Aviran Zazon

CTO of Ticket Compare

4 September 2023 8 Min Read

Aviran Zazon: Crafting a Legacy in Tech and Beyond

I am honored to introduce you to Aviran Zazon, the CTO of Ticket Compare and an Advisor at HostAdvice, an SEO and web development specialist, and most of all, my dear friend.

Aviran has achieved many great things in his lifetime worthy of mention, including building his first-ever website at eight years old. He started learning HTML at nine years old and joined the website builder community at only 14. Over the years, he took part in many amazing companies, including WSD, AfterU, ArtPrints.co.il, and 888.com. He was also a COO at HostAdvice during the crisis, so he truly has a lot to teach us.

He understands both sides – SEO and web development, so it’s no wonder he has done so many revolutionary things to date. I am eager to hear his side of the story and insights for online success, so without further ado, let’s get to it!

I am honored to introduce you to Aviran Zazon, the CTO of Ticket Compare and an Advisor at HostAdvice, an SEO and web development specialist, and most of all, my dear friend.

The Logician

Hi Aviran, I'm so excited to finally have my new website up and running, and I'm thrilled to have you as my first interviewee here! First, could you please tell us a little about yourself, your background, and how you first got into the digital world? What caught your attention in the beginning, and what were your early experiences in the industry?

Aviran Zazon

For sure we’ve been knowing each other for several years now, and I’m glad to be interviewed for your project.

I’ve been having computers since I was 3 years old. I built my first website being only 8, using some local “website builder” way before Wix was even planned (1998), and the internet was still in its early days.

Being 9/10, we had a program in our class that taught us HTML at a very early age, and I liked it. I got internet when I was 14; I started building websites then and was involved in the local website builders community.

I had an internet radio shortly after that, with tons of listeners, and I got familiar with different kinds of servers and operating systems.

When I was 20, a friend I met in IRC asked me to work for him, and in return, he would teach me SEO, and that was my career path for several years. Then another friend asked me if I knew about website development; I said yeah, sure, and we founded Ticket Compare.

Overall I have about 13 years in SEO and on/off 20+ years in website development.

The Logician

As colleagues at HostAdvice, I've always been curious about how you first became interested in the hosting industry and what led you to become an Advisor at HostAdvice. I can see your dedication to your work, and I'm wondering what drives you to put in so much effort. Also, how do you envision the future of HostAdvice and the hosting industry in general?

Aviran Zazon

What you call effort, I kind of see as effortless. To be honest, it’s all stuff I grew up with – IRC servers, Windows Servers, Linux, Shoutcast (Radio) Servers, and Counter-Strike Servers. It came out of necessity, and I had to learn things as people counted on me to be there for them.

I joined HostAdvice when the Corona shut down the world, and Ticket Compare was on hold. I remembered that I used HostAdvice to find a server for Ticket Compare, and I liked the job offer and thought I could help out with my knowledge and life experience.

HostAdvice is the dominant player in the market and keeps being as such for a long time. It’s difficult to recreate what we have here with legitimate reviews, and it’s difficult driving users to write reviews, but luckily it seems like it works for us perfectly, with over 100 new published reviews per day.

The Logician

When it comes to SEO, I've noticed that you seem to have a unique perspective on structuring and understanding the bigger picture. Can you share with us how you developed this mindset and how it has influenced your approach to SEO?

Aviran Zazon

Working for 888.com for a while, I had a boss that really showed us how to win with content. That, along with my technical skills, allows me to have a wider angle than most. So, I’ll be looking at the tags no one is using (abbr&blockquote, for instance), involving them with great content that gets to the point, using some memes perhaps to top it all off.

The Logician

In your experience as a developer, how important is it to consider factors like website structure, hosting, development, clean code, and sound design when optimizing a website for search engines? Can SEO be treated as a separate discipline, or is it crucial for SEO experts to integrate all these aspects into their work?

Aviran Zazon

I’d never say that technical SEO has no effect; however, there’s too much emphasis on page speed score, I believe.

Not to say that what they list there is not important, absolutely not, but I was never able to verify that a 90+ score leads to better rankings. It doesn’t work that way.

Hierarchy? Sure, a bad hierarchy will cause cannibalization, and you won’t be able to rank well, if any.

