Moz is a software as a service (SaaS) company based in Seattle, Washington, U.S., that sells inbound marketing and marketing analytics software subscriptions. It was founded by Rand Fishkin and Gillian Muessig in 2004 as a consulting firm and shifted to software development in 2008. The company hosts a website that includes an online community of more than one million globally based digital marketers and marketing related tools.
History
In 2004, Moz was founded by Rand Fishkin[1] and Gillian Muessig [2] as ‘SEOmoz’. In September 2007, the company raised $1.1 million in Series A funding from Ignition Partners and Curious Office.[3] In 2012, it raised $18 million in funding from Foundry Group and Ignition Partners.[4][5]
In June 2012, SEOmoz acquired Followerwonk, a tool for searching, filtering and managing Twitter bios with other Twitter management functions like analytics.[6] The terms were not disclosed, but SEOmoz said the acquisition was for somewhere between one and four million US dollars.[5] In December 2012: SEOmoz acquired GetListed for $3 Million.[7] In May 2013, the company rebranded as ‘Moz’ and relaunched the website at Moz.com.[8] During the period 2008 to 2011, SEOmoz grew from $1.5 million to $11.4 million in revenue.[9]
Tools
Moz has a series of tools on its SEO Toolbox page,[10] including a Term Extractor, which shows the importance of words or phrases and what HTML components keywords show up in. It also has a tool to determine the relevance of a page based on sampling. moztrust compares how trustworthy a website is compared to others. mozRank is an alternative to Google PageRank.[11][12] Moz also has a tool for researching popular search trends[13] and a community site called YOUmoz.[14] There is an SEO audit tool called SEO Toolbar.[15] It sells four different versions of paid accounts (standard, medium, large and premium).[16] In August 2016 Moz announced that it was dropping the Followerwonk tool to focus more on SEO.[17]
Culture
When it raised funding in 2012, the CEO Rand Fishkin blogged about his personal opinions, doubts and analyses as the company went through the process.[18][19] In September 2007, more than 400 readers posted opinions on Moz on the CEO’s facial hair based on six photos he posted. According to the New York Times, he arrived to the conference in Stockholm “unshaven and bristly” based on the crowd-sourced decision.[20]
Business
The organization’s business model is largely based on inbound marketing. The company says that 85% of the trial users of its software come through organic search, social media and referrals.[21] 85% of Moz’s revenue comes from SaaS subscriptions.[22]
