Hi Moz community,
We wouldn’t be here without you, so I wanted to give you a brief update on some big changes happening at Moz.
Tl;dr: We’re focusing our efforts on core SEO such as rank tracking, keyword research, local listings, duplicate management, on-page, crawl, and links. In the future, we’ll no longer offer Moz Content or Followerwonk.
How is Moz’s strategy changing?
Back in 2012, we started to invest in a broad feature set because we wanted to serve all aspects of inbound marketing. We thought it would increase retention by providing more value to customers, and also align with where we believed the industry was headed. Thus, we invested in many new directions: social media marketing, local SEO, content marketing, keyword research, on-page optimization, topic analysis, a next-generation link index, enterprise sales, customer success, ambitious infrastructure projects, events, education programs, and more.
Increasing the breadth of the product suite added a lot of complexity to the business, but didn’t result in the growth we expected. We do, however, have momentum in our core SEO products, especially Moz Local and the new features in Pro.
Moz Local continues to provide a ton of value for customers who care deeply about Local SEO. Our new duplicate management features are cutting-edge. We’re seeing passion and enthusiasm like we haven’t seen in years about our Keyword Explorer feature in Moz Pro. We believe it’s the best of its kind in the market. Our rankings technology has also improved by leaps and bounds with more coming soon. Really soon.
Churn rates are at all-time lows and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is climbing for all of our SEO-focused products.
After a lot of analysis and soul searching, we decided to radically simplify our strategy to re-focus on what we love and what our customers value from us: search. Reducing product complexity also creates space for us to invest in the technical and business infrastructure we need to support growth. We’re also increasing investment in product marketing, CRO, SEO, and email marketing.
<3 Search is our hedgehog <3
We believe the search industry is as important as ever, and surprisingly doesn't see near the investment it should, given the clear value of SEO as a channel. Organic results still get 80% of the clicks and a fraction of the marketing spend. Further, with a phone in every pocket, mobile and local searches continue to grow. Organizations ignore search at their peril.
We’re passionate about search, we’re good at it, and it’s driving the growth in our business. Classic hedgehog.
What does this mean for the company?
This is the gut-wrenchingly painful part. The hardest part of my job is asking people who have put their hearts and souls into Moz to part ways. To align the organization with this strategic shift, we will be asking about 28% of Mozzers to leave. They are a part of the Moz family and it is heartbreaking that they will not be working alongside us in the future.
We will do everything we can to give them the Mozziest transition possible, including severance, coaching, and assistance finding new roles. Because I know the caliber of folks we’re parting with, I am confident they will go on to do great things.
What does this mean for customers?
Customers will enjoy increased investment in core SEO features, especially in local. We’re on a roll with these products; we’re out to win this market and we believe we can. We’ve got updates planned for crawl and rank tracking that we think you’ll love. We know we’re behind in link technology right now, and we’re working on something ambitious. If you love SEO, please keep watching the blog for updates.
The strategy shift means we will not be investing in Followerwonk or Moz Content. Despite our efforts, we’re not seeing the growth we hypothesized from these products. We will find a graceful way to sunset Moz Content. We’re also looking for a good home for Followerwonk. It is beloved by many, but isn't having the revenue impact we believed possible, and isn't close enough to our core base to make sense in our product offering. More details to come.
Send good vibes.
As you can imagine, this is an emotional time for us internally. Hug a Mozzer near you because we need it this week. We’re so grateful for this community’s support and look forward to making SEO software you truly love.
Contrasted feelings.
From one side I'm happy you finally decided to step back and concentrate on what made (Seo)Moz great.
From the other side, I am worried... Moz is not just a tool, it's a Community of marketers... better: people. It's not a community of customers, like many other that are communities just because they self define like that.
Seomoz and then Moz become what it is not only because of its tools, but because of what can be defined as the most amazing, relevant and influential community in the Search industry.
Please, don't make it loose... and do not become just another SAAS..
