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Danny Sullivan is an American technologist, journalist, and entrepreneur. He is the founder of
Search Engine Watch Search Engine Watch (SEW) provides news and information about search engines and search engine marketing. Search Engine Watch was started by Danny Sullivan in 1996. In 1997, Sullivan sold it for an undisclosed amount to Mecklermedia (now WebM ...
in 1997, one of the earliest online publications about
search engine marketing Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine op ...
. He also launched ''Search Engine Strategies'', one of the earliest search marketing trade shows. After selling both companies in 2006, he co-founded ''Search Engine Land'', another search marketing publication. In 2017, he joined
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
as an adviser at the search division of the company. He has been credited with popularizing the term "search engine marketing" and has been described as the father of the search engine marketing industry.


Biography

Sullivan was born in 1965 and raised in California. He graduated from the
University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...
, and was a reporter for the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' and the ''
Orange County Register ''The Orange County Register'' is a paid daily List of newspapers in California, newspaper published in California. The ''Register'', published in Orange County, California, is owned by the private equity firm Alden Global Capital via its Digit ...
''. He helped found Maximized Online with programmer Ken Spreitzer. Later he married Lorna Harris, and lived for several years in
Chitterne Chitterne is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, in the south west of England. The village lies in the middle of Salisbury Plain, about east of the town of Warminster. The Chitterne Brook, a small ...
, a small village in England. They have two sons. The family moved to
Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...
. Sullivan popularized the term
Search Engine Marketing Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine op ...
in an article on Search Engine Watch although he does not take credit for coining the term. Sullivan was the chief content officer a
Third Door Media
and co-founded ''Search Engine Land'', an industry publication that covers news and information about
search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
s, search marketing, SEO and SEM topics. Third Door Media also produces ''Marketing Land'', a sister website that covers broader
digital marketing Digital marketing is the component of marketing that uses the Internet and online-based Information technology, digital technologies such as desktop computers, mobile phones, and other digital media and platforms to promote products and service ...
topics including
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
,
display advertising Digital display advertising is online graphic advertising through banners, text, images, video, and audio. The main purpose of digital display advertising is to post company ads on third-party websites. A display ad is usually interactive (i.e. ...
,
email marketing Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to s ...
,
analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data, which also falls under and directly relates to the umbrella term, data sc ...
, mobile, and marketing technology. ''Search Engine Land'' and ''Marketing Land'' are owned by Third Door Media, of which Danny Sullivan was partner and chief content officer. He retired from his position as chief content officer at Third Door Media in June 2017. In October 2017, Sullivan announced that he would be joining
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
as an adviser at its search division. He is Google's public Search Liaison, who helps people better understand search and helps Google better hear public feedback.


Affiliated websites


''Search Engine Watch''

Sullivan started ''Search Engine Watch'' in June 1997 after he posted research about search engines, called ''A Webmaster's Guide To Search Engines'', in April 1996. ''Search Engine Watch'' was a website with tips on how to get good
search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...
results. Shortly after beginning in November that year, he sold it for an undisclosed amount to MecklerMedia (now Jupitermedia). He stayed on to maintain the site, and be the editor-in-chief. In 2006, it was sold to
Incisive Media Incisive Media is a Business-to-business financial company. It is based in London, England. History Incisive Media is a business-to-business (B2B) financial company founded by Tim Weller, in 1994 with the launch of '' Investment Week''. It ac ...
for $43 million. ''Search Engine Watch'' was considered by
Matt Cutts Matthew Cutts (born 1972 or 1973) is an American software engineer. Cutts is the former Administrator of the United States Digital Service. He was first appointed as acting administrator, to later be confirmed as full administrator in October 2 ...
of
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
as "must reading", and Tim Mayer of
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
as the "most authoritative source on search". He also staged the ''Search Engine Strategies'' conference six times each year, attracting 1,500 to 6,000 attendees each time. On 29 August 2006, Sullivan announced he would be leaving ''Search Engine Watch'' on 30 November 2006. He later came to an agreement with Jupitermedia to continue participating in SES through 2007.


''Search Engine Land''

''Search Engine Land'' is a
news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...
website that covers
search engine marketing Search engine marketing (SEM) is a form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine op ...
and
search engine optimization Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of Web traffic, website traffic to a website or a web page from web search engine, search engines. SEO targets unpaid search traffic (usually referred to as ...
. One of the well-known blogs which shares information about keyword research, trends in search marketing ( SEM), paid search advertising ( PPC) and search engine optimization ( SEO) as well as analysis, advice, tips, tactics and how-to guides for search marketing. It was founded in 2006 by Sullivan after he left ''Search Engine Watch''. ''Search Engine Land'' stories have been cited numerous times by other media outlets. ''Search Engine Land'' was acquired by Semrush in October, 2024.


References


External links


Search Engine Land
*
Danny Sullivan's Interview

Third Door Media
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Danny 1965 births Living people Search engine optimization consultants University of California, Irvine alumni