Danny Sullivan reflects on 21 years covering the search industry

There aren’t many people who can claim to have created an industry, but Danny Sullivan is one of them. When he first published “The Webmaster’s Guide to Search Engines” in 1996, he attracted an audience of online marketing pioneers who wanted to understand how search engines of the day — think Yahoo, AltaVista, Lycos and the like — ranked online content. Soon after, he launched Search Engine Watch and started hosting search marketing conferences. And in 2006, he co-founded Third Door Media — the company behind Marketing Land, its older sibling Search Engine Land, and its younger sibling, MarTech Today.

As journalists, we don’t like to consider ourselves “the news,” but when Danny announced earlier this week that he’d be stepping away from daily duties as our Chief Content Officer and taking an advisory role, it was industry news. Big news. And so we think it’s apropos to spend this week’s episode of Marketing Land Live chatting with Danny about his beginnings as a search industry reporter, the evolution of both SEO and online journalism and, of course, his decision to shift careers. I had the pleasure of doing the interview, and I think you’re gonna love it.

This week’s show runs just over an hour. You can listen here or use the link below to subscribe via your favorite podcast service.

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Show notes

Danny Sullivan: My new role as advisor for Third Door Media

10 big changes with search engines over my 20 years of covering them

Thanks for listening! We’ll be back soon with another episode of Marketing Land Live.

About The Author

Matt McGee is the Editor-In-Chief of Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. His news career includes time spent in TV, radio, and print journalism. After leaving traditional media in the mid-1990s, he began developing and marketing websites and continued to provide consulting services for more than 15 years. His SEO and social media clients ranged from mom-and-pop small businesses to one of the Top 5 online retailers. Matt is a longtime speaker at marketing events around the U.S., including keynote and panelist roles. He can be found on Twitter at @MattMcGee. You can read Matt’s disclosures on his personal blog. You can reach Matt via email using our Contact page.