I trust you, Sarah... albeit this news and the people leaving are breaking my heart
Hey Gianluca :) - Speaking as one of those customers & community members, I agree, Moz is so much more to most people than a toolset. I think that's why the replies here have been overwhelmingly positive to be honest, people appreciate Moz as a community, not just a toolset.
Of course the tools are important too, but the ethos behind Moz is something I think a lot of people feel a connection to and identify with. I think whatever Moz do with their tools (which I expect will be great anyway), so long as there's a continuation of the great ethos that makes Moz, well, Moz, then I reckon most folks will be proud to stand by the community.
I for one can say Moz would have to do something pretty drasticly and intentionally terrible (not that they would!) to make me leave the community (maybe banning me would do it, ha!) :D
Yeah this is a big concern for me. Even though I have not had the energy or capacity to participate in the community in a while, it's such an integral part of the Moz eco-system, that in many ways, the community IS the heart-beat that drives everything else for many people. :-(
The Moz community is very special and its a privilege to host it here at Moz. Undoubtedly there will be a few hiccups as we go through this transition in the next couple weeks, but we are committed to nurturing the Moz community.
We may do fewer things, but we'll try and do the right ones really, really well. If you have any feedback in the weeks ahead about positive or negative impact to the community, please, please let us know.
Can you say anything about the future of Q&A? While I haven't participated much lately, I loved that part of the community.
I like the idea of Moz pulling back in a bit so you can concentrate on excellence in one specific area
Oh Gianluca, thank you so much for your words here. Your passion for our community makes me so proud and inspired. You know I'll be doing my own personal best to keep our community happy and vibrant, and it's a source of strength to know you've got our backs (I read the blog post you shared on Twitter about 3 times today already :)
Thanks Gianluca for this comment. I must say that it worries me that all the familiar Moz faces managing the Moz Community seem to be affected. It's always the easiest way to cut costs by reducing support staff (support is always a cost center). Community is one of the things which made (and make) Moz great - I hope it stays this way but to be honest I have my doubts.
Well said Gianluca
If you can remember it is about the community built around open sharing of SEO tips, techniques, and even minutiea and not just about the software, things will grow in spite of the step back.
If you are able to, it would be great to have a post to showcase the talent that may be seeking a new home. We may have some opportunities here, in fact. Otherwise, for those affected who are reading this, check out Vizion Interactive and reach out, if you think you have some interest in learning about our openings. We offer good pay, work-from-home/virtual environment, 100% paid health/dental/vision, matching 401K and the opportunity to work with some talented/nice folks.
Thank you Mark! We plan on collecting job opportunities we hear about and sending them to our Mozzers that are leaving. We''ll add you guys to the list! It's very important to me that these folks find great places to deploy their talents.
In the same spirit, could you add REI to the list? We have several open roles in various capacities here. I would love to give everyone a chance to land on their feet.
One such open role: https://rei.jobs/careers/JobDetail/SEO-Associate-Program-Manager/4136
Hey Ryan! I'll add your info and make sure it gets into the right hands -- and if you'd like to add anything else, please feel free to email me: felicia at moz.com. Thanks so much :)
Please add us to that list as well - we're a happy moz customer always looking for great talent - https://meetedgar.com
Please add me to the list, specifically if anyone is looking for a relocation to Houston/Austin/Dallas. Having lived and worked in SEA prior to my return home, I'd love to be able to help someone transition should that be an option.
It's always nice to know someone. Perhaps our agency in Houston can also be a good fit, but either way, we're down to assist.
If any do fancy a switch down under, we're always looking for the best - https://switchedonagency.com/
I second this.
Would love to help some talented ex-Mozzers find their next gig (be it with us or not).
