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I'm pleased to announce that after many hours of work and testing by SEOmoz, our beta testers, and yourself truly, the SEOmoz SEO Services Marketplace is officially launched! You may access it via the banner above, or on every page via the "Marketplace" link in the main navigation at the top.
The SEO Services Marketplace aims to be the go-to place for everyone in the search industry to find contacts, work, contractors, businesses to help with SEO, and potential employees. As Rand mentions in the sidebar of the Marketplace homepage...
At SEOmoz, we get more than a dozen requests for business every week, and constant emails asking if we know people who can fill a particular position. With the SEO Services Marketplace, we finally have a scalable solution that lets search marketers and web professionals of all stripes connect with businesses seeking services and candidates. It's a match made in search industry heaven.
The Marketplace is free to browse by anyone and everyone, but only registered and logged in SEOmoz members are able to create their company profiles and resumes or post jobs. The Marketplace has also usurped the old Recommended List, which now redirects to a list of SEOmoz Recommended Companies. As with the recommended list, these are companies we've found to offer the highest level of effectiveness and customer service in their respective fields.How can I use the SEO Services Marketplace?
The Marketplace essentially preforms 3 functions:
- Help individuals network & find search industry jobs
- Help companies increase their online presence
- Help both find search-related jobs and contracts
Companies start out by creating their company profile. They're able to craft a profile with their logo, description, phone, fax, and email, and list out any services they provide. SEOmoz users can assign themselves to companies they work for, and will then appear as an employee on the company profile page. Users of SEOmoz can also leave referrals for companies if they have experience with them.Individuals should first work on and then activate their Marketplace resume, which will allow them to be listed in the resumes directory. From there they'll be part of database of search professionals, an excellent resource for search companies looking to hire great talent. Referrals may also be left for individuals, which help bolster your qualifications as a search professional.
Finally, both companies and individuals may post jobs + contracts. Jobs are positions companies are looking to fill, while contracts are more meant to be search-related projects that companies/individuals are looking for an SEO expert to help with.
What happens from here?
Outside of SEOmoz & a select group of beta testers, nobody else has seen or used the Marketplace. As such, this is still very much a public beta. We've squashed all known bugs, but there may very well be bugs that you all run into. So please, if you run into any issues, feel free to send me an email or write a note in the comments of this blog post. Same goes for any feature ideas/requests that you think may be a good idea to implement.Thanks again to all the beta testers and everyone who has helped up to this point. Happy Marketplacing!
Note: I forgot to mention that while currently all external links in the Marketplace are nofollowed, users who have 100+ Moz Points have the nofollow removed. :)
Submitting to The Marketplace was one of the easiest and most effortless, and pleasant application experiences I've ever had. It's easy to understand what to do to and it responds well to input (though the selection of muliple categories on my Vista laptop was annoying but I think it was more me than the app.)
There's a section for referrals, similar to Linkedin's. To the question of separating the experienced companies from startups, I wonder if there could be a way to add a link to a site's clients page or their testimonials page, or Linkedin profile rather than seeking more testimonials or referrals.
The Marketplace is sleek and useful. I'm impressed :)
Thanks Kim. I was really worried about this, actually, and after you sent your email from beta testing, I really relaxed :) You're my compass on this stuff!
I have a feature request. It would be nice if the system hid the e-mail address from anyone not logged in. Or maybe even provided a redirect e-mail like on craigslist in order to slow down spam.
I second mad4s concern about low quality suppliers. I'm so tired of the "I'll build you 100 links in 5 hour" types just to have them do a total crap job. Some kind of Quality and rating/feedback system would be cool.
Both of those are really great ideas. I can impliment the first one by tomorrow.
Second one will be for the next version.
I actually just remembered that I'm encrypting the emails on the marketplace via javascript, so you shouldn't have to worry about spam.
A rating system would be for sure good but you will still have the "I'll build you 100 links in 5 hour" guys in there, just without rating. But as Rand said they will be regulated so I guess this type of "SEO" will not show up.
Quality instead of quantity I hope/guess.
I love the idea. My only concern is that it might get over run by the sort of people who offer submission to 6 million directories over on Digital Point.
Do you have plans in place to keep it on the straight & narrow?
We'll be monitoring every company and individual who submits, so it will be nicely regulated :) Spammers and shadier stuff won't fly.
Oh darn, so you're not letting these guys in then?
Wow... I hadn't read that before, thanks for sharing that link, interesting story. Does anyone know the results of that court action?
No problem, just funning around really, but good news for those of us who practice good business. The hearing is set for January so there hasn't been a judgement as of yet.
You can check out the official ATG Petition (PDF format, opens in a new window), it's so long I couldn't possibly tell it all in this little box.
