
Apart directing SEOmoz, writing in the SEOmoz blog, organizing and participating as speaker in many SEO and Web Marketing Conferences, Events and Meet-ups, Rand Fishkin is also very active in the Startup scene, as testified by his personal blog.
Married with Geraldine, an incredibly funny and skilled travel blogger, Rand is not simply a great SEO, the wizard of Moz, the White Hat knight in shining armor, a tireless CEO, an airline miles collector, an amateur chef, but especially a generous man, ready to help and share his knowledge and the right person to talk over a beer and to call friend.
The “Search” Interview
Gianluca: Do you remember your very first client?
Rand: I think my first client was a print shop – they’ve since gone out of business. It was before I learned about how PageRank and links worked, so I was stubbornly trying to use on-page optimization to get them to the top of the rankings.
Gianluca: What is the most valuable lesson you learnt as a newbie?
Rand: Get involved in online communities in positive ways. The first couple years I was trying to do SEO, I spent hours and hours in forums, blog comments, and anywhere I could get help. Over time, that participation meant more in terms of education and profile-raising for me than any other activity.
Gianluca: What is the silliest thing you did in your career and the one you are the proudest about?
Rand: Silliest… I worked at the Wizards of the Coast Game Center in Seattle, bought Pokemon cards with my employee discount and re-sold them on eBay. I made a few thousand dollars extra (on top of my $4.65/hr wage) and thought I was pretty smart.
Proudest… I’d have to say the community around SEOmoz. Even if something horrific happened tomorrow, it’s been amazing to meet people all over the world who’ve had their lives and livelihoods positively impacted by our software and content. There’s nothing I love more than helping others succeed.
Gianluca: In one phrase: what a web/tech startup would never forget to do in order to aspire to success?
Rand: Establish a mission, a vision and core values – and follow them. Get everyone in the company believing in them with all their heart. [Note: to better understand what does Rand mean, I invite you to read this post about the SEOmoz’s TAGFEE Tenets]
Gianluca: Work is 1% inspiration and 99% transpiration. Is this rule valid also in SEO?
Rand: I think you mean “perspiration.” 🙂 [Note: Well, yes, but I was confused by the Italian translation 🙂 ] But, actually, I’d say the idea and the vision are much more important than 1%. Bad ideas that are well executed often produce bad results in the SEO world. The greatest comment spammers, article spinners and XSS injectors are usually worse off than mediocre executors on well-thought-out, white hat strategies.
Gianluca: What is the best of the SEO community (and the worst)?
Rand: The best part is certainly the people. SEO and, more broadly, inbound marketing attract phenomenal individuals and make this industry one I’m proud to be part of every day.
The worst part is the negative reputation that a few bad eggs have managed to generate for the entire field. Fighting against that perception is one of my personal goals.
Gianluca: How should be the Tool that rules them all?
Rand: As soon as I know, I’ll tell you (and Moz will build it) 🙂
Gianluca: What Online Marketing would have to learn from Offline Marketing?
Rand: Branding is quite powerful. We all like to believe we’re not impacted by silly commercials or useless billboards, but in fact, they work.
Gianluca: Why so many businesses do seem to not understand the importance of SEO?
Rand: It’s hard to easily wrap one’s head around how to do SEO – the field can certainly seem mysterious and illogical to outsiders. I suspect it’s because SEO requires a combination of technical knowledge, creative imagination and execution from multiple traditional departments. Hopefully, with time and perseverance, we can change this perception.
Gianluca: SEO is still a good name for SEO?
Rand: Well, to be fair, it was never a very good name in the first place. We’re not trying to optimize search engines 🙂
That said, it’s a well-known descriptor, and we’re unlikely to be able to change it now.
Gianluca: Please, complete the phrase: SEO is dead…
Rand: to those who have no vision.
Gianluca: Black, White and Grey… do we still live in a pre-Technicolor world?
Rand: I actually like the hat colors as a way to easily describe a tactic’s riskiness and long-term efficacy.