Hey Corey, I'd love to share any help you'd like to give with our people! Appreciate your gracious offer. Get in touch if you'd like. You can email any info my way -- felicia @ moz.com, really straightforward -- and I'll make sure it gets into the right hands. :)
Hi Mark! (and others) We've built a site to display all the amazing folks here: hiremoz.com
Hey Sarah. I know how horribly hard this decision was. Good luck to all the mozzers affected, and to you and the remaining team. I'm over here thinking of you and rooting for you all.
in 2011 my company killed off keyword research, API and SEO products to focus exclusively on PPC management. it was a tough decision at the time for reasons similar to what you expressed, but years later we now think why didn't we do that earlier. company is 30x bigger than it was before. focus was the key. sorry for those impacted by the change. but mozzers are amazing people and i have faith/confidence they will land on their feet.
Wow, sounds like big changes over in Moz land for sure! Sad to hear that folks will have to leave Moz, but in a way nice to see that having to ask people to leave is taken with the seriousness it deserves.
Of course I'd expect nothing less from Moz, but even so, it's encouraging to see a company finding such a decision so hard, it speaks volumes for how much you respect your staff.
I've been a Moz customer for quite a few years now and have seen Moz's set-up change quite a bit over those years (including dropping the 'SEO' prefix!). I've used Moz Content a bit, but not a huge amount (I've only 'played' with it). On the whole, thinking about it, the tools I've most used in the Moz suite are SEO related tools. I find the reporting a nice touch, one client in particular really likes the weekly reports they get auto-sent (this is in addition to any manual reporting we do of course). Keyword Explorer is a phenomenal tool!
I've had a followerwonk account since before Moz (then 'seomoz' I think) merged with them, back in 2012. This tool is actually one I think is great, though I've not used it so much recently, but plan on doing again soon. I hope you guys find a new home for Followerwonk!
Interesting to hear that Moz has some ambitious plans around link technology - If the quality of what you have planned is anything like the quality, usefulness and usability of Keyword Explorer, I think you'll be on to a winner for sure!
All in all I don't think any of the changes for clients will upset Moz customers (though that's my opinion, maybe others feel differently!), but I can imagine it's very hard to let team members go. I've only had to let people go three times in my digital career, two of the times it was one of the hardest things I've had to do in my career, period. The other time not so much, but I won't go into that!.
Don't worry Moz, you've got a lot of very loyal customers who're backing you 100% :D
Mike, this was a needed, optimistic comment to read today. Thanks for your kindness and your honest thoughts, we're so grateful.
No problem Felicia, the praise is well deserved. I'm really impressed that Moz are being so open about something that many companies would try to hide. Serious Kudos for standing by TAGFEE during these tricky times.
The situation must be difficult, but I've got utmost respect for how you folks are handling it. I'm sure the future is going to be bright for Moz and I'm excited about what link-focused plans Moz might have :)
Sarah,
Thanks for always continuing the TAGFEE path.
Moz is such an integral part of our industry, it's even painful for us, on the outside of the organization, to know that there's been this level of struggle you've all gone through, and our collective hearts do go out to everyone at the company, especially those who need to transition out. The greater industry is amazing at picking up talent at such times though, so here's hoping it's as smooth as possible for every one of them!
On a final note, while this is a big contraction process, you've got such a strong core group of minds that I'm confident Moz is going to come through this and be stronger than ever.
Hi, Mozzers!
We'd love to see if anyone's a good fit over at Automattic! We're hiring for a number of different positions, and we're 100% remote as well.
You can check out what's available here: https://automattic.com/work-with-us/
If you decide to apply, please be sure to put "Moz" in the subject line so we're sure to see those applications; we get a LOT every day.
I'm definitely adding this to our list of resources for folks. The empathy from all corners of the industry is amazing. Thank you, Chris, for your generosity here!
I'm so, so sorry to hear this news. It must have been such a challenging choice to make and a hard day for everyone. I'm not active in the community any more, but I've known so many great people from Moz... they're truly the best and my heart goes out to them.
For those who are looking for new roles, we have a number of open jobs at Facebook right here in Seattle. You can see all of our job posts here: there's lots of engineering, design, writing, and more.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you want to chat or if there's anything else I can do to help.
((( Hugs ))) to everyone.