Um ... wait. I think I might have applied for a job there just out of school.
Nevermind - it was 180 Solutions. The interview was over when I interrupted with, "Wait ... Isn't that just spyware?"
oh... so I guess I am out of the picture
Amazing, amazing, amazing job with this guys. I think you've beaten everyone to the punch on creating something that EVERYONE in the SEO industry is going to use. Can't wait to see the results of it.
One three-part question, guys:
A) Why the moderation step? Spam or reputation mgt?
B) How long does it take for referrals/reviews to get posted?
C) Who gets to moderate -- SEOmoz or the company who's being referred?
Hey david,
A) Both
B) As soon as they're approved by...
C) Company (and Individual)
The referrals are self-moderated, so you get to approve/disapprove them. We did this because we wanted the marketplace to be a primarily friendly environment, and not try to deal with reputation management issues - we'll leave that to Google :)
Moderation - actually, we don't have moderation before a company goes live, but we will be moderating after the fact and cleaning up or suspending companies/profiles that aren't legit.
Looks great guys, and it was a pleasure to help you test it!
Thanks guys. Coupla small bugs sent to sitesupport, but it looks great, it's easy to use and just generally woooo hoooo. :)
As gob-smacked as I am that I didn't have to sign up for Premium Membership to use any part of the Marketplace, I am as equally surprised that it rocks on such a magnitude.
Even though it's FREE, this is now me going and paying for a Prem.
Awesome Job Guys!
Can you add the ability to preview the entry. I want to see what it is going to look like before I make it active.
Hey Carlos,
At the top of the Job/Company/Resume is a link to "Preview/View" the listing. As long as you haven't made it active, only you as the owner can view your listing.
Maybe it's just me, but the "Preview/View" did not work until I made the profile "Active". It kept redirecting me to the company listing page.
Beside that, everything else worked great!
I love the design and layout. Very clean, aesthetic, etc.
You guys do an incredible job of making things look good over there at SEOmoz.
Very nice.
Looks great! I had one small hiccup with the layout of the company profile page which I'll report to the proper area, but definitely a nice addition to SEOmoz.
Hopefully the slim shady side of the business won't come lurking now. Maybe you could add a way to sort out contributors or premium members over the quick hitter / spammers in a future version as well.
The fact that links are nofollowed until a user has 100 mozpoints should keep the spammers at bay.
I love the idea and I think that it will do well. I posted my resume and I am excited to see if any additional oportunities arise because of it. Thank you SEOmoz for the innovative tools and information you provide to the SEO community!
Wow, I was just thinking of giving SEOmoz a call and asking for this service/feature. You read my mind. Slingshot SEO is signed up and posting jobs. Thanks SEOmoz team for this!
i love it!
i added my company and found a few things. everytime i go back to edit my company profile it adds another https:// to my url. at one point it was https://https://https://https://mycompanyurl.com.
the other thing i noticed, and maybe i'm not understanding the way it works, but i added categories and services relating to my company. now it shows up under the services pages but is no where to be found under the category pages. what am i missing?
oh and another thing...
i created the profile, so i showed up as an employee. then i accidently added myself and approved myself. now i show up under employees twice. i only usually work here once at a time. i bet they'd clone me if they could though.
anyway...how do you delete someone from your company. not only because i'm in there twice, but because i might want to fire someone one day and delete them as well. :)
Hey Kimber,
Currently there isn't any way to de-associate yourself with a company. I definity should add that feature, however. So Expect to see it soon.
If you wouldn't mind linking to your company profile, I'll take a look at the https://https:// and category problem.
well i've killed the extra https://s manually. i just have to remember each time i go to edit the profile that i have to remove the https:// or they will keep adding up.
profile is here: masterlink
I have this problem now, don't suppose the feature has been added. I'm listed twice as an employee and I also mistakingly added someone who deoesn't work for the company. Can you help??
(Potentially dumb) question on referrals... Are they for our use? For example, if I know others in this group that are very good and knowledgeable on the topic - can I "refer" them or give a testimonial on their behalf? Or is it more intended to be a place where only specific clients should go to say good things (I hope) about your company? I'd be more than happy to vouch for a few people I know in here, but certainly don't want that to appear "Spinnish" and opening the door for people begging for referrals.
The referrals can be used by anyone, but the expectation is certainly that you'll have some experience contracting work or at least working closely with the firms you recommend. We'll be watching this closely, just like everything else, to try to prevent abuse.
Cool, and Rand, if you have any interest in another brand for this section of the site, I own the name SEOgig.com. Like many other ideas in my incubator, I won't ever have time to built it though I thought the name was cool. If you're interested, I could donate it to SEOmoz for the good of the cause or 301 point it to the inner page here if you want another front door.
