2006 has been, by all accounts, a most incredible year for SEOmoz. Here's just a few things that have happened to us over the past 12 months:

  • We've gone from an average of 200 daily readers last year to about 7,500 avg daily visitors and 5,700 RSS subscribers.
  • SEOmoz had just over 15,000 results for its name last year in December - we're now around 1.6 million (yeah, I know they're inaccurate estimates)
  • Yahoo!'s linkdomain command reported around 10,000 unique links to SEOmoz last year; that number's now close to 300,000 (through site explorer)
  • In 2005, we did client work for about 35 companies and websites. In 2006, that number dropped to 24. Next year, I hope that it's even fewer, as we're able to concentrate our efforts on high value contracts for a very select group (and a few projects of our own)
  • Last year, I traveled 3X for business (about 8,000 miles). This year, I took no fewer than 30 trips for around 50,000 miles.
  • We've grown from 3 people in November of 2005 to 8 full-time (plus Si); and every one of them is absolutely amazing.
  • Tonight, I received my first request for permission to translate SEOmoz's content into Japanese (from these guys). Pending that, we'll have had content translated (to my knowledge) in 8 languages - Portugeuse, Spanish, Russian, Polish, French, German, Swedish & Japanese (there might be others, but they haven't emailed me).
  • At the end of last year, I received an average of 26 relevant emails per business day. This month, it's up over 60 (wow...).

We have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of people who've made our success possible. One of the biggest contributors is you - our readers. A giant thank you to all of you who've made SEOmoz a destination, a place where you contribute your thoughts and comments and a bastion of debate, knowledge and passion for Internet marketing topics.

What's ahead for next year?

  • Sometime in January - the new SEOmoz website (so far, I'd categorize Matt's work on it as nothing less than transcendant - it's a whole new ballgame with this thing)
  • Paid content from SEOmoz - for folks who'd prefer not to go sifting through 1600 blog entries to find relevant content, we've coalesced all of our best advice (and much of our readers' insights) into articles that we'll be releasing over the course of the year (more on the specifics of this to come).
  • Lots more coverage and insight into the industry in the form of free articles, too. First among these is Jane's social media marketing guide - which I simply need to edit and proof; she's become a master of this stuff and the value of this one will be very high.
  • Possibly some web applications from SEOmoz. We had a long talk at lunch today on this topic, but it might not be until 3rd or 4th quarter of 2007.
  • New tools - sandbox detection, a keyword research aggregation tool, social media stuff and revamped versions of Page Strength and KW Difficulty
  • User-generated content on the site; a place where readers can submit their own blog-style content for publication (and we approve/deny on the back-end)
  • More mozzers at more conferences; we're planning to be at every SES event (in English) that Danny does, the SMExpo in Seattle, Pubcon and several private conferences as well. Comics ahoy!
  • A continued commitment to make SEOmoz's blog as valuable, interesting and fun as it can possible be. We want to keep our trademark style of opening up the gates, spilling the secret sauce and TMI-ing all of you.

What are your plans for 2007? Where do you see your businesses going? What's hot on your list of must-achieves? And, please, if you've had a terrific year, please share it with us. There's nothing more Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Festivus-spirited than hearing about the growth and success of one's peers and friends.

Happy Holidays to All!

p.s. I know I've promised a year-end finances post; it's upcoming, as Gillian is reviewing our balance sheet next week with an accountant.