Sarah - thank you for the transparency. It is sad to hear that so many have been affected, and my sincere hopes for them to find the next thing quickly. I have no doubt you are doing all you can to do right by them and that they are all fantastic people who will land on their feet.
Anything I or the community can do, you know we are behind you and rooting for Moz.
Much respect for the hard decisions that have been made and the continued transparency by Moz is one element amongst many that the majority of your supporters can appreciate. Staying the course might not always appeal to many, while chasing the rabbit trail of all encompassing inbound could go on forever and not be true to the core. Cheers to continuing to produce a great product, supporting the SEO community and pushing forward Moz.
Jason, your kind and incredibly TAGFEE words are much appreciated right now -- thank you for being one of the reasons this community is so strong and supportive.
You're welcome Felicia and I'm glad to have offered up the support.
Respect to you Sarah for facing such a hard decision. I'd love to see a return to a more grass roots, search focused Moz. Way back you guys were really pioneering the space. Those were great, great times. Technical SEO, links and research are such critical areas for us - go forth and conquer!
FWIW I strongly rate Moz Local - it's ridiculously effective for SME local search campaigns. The fact you can nearly set it and forget it is even cooler. KW research is getting there, hurry up with the search volumes API already!! It would be amazing to see a fuller link index and a reliable API - this is (sadly) where the search focused Moz of old has fallen most short.
As for the staff that's a really hard thing to do; again respect for supporting them and helping them with such a transition. They're a supremely talented bunch and I guess by now they've already locked down their next career step.
Speaking with my CEO hat on, ultimately this is a business with responsibilities to all staff, its investors and the search industry - I have no doubt you'll be a stronger, more SEO'y Moz in the very near future and I truly look forward to seeing that happen. Good luck!
It's obviously a tough decision and sad for those people who will now be looking for new employment, but having Moz on their CV should help them...
And as a Moz user I'm far more excited about the focus on better search tools than I was about content - there are lots of opportunities in search, particularly as Google etc scale back their easily available data, whereas writing and content is far easier to solve without using dedicated tools as solutions.
It's a shame to lose Followerwonk from the tool set - while it doesn't fit with the Search focus, it was definitely a 'nice to have' included...
Your support, thoughts, and optimism are much appreciated over here, Dan :)
Tough to see layoffs for sure. But hopefully Moz just grows stronger from here on out as you focus on your core competency and blow our minds with new SEO tech!
My heart hurts for you all - those that are leaving, and those that stay behind in the wake. It's never easy to go through something like this. I'm so sorry for your losses, but wishing you the best in the new adventures and renewed sense of focus.
So, that said, VML (global digital ad agency) has Seattle and San Francisco teams, though we're headquartered in Kansas City and have offices around the country and world. We'd love to help some of your gifted Mozzers find a home. In Seattle we're primarily looking for various developer specialties at the moment, and in KC specialties across the spectrum of digital.
Wishing you all the best of luck. Mozzers are some of the brightest, most talented individuals I've had the good fortune of meeting, and I know that you will all land on your feet in no time. <3
Oh boy, this comment is so full of heartfelt feels. It seriously means so much to know our people have your support -- I will be adding your info and generous suggestions to the resources we're collecting. Thank you, thank you. E-hugs from the Mozplex to you.
Customers are going to get benefitted with the changes, a welcome change overall.
Change is never easy and telling anyone there is no longer a place is always hard. Let me add that here at drumBEAT and our new publishing firm we are looking for talent. Let us know you are a former Mozzer when you drop us the resume' and we will give it immediate attention.
Best wishes to all who are leaving and Thank You.
Really appreciate your need to focus, but FollowWonk is amazing and integral part of our toolset to understand customer personas. We recently lost Topsy and it would be sad to loose another toolset, perhaps you can sell it to another supplier (my boss Ann Stanley said she would take it off your hands for a few pounds:-)
I think Moz are intending to sell Followerwonk, not decommission it (or at least that's my understanding) :)
I'm John Bilodeau: Principal Technical Recruiter, Recruiting Point.
For anyone at Moz that was impacted by the Layoff please let us / me help.
