If physical growth is your goal as an entrepreneur, as soon as possible you should consider a search engine optimization (SEO) plan. For many companies, this means hiring an SEO expert to manage this strategy for them. The problem is that many business leaders don’t know enough about SEO or their SEO needs to know how to write a good job description, ask relevant interview questions or evaluate a candidate’s qualifications in this. part.
3 steps to hiring SEO experts for your business
Eli Schwartz, author of Product-Led SEO, has developed a sense of what works and what doesn’t with over a decade of working as an SEO expert and consultant. His plans have generated millions of dollars in revenue for several online websites, and he has helped clients such as Shutterstock, WordPress, Blue Nile, Quora and Zendesk achieve high levels of content. SEO globally. As head of SurveyMonkey’s SEO team, he grew the company’s search engine optimization from just 1% of revenue to a major global revenue stream.
“I’ve seen a lot of descriptions of SEO jobs that don’t seem to know what they’re looking for,” Schwartz says. “Some have ten -year -old duties, while others cannot hold high standards. You might want someone to understand subjects, project management, engineering and details, but gaining those different skills in one person? Undoubtedly. ”
In his experience, the three steps to hiring an SEO professional are evaluating your company’s needs, calculating rewards and writing a good job description.
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1. Assess your company’s SEO needs
Start by stepping back to get a sense of your company’s SEO needs. You don’t want to end up having a strong motivator and no one to develop the whole plan, Schwartz suggested. Most students have technical skills, but not all professionals have the technical skills.
“The skill strength of SEO practitioners can be divided into four specific areas, product management, copywriting, technology and PR,” says Schwartz. “Who you should hire depends entirely on the SEO skills and opportunities your company has.”
In many cases, Schwartz said first-step companies should employ a team of all tradesmen with different skills in the markets and products. In later companies that only new recruits will work on SEO projects, prioritizing skill sets are critical. Finding someone with experience and skills in all of these areas is not difficult, but it is not easy.
Schwartz says it’s more useful to determine exactly what the company will need and where there is bandwidth to do things. There is no perfect model for hiring and which skills to prioritize, because the specific details will be specific to each company.
2. Properly calculate fair compensation
As evidenced by the diversity of skills and needs, rewards for your first SEO market will include the general public. For this reason, Schwartz has refused to reveal “good pay” for this position, nor does he think anyone should make such declarations.
“From experience, I’ve never seen a lot of general research on SEO payouts that is consistent with real in -house packages,” he says. “So, I take them with a little salt.”
Large businesses will have a pay scale that puts SEO managers into a group of tasks and some common combinations under product management, sales, marketing, salespeople or marketing on the market. laiga.
Small companies that do not use a formal pay ladder should match SEO payroll with one of the other standard jobs when setting up reward boxes. One of the pitfalls to avoid is to seek to pay as little as possible, because “you get what you pay for!”
Another mistake Schwartz said should be avoided at all costs is to make any part of the pay shift based on a KPI. This will lead to false positives and does not help to prioritize your SEO efforts in the right direction of long -term, sustainable growth.
“I’ve seen SEO bonuses being used with link metrics, rankings, clicks from search and even revenue,” he shares. “It always causes long -term, long -distance, negative effects.”
3 steps to hiring SEO experts for your business
3. Write a detailed job description
What main goal do you want an SEO expert to help you achieve? Schwartz says the answer to this question will form the basis of your job description.
Are you looking to promote a new site? Increase your content or life expectancy? Once you set your goal, try to break down the steps that may be needed to get there. These are specific requirements that should be included in the job description.
For example, understand what type of reporting might be needed to determine when that goal is being achieved and require familiarity with that tool. You also have to decide what kind of hard skills the person needs. If you want a network builder, they don’t need a digital code. If you want a unique SEO experience, they don’t need to be a great link.
Know if you want a senior or junior employee, and include relevant years of experience. Understand what type of work first provides the best reputation for your employment. Do they need experience in a large company? Freedom? First company? Finally, you can include some fun-to-have skills, if you make it clear that they are not required.
“Good preparation will make it easier to find resumes and decide who to hire more easily,” Schwartz said. “Because you have a clear idea of what the new crew will do when they get on board, it will be much easier to do the job. who is the best? ”
Remember that SEO is done by humans
As you begin this process, remember, “The best SEO is done by people, for people.” For great SEO, you really need the right people. That’s why Schwartz advises you to look for the person or people you can see as the owners of success in the future of your company.
Hire someone who can work beyond the boundaries of your traditional digital market and who shows flexibility and creativity. They will take your SEO further than you thought possible, so be careful and diligent in finding people you can trust for this great job.
“Anyone with SEO experience can conduct an SEO test or build a list of keywords,” Schwartz explains. “However, it takes a unique person to be able to combine customer empathy and creativity embedded in intelligent SEO.”