WOW... you guys are churning out great stuff more and more frequently. I love it!
Wow, this was a pleasant suprise when I saw it!
Nice addition seomoz!
Are there any credentials for listing SEO firms? How are listings ordered in the various categories? It doesn't seem to be alphabetical. First come first serve? I guess I wouldn't expect answers to those questions, but it's the SEO in me that makes me want to optimize anything and everything.
Thats the same question i have in my mind. Is it based on alphabetical order only? or referrals?
This is a great idea.
Once again, well done SEOmoz!
Well done Rand and Co. - just signed up to the marketplace. It's a great system, easy to use and should become a valuable resource for the industry.
Thanks for the work you did there.
I thought it was only 50 MOZ points to get the NoFollow removed? Did you raise the bar or am I mistaken?
David
Big Praise Sandwich...
It's fantastic - well done for the hard work!
In the Jobs & Contracts page, it could do with having the country/city on the preview snippets - I need to click into each to see the geographic location of vacancies, which is very time-consuming.
Again, great job and well overdue in this industry!
Good idea Lindop! This will be on my agenda for today.
Nice! And very slick. Very easy to use. Company added.
I've been wandering about a place like this for a while now. I should have known you guys were already working on it.
Hopefully this will be a great place for us to network with each other as well.
Excellent Designed and good options to select while submitting :)
Once again you guys are making great steps towards providing us with top notch resources. I love it. Hopefully this will become the go to resource for finding SEO/SEM firms.
Scott
Is there going to be a rating system kinda like ebay on here? I think that is good and bad.. not sure what everyone here thinks. I've recently started an SEO firm and its tough to get into the market. Hopefully this will help me pick up some new clients. My existing client list is short and they are not where I need them to be, but hopefully that will change with some time.
SEOmoz is now pr8.. you guys need to remove the nofollow for a couple of days :)
I simply love the design, the idea is also great, what else can I say? I didn't expect less from Seomoz!
Awesome incentive for becoming a paid member as well as reflecting the same's dedication to the field (or SEOmox drink fund - whatever). Seriously though, it looks like a great addition. I'll have to poke around in it a bit more.
There is a "SEOmoz Drink Fund"? Man I am getting thirsty. SEOmoz should bring that fund to PubCon and I will bring mine and we can put it to good use.
Actually, you don't need to be premium to use any part of the marketplace. It's completely free!
My compliments on both the design and functionality. As Kim said, it is very simple to sign up, and create your listings.
Company Added, what a great feature. I can see you are now really set on keeping me as a Premium member :) Good job.
-Dal
Bravo Jeff!
The design is very clean. Well done, Pollard. :D
I can outsource to Rebbeca and Jane???? I would have been happy with just Jennifer.........
Woo Hoo! I've been waiting for this. Going to go check it out after I finish reading your post. Thanks.
This is a good first step to really tapping into the power of the community SEOmoz is building. It seems to me a logical next step would be an Elance type service offering with full blown online program management tools, whereby SEOmoz would work both on a direct services basis as well as getting a project fee for those engagements channeled through other community providers. As you know Rand, as a direct provider, you can only grow/scale so fast.
I was surprised to see that no one in search had yet capitalized on that model. There are few players that have both the community and financial wherewithal to win this game. Clearly, SEOmoz is one of them.
This would be a first to market offering (for this space), that could really take SEOmoz up several notches. A significant percentage of Elance providers as you probably know, are India, Eastern Europe and China based, and by and large the engagements are web development centric.
The fact is, SEO/SEM is a much more critical and leading success factor when it comes to any web development effort. Additionally, SEO/SEM engagements naturally require much closer interaction.
Factor in some oversight relative to the integrity of the firms providing services here, you have the potential for a huge winner for both SEOmoz and it's community of service providers.
This is an exciting time for your company and for the community at large.
Just when I start getting used to the last new tool you guys invented, you launch another! This is brilliant! Incredible, SEOmoz, just incredible. This will be a fantastic resource and will definitely continue solidifying your spot as the SEO hub.
Good timing!
Just in time for the launch of my own business.
I'll get my copy done and provide feedback. Liking what I see though!
Nice work as always
Wow, very excited about this.
SEOmoz is so ridiculously proactive about making valuable content that it makes me feel like a complete slacker...
Good design. Good navigation...
Nothing to complain about about this. Nice!
Not had a proper chance to play around with this yet (I'm gonna watch Dave's whiteboard friday firsrt!!!) but first impressions say this rocks!
Good job on the design and functionality - really nice work!
Very very nice resource. Job well done there!
Very innovative :) I like it, you guys forgot my company though :(