We are working with Seattle based companies that need top talent. We work with very compelling companies with good engineering challenges, real products, paying customers. We are looking for:
* SDE's (OO, C++, Java, Scala)
* Full Stack Javascript (any modern framworks)
* Also TPM's.
I'm happy to share information, answer questions help in anyway. Feel free to call or email john at recruitingpoint.com or 206-600-7899 x211
Thanks for your thoughtfulness and generosity, John, we've got your info down and will be sharing it around :)
Moz gave a few things a go, realised they weren't quite working for them, and have decided that some of those things need to end.
That's both the best and hardest thing to do, and many companies struggle to 'try' and struggle to 'end' things.
In echoing agreement of what Larry Kim said above, a hard decision can be the door to the greatest opportunity... and I guess that applies to Mozzers as well as Moz.
Sad to hear that some of the team are going to have to leave, but the love for, and expertise of Moz and its team, from the Moz Community is evident in the number of people who've posted supportive pleas for ex-Mozzers to go join their companies. Good luck to those Mozzers, and to Moz too. I love you both.
Tough call i must say. We all know how it feels to make such a crucial decision but at the end Moz team are doing where they are good at.
Mozzers who are in layoff they will get the best prospect for the job as i can see few are here already. All the best Moz team.
Been a long-time user of FollowerWonk and am liking Moz Content but that's why they call these the "hard decisions."
Based on what I'm seeing in this thread, the soon-to-be former Mozzers won't have a hard landing. Lots of great opportunities out there. I would expect nothing else from this community.
Any company would be lucky to have them.
Best wishes from SoCal Sarah and keep up the GREAT work!
Just thinking, Moz must be one of the few places that news like this can break, then there's a flurry of comments from customers & the community offering support, with not a single down-vote on a comment.
Say's a lot about what people think of Moz :)
I'm this decision was very hard for management and equally difficult for those affected. All the best to those affected -- Dev.
What a tough decision. As always, I appreciate your transparency, even when it means sharing important and painful news. We at Avalara (your downstairs neighbors) have open positions, including social media, digital advertising and sales. Please share with your employees if it would be helpful - https://www.avalara.com/about/jobs/.
Hey, neighbors! :) Thanks for your support -- I shared this on our resources list. So many wonderful opportunities -- I truly hope some of our very talented folks find a home with you!
It looks like not only Moz is refocusing on Search, as Raven Tools is also similarly refocusing on its original specialty of search optimization. Is this the trend?
I have to say that I'm not terribly surprised by the changes being made by Moz. I have to admit that as I've continued to get deeper into SEO, the less useful I continue to find the Moz toolkit. If I was to give an honest opinion, I would have to say, looking at some of their new product releases that there has been a lot lacking in the strategy around product roadmap. The new functionality seems to be disparate and not well thought out. Features launch and rarely ever get extended. Most of what I see are a few interesting ad hoc solutions that really are not much better than some of the low end SEO tools that are out there. That's unfortunate because I know Moz has been there since the beginning and had contributed to the digital marketing world. At this point, it has little to show for its investments and my guess is that revenues are commensurate with that assessment.
When I compare Moz to another search firm - SEMRush - Moz clearly had the opportunity to be everything that SEMRush has become. The latter releases new product rapidly, they listen to customers and take in feedback not only about functional changes but larger roadmap items. The tool hangs together well and helps create workflow around how to manage the tasks at hand. Sure it has more to do, but I see SEMRush getting there. I don't see Moz - at least not without significant change in leadership.
For Moz to be a winner, not only do they have to 'claim to focus on search', they have to deliver value in search. It will be interesting to see if the company can manage this re-pivot, which I would also note - is not there first.
I appreciate the transparency Sarah. As many others have commented, MOZ has an absolutely fantastic community of followers, who have taught me a great deal in my time spent on here, if it wasn't for posts such as this I don't think the community would stay so loyal.
