Rand Fishkin (follow @randderuiter on Threads)

Best way to sell something - don't sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, & trust of those who might buy.

Boss: "Did you read Amanda's latest post? We should do that." You: "Umm... I kinda already have 50 hours of work that you wanted..." Boss: "Delivery by end of week? Great! Thanks!" You: (welp... #$%^.) I got you 👇

NEW Research: sparktoro.com/blog/zero-clic… Alongside @Similarweb, we explored Google's Zero-Click Searches across 6 countries: - The UK (where zero-click is highest) - The US - France (w/ the most efficient searchers) - Canada - Italy - Germany (w/ the lowest zero-click rates)

My friend & co-author @amandanat wrote another banger tonight: sparktoro.com/blog/zero-clic… Worth your time 🔥

Apologies - my prior graphic from this research had a math error. For every 1,000 Google searches, *232* clicks go to the open web. It's now corrected in the blog post: sparktoro.com/blog/in-2026-l…

Google Trends is now completely bonkers, likely due to AI search For every AI search, Google performs multiple fan-out queries, and those fan-outs look to be getting lumped together Either that or protein powder, SEO, running shoes, and CBD all became *hugely* popular in 2026

NEW Research: sparktoro.com/blog/in-2026-l… From Jan-April of this year, 68.01% of Google searches in @Similarweb's mobile+desktop panel ended without a click. That's 12.5% growth from two years ago; the fastest we've seen the zero-click search trend rise in the last decade.

Dear fellow @sparktoro fans, Your fave AI tool + SparkToro MCP access = ... uh, actually IDK, b/c the possibilities are♾. Waitlist at sparktoro.com/api. Access should be available in <1 month.

If you're not monitoring AI's inconsistent answers to recommendation questions... what are you doing?! rings.com/pages/ai-jewel… is a great example of how variable and strange the responses can get.

For anyone who thinks the Zero Click Web is inevitable... It's not. Big tech platforms decide whether to give traffic. Judge accordingly

NEW post: sparktoro.com/blog/inimitabl… Ignore traffic. Make inimitable products. Shift your priorities away from “great content” on your own site and toward “great marketing” on the platforms where your audience pays attention. Influence is the new traffic.

AI is killing All About Berlin. When you Google something, you used to get a link to my website, but now you get an AI-generated answer trained on my work. This has a devastating impact on traffic.

I'm seeking a video game marketing consultant (or agency) for the end of the world... well, the Snackbar at the End of the World anyway. If you know a great firm or person in this world, please drop me a line (rand at snackbarstudio dot com). Grazie mille 🍝❤

One of the most LEGENDARY people in SEO, @randfish, just returned to the pod. 75 min of the state of SEO and digital marketing, what gets results, WHAT TO AVOID, and where we're headed. Really fun convo. youtube.com/watch?v=f7fZyN…

DAMN it feels good to have this concept validated by others. It's weird trying to convince marketers that: A) Customer journeys are long & complex B) You need to be where your audience pays attention C) Research can show that Thanks to @gert_mellak for searchengineland.com/the-search-eve…

@tobias_petry @amandanat E-book only is available for preorder now!

Are there any plans for an e-book only version? 40€ for shipping a €28 hard-cover book is something I can't justify for myself. Especially as I will only read the e-book version. The e-book only can be the same price. no problem. international shipments are just too expensive...

NEW from @amandanat and your truly... <drum roll> ... Zero Click Marketing: The Book! - Why web traffic declined - How to earn sales WITHOUT clicks on search, social, AI tools, through PR, & more - How to measure & report on ZCM pre-order: zeroclickmarketing.co/book.

Starting in 35mins: datos.live/event/datos-pu… @LosBuenos and I will show you what the data shows us: the common narratives around how, when, and where people are searching is frequently disconnected from reality 🙄😉

AI launches and search speculation are everywhere right now. We’re bringing the data. Join @losbuenos and @RandFish live to unpack AI adoption, Google AI Mode, zero-click trends, and changing search behavior. Sign up: hubs.li/Q04gyH2l0 #StateOfSearch #AI #SEO

Everyone has opinions about the future of search. We’re bringing the data. Join @losbuenos and @RandFish for a live discussion on AI adoption, Google AI Mode, zero-click behavior, and evolving search patterns. Register: hubs.li/Q04g3vvp0 #StateOfSearch #ClickstreamData

Snackbar Studio is hiring a Senior 2D Generalist Game Artist to help with their RPG project, The SnackBar at the End of the World! 📍 Remote, Contract (EU & UK) 🕹️ Made in Unity 🎨 Shader Graph & HLSL XP a + Work with Snackbar Studio and apply: workwithindies.com/careers/snackb…

@onlinehobo @amandanat Yes! About a month before launch, we'll be on Amazon and the other big platforms

@randfish @amandanat Will it be available on Amazon Europe? I tried to pre-order it, but the shipping cost more than the book itself 😅