Clean code? Always a benefit; it’s even there in the Google PageSpeed tool.

If you have great technical skills, it’s great, but worthless if you don’t know how to publish good content or have a team that can do that.

The Logician

I know you're heavily involved as the CTO at TicketCompare. Can you tell us more about the company and how you're contributing to building it?

Aviran Zazon

I’m one of 3 founders. Before joining, I knew a little bit of Classic ASP, some CSS, and some HTML. When I joined, I had to up my skills, and I became familiar with PHP, SCSS, Tailwind, VueJS, Vanilla JS, and of course, Node.JS. I also learned how to properly manage servers, build APIs, and the backend/frontend structure.

That’s pretty much what I do in my day-to-day life, along with contributing my SEO knowledge.

The Logician

You have a very open-minded approach to the digital world. In your opinion, what direction is the industry heading towards, particularly with the rapid technological advancements we see daily? How do you think these developments will shape the hosting industry and other related fields?

Aviran Zazon

Bard was released, and it straight out lied about basic things. With the Woke movement banning actual data, I find it hard to believe it can ever be legitimate for research purposes and to casually learn something. Websites are here to stay as you’ll always want to have multiple sources of data, and you will select what you’d want to believe.

In addition to that, it’s so easy to ask something and get a straight answer, but yesterday I nullified 6 columns in my DB as I counted on a code provided by ChatGPT asking him about a very simple MySQL query.

SEO is here to stay, I can say that we have less traffic than before as Adwords took over, but Adwords cannot be a thing without organic results.

The Logician

On a more personal note, can you share with us how your surroundings have affected what you've become? Are you a self-learner? What was the turning point in your life that led you to become the knowledgeable and skilled professional you are today?

Aviran Zazon

Definitely, a self-learner. I could never sit on my behind at school and always hoped to get back home to continue my projects. So, yeah, everyone will call you a nerd, but it paid off for sure.

I had to move several times growing up and used my PC as my shelter as I didn’t have many friends in the new places. So, it was my only friend for some time.

I settled when I was 17-18. I had tons of friends and left the PC aside untouched for days. If it wasn’t for that friend that messaged me, I could’ve ended up taking another career path; I always wanted to be a truck driver.

The Logician

We've known each other for a while, and I'm aware you're a great pool player. But what else do you enjoy doing in your free time? What are some of your favorite hobbies or interests outside of work that help you unwind and recharge?

Aviran Zazon

I love building Legos. I have a huge collection of them, so I had to move many sets once because I didn’t have enough room for them.

I also enjoy playing tennis, swimming, and relaxing with my friends here in the temple on Saturdays. We study Torah together for 5 hours each week, with some food, drinks, and laughs.

The Logician

Throughout your life, have there been any particularly memorable experiences, family members, or friends who have influenced your perspective or approach to your work? Alongside these influences, what's the best life advice you've received or would like to share up to this point in your life?

Aviran Zazon

I have memories since I was 2 years old, as I can rewind – similar to a video – some experiences in my life. I remember when I was 8 how my website looked and how I built it; I remember the first domain I bought, my first girlfriend when I was 6, and how she looked like & how it started and ended.

With that in mind, I was pretty much on my own through this entire time, learning and failing on my own, sometimes winning, of course.

The only good advice was given by my uncle, who told me: “You have to make it, your parents aren’t rich, you have to make it on your own somehow.” I don’t believe I acted on that, but I understood what he was telling me.

There were many other pieces of advice that I’m happy that I avoided, like going to the university, which I almost did.

The one that influenced me the most was my grandpa. He had his own small local business, and I saw him working hard for his living while going to coffee shops all day long, having the time of his life doing what he loved – upholstery.

The Logician

Lastly, I have to ask – when are you planning to visit my homeland? I can't wait to see you and show you around this beautiful country!

Aviran Zazon

I’ve seen the views, and it really is stunning. I’m positive that by the age of 35, I will come.

The Logician

Thank you, Aviran, for sharing unpopular opinions for us to learn from. It’s not every day I get to talk to such an inspirational individual as yourself. You teach us all how one should take their life in their hands and make the most of it, even on their own. Also, even if things don’t seem like it, eventually, everything comes to make sense. I look forward to all your upcoming achievements and wish you the best of luck in fulfilling your goals!

The Logician

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