As for your decision to narrow your focus back to search, I agree with this too. For me at least, around the time of Panda / Penguin, it felt like the world of SEO as we know it, would implode completely, and core MOZ products such as Open Site Explorer would significantly loose their value or have to change significantly. This hasn't happened and in the meantime other competitors have improved their search tool offerings, so whilst I remain a subscriber I wouldn't say MOZ has a significantly better search tool set than it's leading competitors. Hopefully a return to focusing on search will change that, Keyword Explorer being a great example of the kind of products, I'd like to see more of.
I wish to Moz community for this new movement towards search.
Sending good vibes to everyone - and for any of those affected looking for new jobs, Leafly is looking to hire for a variety of roles right now. Send them my way and I can connect them with the right person :)
I second the kudos for being so transparent. As business leaders, we always hope to make great decisions but sometimes the best decision is to change course.
We are hiring in Minneapolis and would alsolove to welcome a Mozzer: https://info.denamico.com/digital_marketing_seo_specialist
Search Engine Market is changing so it's just a matter of evolution. If Moz does not evolve to adapt the new reality, it would disappear. So, tough decision, but necessary.
Hope for the best!
I absolutely hate that this decision had to be made. It's the unfortunate nature of business. I know I'm still pretty new to the community and haven't met a lot of you in person outside of Twitter/Facebook but I have to say, you will all be so incredibly missed. The Moz community has been so beneficial to me growth in this industry over the last 2 1/2 - 3 years. The genuine urge to help people grow as digital marketers has been incredibly helpful and inspiring. Thank you for all of your contributions. I hate that so many wonderful people were affected by this incredibly tough decision.
Sarah, I appreciate Moz's transparency through the entire thing as well. Even though this is incredibly difficult, being open and honest is what truly makes Moz special. It's like I told Dr. Pete, this is a wonderful community of people that care for everyone's well being so hopefully everyone will come out on top in the long run.
Good luck to all in your future endeavors and and I wish you all the best!
First of all - thanks for the transparency here, I do think it's a smart decision to focus only on the SEO products, but Moz is such a great product because of this community, because of MozCon and all the other features that you have comapring to other SAAS companies, as Head of SEO at SimilarWeb - enterprise SaaS company, we really admire this community so I'm looking forward to your new products, but I do think that focusing on community is very important thing
Wow. I'm not too active in posting or the community but an avid user of your products and a long time lurker of the q/a. Tough decision usually end up being the best ones. all the best to those impacted. Looks like everyone is pulling together to help them on their feet which is why the online marketing community is so awesome!
This can't have been an easy decision to make... I always appreciate Moz's honesty and transparency, and I can imagine this was painful to write. I love the Moz community, and wish all the best for those 28%. But on the positive side, it will be nice to see Moz's focus return to improving the SEO features for Moz Pro customers.
Love the changes. Local is growing so much that this is an obvious step.
Hi Sarah, i completely agree with you when you said the "MOZ family" as also the users/customers we feel the same with the company.
As Gianluca said in the first comment MOZ has become our first election, not only because of the good things that bring to marketers, also because of its great community.
Of course I am reading this the day after I finally decided to sign up for Followerwonk.
Larger pivots to business models and/or product strategy is never easy, especially as the org gets larger. However, focus often leads to better innovation, so kudos for the boldness and transparency. We're rooting for you guys!
For any exceptional Mozzers affected by the news, we have several positions open at our growing ad tech startup in SF: https://angel.co/adstage/jobs
Good luck to those that will be directly affected by the changes, I am sure with your abilities the majority of you will find great roles in no time at all.
The nature of business often dictates that tough decisions have to be made to secure a companies position in the market and its future progress, for the future of Moz as a whole, if this needed to be done then fine, here is to the future and hoping the changes benefit both the company and also the tools, that we the users have access to.
Hopefully some of the community team will still pop by the Q&A every once in a while...
Good luck to those leaving and Moz moving forward.
Does this decision have any impact on future MozCon's?? I certainly hope not, its the one conference I look forward to attending each year.
