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Draft:Moz (software)

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Moz (formerly SEOmoz) is a software as a service (SaaS) company based in Seattle that offers SEO tools. It was founded by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig in 2004 as a consulting firm and shifted to SEO software development in 2008.[1][2] The company hosts a website that includes an online community of more than one million globally based digital marketers and marketing related tools.

Moz offers SEO tools that includes keyword research, link building, site audits, and page optimization insights in order to help companies to have a better view of the position they have on search engines and how to improve their ranking. The company also developed the most commonly used algorithm to determine Domain Authority, which is a score between 1-100, that is often used by many SEO companies to estimate a website's overall viability with the search engines.[3]

History

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In 2004, Moz was founded by a son-and-mother team Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig as 'SEOmoz'.[2][1] In September 2007, the company raised $1.1 million in Series A funding from Ignition Partners and Curious Office.[4] In 2012, it raised $18 million in funding from Foundry Group and Ignition Partners.[5][6]

In June 2012, SEOmoz acquired Followerwonk, a tool for searching, filtering and managing Twitter bios with other Twitter management functions like analytics.[7] The terms were not disclosed, but SEOmoz said the acquisition was for somewhere between one and four million US dollars.[8] In December 2012, SEOmoz acquired GetListed for $3 million.[9] In May 2013, the company rebranded as 'Moz' and relaunched the website at Moz.com.[10] During the period 2008 to 2011, SEOmoz grew from $1.5 million to $11.4 million in revenue.[11] In January 2016, Moz secured a $10 million investment from the Foundry Group.[12]

In January 2014, Rand Fishkin stepped down as the CEO of Moz.[13] The position was taken by Sarah Bird who was already the President and COO of the company.

In August 2016, Moz laid off 28% of their staff to double down on SEO and focus on earning profitable revenue.[14]

On February 27th 2018, Moz co-founder, Rand Fishkin, parted company with the business he started and made the announcement via his new company blog at "SparkToro".[15] Fishkin is self quoted in the blog post saying, "On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is "fired and escorted out of the building by security" and 10 is "left entirely of his own accord on wonderful terms," my departure is around a 4. That makes today a hard one, cognitively and emotionally." Fishkin goes on to discuss his other plans for the future in the post which include a book and non-profit initiative for making conferences and events safer places for women. This book appeared in the course of 2018.[16]

Tools

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Moz has a series of tools in its SEO Toolbox, including Moz Keyword Explorer,[17] a keyword research tool that provides keyword suggestions, SEO competition, opportunity, SERP features, saved lists, and accurate search volume data.

MozPro provides SEO site crawl checkups, prioritized SEO fixes, rank tracking, competitor tracking, SERP feature tracking and more.[3]

Open Site Explorer is a free SEO tool that provides link data such as spam analysis.[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b Fishkin, Rand (2017-02-27). "My Last Day at Moz. My First Day at SparkToro". SparkToro.
  2. ^ a b "Working Geek: 'Startup whisperer' Gillian Muessig shares tips for scoring VC while juggling family life". geekwire.com. 2018-03-08. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  3. ^ a b "Moz Pro Review". PCMAG. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  4. ^ Kelly, Meghan (August 6, 2007), "SEOmoz is looking for $25M second round (updated)", VentureBeat
  5. ^ Kelly Clay (5 January 2012). "SEOmoz Raises $18 million In Venture Capital From Foundry Group And Ignition Partners". Forbes.com.
  6. ^ Mickey, B. (2012). Marrying SEO and Social Analytics Tools. Folio: The Magazine For Magazine Management, 41(7), 26.
  7. ^ Miller, Miranda (August 20, 2012), SEOmoz Acquires Twitter Analytics Company Followerwonk
  8. ^ Mickey, B. (2012). Marrying SEO and Social Analytics Tools. Folio: The Magazine For Magazine Management, 41(7), 26.
  9. ^ Chris Crum (2012-12-04). "SEOmoz Acquires GetListed For $3 Million". WebProNews. Retrieved 2014-02-21.
  10. ^ Clay, Kelly (2013-05-29). "SEOmoz Rebrands As Moz, Introduces Moz Analytics". Forbes.
  11. ^ "SEOmoz", Inc., archived from the original on November 2, 2012
  12. ^ Czeladka, Bodie (2016-09-12). "Essential Tools That Everyone In the SEO Industry Should Be Using". Dilate Digital. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  13. ^ Schwartz, Barry (January 15, 2014). "Rand Fishkin Steps Down As The CEO Of Moz, Sarah Bird New CEO". Search Engine Land.
  14. ^ "Moz cuts staff to focus on SEO". The Drum. Retrieved 2024-10-16.
  15. ^ Fishkin, Rand. "My Last Day at Moz. My First Day at SparkToro". SparkToro.
  16. ^ Fishkin, Rand. Lost and founder : a painfully honest field guide to the startup world. New York, New York. ISBN 978-0-7352-1332-6. OCLC 999589669.
  17. ^ "Test Driving the New Keyword Explorer Tool from Moz | WordStream". Retrieved 2017-12-23.
  18. ^ "Moz Open Site Explorer Adds Spam Analysis For Risky Links". Search Engine Land. 2015-03-30. Retrieved 2017-12-24.