Rand Fishkin, the new Danny Sullivan? I don’t think so.

Written on September 20, 2007 – 6:35 pm | by oldschool

Tony Hill recently asked the question whether or not Rand Fishkin was “The New Danny Sullivan”. It’s a nice title and makes for good link bait, but to set the record straight, in the minds of many of the “old school” SEO’s, Danny is the “father of SEO” and it will be hard to outrank him (pun intended). Don’t get me wrong, few others in the industry have made the strides that Rand has; SEOmoz is a phenomenally successful & unique SEO firm (who else has the courage to link to their competitors and not ask for referral fees from them). Before we bestow Danny’s title on Rand, let’s not forget Search Engine Watch (and the buyout), Calafia Consulting (pretty much flies under the radar), and then the rather handsome salary Danny was able to command from the folks that bought his site.

As I thought more, I figured I would ask Google, so I did just that courtesy of Googlefight.com and here are the results.

As did Tony, I want to point out that Rand and Danny are two of the people that our industry should be thankful for.

Share and Enjoy:

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4 Responses to “Rand Fishkin, the new Danny Sullivan? I don’t think so.”
By Tony Hill on Sep 26, 2007 | Reply

Hey Anthony! Good catch with comparing their results in Google.. I’ve been thinking for the past few days that maybe I should have re-worded my title to “Rand Fishin; The Next Danny Sullivan?”

He’s not quite where Danny is… but a competitor can always jump ahead very quickly even though someone may be grandfathered in. Look at Google or FaceBook.

Anyways, I just thought I would say whats on my mind and stir things up a bit

Good post!
By oldschool on Sep 26, 2007 | Reply

Thanks Tony. You are not alone in “stirring things up” in the SEO blogosphere. I think your point is well taken than Rand has done an exceptional job; probably better than any other (?) in coming into the space and gaining huge market share. I think one of the things that helped is the fact that he built a community at SEOmoz as opposed to just offering information.
By Andy Beard on Oct 4, 2007 | Reply

You realise of course that Googlefight isn’t a really good indicator

http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Danny+Sullivan&word2=Andy+Beard
By oldschool on Oct 4, 2007 | Reply

Certainly Andy – of course your Googlefight puts you in some pretty good company.