As co-founder of Linkdex - which exited for an 8 figure sum last week - I wish Moz best luck for the future - they provide great SEO thought leadership. The exit value going forward will be to reverse engineer RankBrain...
[link removed by editor]
Sarah - only reading this now and thanks for the update, I am sure all the Moz team, they are all fantastic people, will land on their feet.
Business decisions mean you have to adapt or die - but Followerwonk is a very useful tool, any way of keeping it as part of the package as a shared resource with a new buyer?
It could be helpful to create something like a reverse job posting on a page on Moz, which would allow those being laid off to post their name, role, contact info, etc. This would create ease and would give a central location for people who are wanting to help former Moz folks get visibility into new job opportunities.
Although its tough to make this call, I'm personally looking forwards to what the future has install for you guys. I've always loved your Search based products more than the others and that's why I use MOZ. Keep up the great work as always - we all appreciate it :)
This is so sad, but I know that the mozzers that is leaving and the mozzers that stayed will do a great job.
"Comfortable is not profitable."
Always glad to see Moz improving, over the last 2 years, you have changed much to the better and helped our/my SEO efforts immensely! TY
Looks like a few companies will be hiring some quality help very soon, best of luck to both sides involved.
Moz Local is H-U-G-E for us/me, this is great news to hear more focus on this and organic SEO, if you've followed my recent comments on Moz, you would know we are consolidating into 2 core services w/ 2 core brands, local & organics will be my main focal point in 2017.
MOZ ROCKS!
KJr
With apologies for saying "I told you so", the problem can be traced back to the point when SEOMoz changed its' name to just Moz.
When it was SEOMoz, it was a community and set of tools for people focused on search rankings. When it became Moz, the mission was muddied. The new platform and approach felt sort of like "Google Analytics + SEOMoz for Dummies," with no killer apps for the SEO community (opening the door for LRT), and nothing particularly insightful that wasn't available via Google Analytics if you knew how to use it.
Basically, SEOMoz became Moz, and it became unremarkable.
I hope that - going forward - Moz benchmarks the great tools available from Cemper and ahrefs, and I hope Moz continues to offer a great keyword difficulty and onsite optimization tool.
Finally, I hope that a smaller, simpler set of deliverables results in better pricing. I feel that LRT is particularly vulnerable (their pricing is outrageous), and a good effort from Moz to build similar tools at a better price point would likely put Cemper out of business.
The announcement caught me off-guard as many here. However, for those of us dug-in w/ SEO, we breath a sigh of relief. I've seen SEO subsumed under the banner of content marketing when in fact it should lead social and content strategies much of the time. Russ Jones was my main client contact 10 years ago, and talking to him over the past 3 years I knew he has what others don't to create SEO tools that kill it. SEMrush, where I oversaw major accounts until 2 years ago, is amazing at one-upping what's been done, but as a company w/ 90% employees in Russia they will never have the innovator streak of Moz. I'm sure laid-off employees will have great opps based on the large number of recruiters adding to comments for this announcement.
Eric I'd have to disagree. First, the assumption that just because employees are in Russia that they can't be innovative is just plain stupid. I started my career working at NASA at a time when NASA was working closely with their counterparts in Russia. I remember going over for my first few trips to see that frankly, given far less resources, it was precisely the innovation of Russia engineers that allowed them to execute and get things done. That trend continues as the US hasn't been able put a single astronaut into orbit without Russia now for many, many years.
That same level of innovation exists in the digital world too. Today, we're seeing many great companies come from all over the world - from India, from Israel and yes from Russia. True that many of these innovators are coming from countries that have a high level of societal commitment to STEM. Unlike the US that seems to be running away from STEM as fast as it can.
That being said, I've been on the receiving end of working with about 6 or 7 of the product managers at SEMRush.
Sure the product isn't beautiful. But its very functional and I continue to be surprised by what they develop and how quickly they do. I'm now in most of their alpha releases and I can tell you that they really, really listen to their customers. They may not release exactly what I want today, but I can tell you I've seen multiple suggestions that I've made make their way into the roadmap and production.