Gianluca: Social and SEO… two worlds (and communities) that are obliged to merge or not?
Rand: The engines are merging them for us, but even before that, social was such an amazing way to do SEO that it’s hard for me to imagine anyone wanting to separate them.
Gianluca: In order to not be evil, is everything licit?
Rand: Evil is a moral determination. In SEO, hat color and morality don’t necessarily coincide. For example, Todd Friesen (Oilman) did lots of “black hat” SEO, but I think he’s a very moral guy, and there were plenty of lines he refused to cross with his tactics. Likewise, there are some who practice “white hat” tactics, but do so in a way that crosses ethical lines to me (treating employees and partners badly, for example).
Gianluca: You are in the Googleplex and you have hypnotized Matt Cutts… what would you “order” him to do?
Rand: Be more transparent and empathetic with everyone in the search community. I think Matt’s a good guy, but his closed approach to spreading how search works has hindered the industry’s growth and the outside perception of SEO. I think the Google team’s already taking more steps in this direction, but it’s slow.
The Proust questionnaire
Ah… dear Rand, this is for you:
Great article and good advice, love the guitar rif
Not sure if it’s my favorite, but “inbox 0” is certainly near the top of words I like to see (yet rarely do) 🙂
Thanks for the interview Gianluca!
You’re welcome Rand. It is always a pleasure to spend time with you.
What is your favorite word?
Mine? Archaeology… it is a word that fill your mouth when pronounce, a job I’d love to do and it implies: study, observation, adventure, imagination…
Love the interview, I got a chance to wit down with Rand once in New Orleans at a conference he was speaking at. He’s a very down to earth guy truly passionate about what he does.
You perfectly portrayed Rand
Fantastic Interview Gian,
SEO is dead “to those who have no vision” a perfect reply to a tricky question.As said by Mr.Rand, matt cutts should be more transparent & indepth in the knowledge of spreading how google works.
Thanks.
Also would like to know is that “Oilman” really do *black hat seo*
Did…
Fantastic interview Gianluca, and excellent answers Rand.
For the few of you that don’t know of Rand, he is widely and correctly considered our industry evangelist, one of the best and most inspirational speakers I have met, and I have the pleasure to call him my friend.
My career would not be where it is today if it were not for several years of input from Mr. Fishkin, and Im pretty sure a lot of the SEO industry feel that way.
Thank you Rand, for being you, and thank you Gianluca for the interview!
Martin Macdonald
Head of SEO, OMD Group
http://seoforums.org
Great stuff! Awesome interview of Sir Rand!
Love the way you start the interview… Strongly agreed on that, I guess most of us who are in the search industry for not more than 5 years or more should thank Sir Rand Fishkin and SEOmoz for creating such an awesome community that leads are career to the next level…
never knew about that Chef thingi! 😉
If you want to see Rand both as SEO and Chef, check this old post on SEOmoz: Cooking Up Great SEO: An Analogy in Photos
Excellent interview, Gianluca. I have also discovered SEOmoz’s TAGFEE Tenets at the same time. I love his rational approach to SEO and how he has been able to build such an awesome community and a profitable company.
I really love the fact that Rand, when asked, described the harsh reality that Google is keeping everyone in the dark and that it affects the business. I rarely see this written in black and white on the web 🙂
I want to start my own internet marketing business, and I want to Affiliate. What tips can you guys give me to start and to be successful at it?
I love this word
SEO is dead to those who have no vision.
Yeah, great men 🙂
Rand is a bold guy, and frankly an SEO hero. Thanks for the fun interview!
You’re welcome, Michelle 🙂
If you have fun, I suggest you to read also the other interviews I’ve done and published here on my blog.
Take care!
I try not to miss anything that rand shares, share for rand and his interviews. I’m fan of Rand since I joined SEO industry (since 2 years now 🙂 )
Thank you for the interview, love it!
My Hero, great interviews, you are the man….Malaysian said “terbaik” meaning “the best”. well done