How To Hire an In-House SEO
A four-step guide to hiring a good SEO. Marketing managers: consider yourself equipped to make the right hire.
A four-step guide to hiring a good SEO. Marketing managers: consider yourself equipped to make the right hire.
For many companies, hiring an SEO is diving into the dreaded realm of information “you don’t know you don’t know.” In the search world, there are few more expensive and time wasting efforts than hiring a full-time employee who’s in over his/her head.
The spectrum of talent is far too wide in the search world. There are terrifically gifted folks and others who lack the required knowledge and skill set to have any impact.
There are two major reasons for this astronomical talent disparity within the industry:
Here is a four-step guide to hiring a good SEO. Marketing managers: consider yourself equipped to make the right hire!
Step 1: Get a Strategy From an Agency
Contrary to popular belief, many agencies such frequently work with in-house teams (or companies planning an in-house move) and happily provide walk-away audits and strategies for creating search traffic.
Having a strategy in place before beginning the hiring process is a great way to understand your search needs, essential tasks, and realistic (data-driven) goals. This provides a great, objective framework to use as a guide during the hiring process.
If you aren’t budgeted for a full strategy, see if you can hire an agency for site review. It won’t be nearly as thorough, but should provide a high-level understanding of your search needs.
Step 2: Collect Your Talent Pool
Ask for recommendations, post on relevant job boards, and weed through the siege of monster.com. Try to get a pool of at least five candidates with relevant work experience.
Step 3: Interview & Test
There are five essential skills required to be an effective SEO consultant. Failure to answer any of the following questions with a resounding “yes!” should be considered a non-starter.
1. Does the consultant have a strong understanding of on-page factors? Is the code clean, light, and formatted properly? Are keywords used appropriately? The ability to analyze, understand, and quickly make on-page changes are a foundation of search.
2. Does the consultant have a strong understanding of off-page factors?
3. Does the consultant have a strong conceptual understanding of other channel activities such as conversion optimization or social media?
4. Does the consultant have reasonably strong analytics skills?
5. Does the candidate have the ability to perform market/keyword research?
Step 4: Hire the Agency for a Few More Hours
If you’ve followed step three, you should have a tremendous data set to make a decision. Give the data to the agency and ask them to review the answers (I would recommend removing candidates’ names).
The agency should be able to quickly review and make recommendations or call out red flags based upon the answers. Additionally, the agency will likely be able to point out any potential weaknesses that might be addressed through training after the hiring process is complete.
Final Takeaways
Good SEOs always appreciate the opportunity to demonstrate their skill sets, so don’t be afraid to ask these types of questions. Feel free to turn to the agency or a trusted third party to help tailor questions like the ones listed above to your unique business goals.
Remember, tests like the ones listed above only give any idea of skill set. Be sure to get qualified references and a verifiable performance history to help mitigate risk.