I can't say that about most other SEO tool companies. If there is one lesson that everyone should take from great companies out there, its that success is always based, in the long run, on your products. Henry Ford knew this. Steve Jobs knew this. Elon Musk knows it. And IMHO, the team at SEMRush knows it too. If they do it from Russia, that's fine.
It's sad news but I totally understand the reason behind it. As much as I like working with Moz, recently I felt like Moz could and should be better (more features and faster) because competitors are catching up and even outperform Moz in some areas. I have Moz Content subscription too but can't really say it has a good ROI, compared to other content research/report tools on the market. It will be better for everyone if Moz focused more on its core products.
Best of luck and good vibes to those moving on to new opportunities.
Moz.com is a fantastic, hyper-helpful resource -- one of the few genuine "must read" sites on the web for SEO and related disciplines. This is a painful time obviously but there's no doubt in my mind that you will bounce back.
Godspeed! It's a shame that you have to part ways with some of your teammates.
I regret what has happened to many mozzers ... But always there qe look forward and think that changes can be as good as we want
There can be no light without darkness and although is sad to have to change jobs, this time may be for the best. At ContactPigeon https://www.contactpigeon.com we would love to welcome any Mozzer that always wished to travel to Europe and experience a different way of life. Whatever the next step in your career is I wish you all the best and congratulations on building a great product!
Sorry for that news. Interestingly I was mainly not to say exclusively interested in Followerwonk you're now discontinuing. Sorry to see a great product go and of course obviously the people, who made it possible.
- Steffen
Saying Good Bye is the hardest of all the things.
Hello Sarah,
We know it is a difficult decision. Big changes always scared a little, but I guess it was a very thoughtful decision , and always thinking about the common good.
It is sad to see you will see many affected , but certainly with their professionalism find something else immediately. Although lately I could actively participate here for personal reasons, I will read whenever I can and are great .
All my support.
Is the Moz blog going to continue?
Gosh yes! Moz was a blog before it was a company. Long may it reign! :)
Ditto!! (I'm not biased, I swear...)
Was also wondering about this part - good thing it'll remain active as it is.
Though, still a bit saddened by this news. But I'm sure that all the former Mozzers will do great on the next phases of their careers. Thank you!
Thanks for the transparency in the way this has been communicated. Sad to hear people will leave.
Looking forward to more news on followerwonk and on the developments in the search area!
Extremely tough call to make, but I believe that you have made the right decision. All the best, and looking forward to the new features coming out in the future!!
moz success strategy 2012 - by rhand
"Culture + People win long term"
Remember:
All things happen for a reason in this life, and I truly believe that although sad... both parties will come out with a better outcome.
The way that Moz has handled this situation and changed course the way that it has only speaks volumes on the professionalism and care that it has for its community and employees alike.
I hope my good friends (Mozers) will see the same and have peace knowing that one day, they can look back at this as the pivotal moment that pushed them to go places they knew not possible.
Or as a good friend of mine once said, "the night is darkest just before the dawn."
Sending good vibes and encouragement.
Change is always tough, especially for those who have to move on, but another door always opens. Fortunately, demand in digital marketing is still going up, so opportunities are out there. Everyone will be looking out for the people seeking their next learning experience.
Now might not be the time to ask, but I keep thinking if Moz really crawls all the web using their own crawlers (I think I read that somewhere, but I'm not 100% sure of it), wouldn't it be awesome if Moz were a search engine with their own PPC and remarketing?
If that is too big to bite off, maybe aligning with another independent search engine could work? Google needs competition. With your community and visibility, who wouldn't support that? I have all my browsers set to alternate search engines, but none of them have as big a database so I keep having to go back to Google.
Maybe you only index links and not the entire page? I don't know, but I for one would shout it from the rooftops and write about it everywhere and encourage all the other writers I know to do the same if you decided to become a search engine and give us some much-needed choice.
Such change in business is never easy. Good luck in this difficult time..
foremost of success and good desire to those continue on to current chance.