By Kristopher B. Jones, serial entrepreneur and investor. Kris is the Founder of 2020 SEO Agency of the Year Finalist LSEO.com.
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Are you looking to hire an SEO expert for your company or organization but are unsure what qualities a perfect SEO manager should have?
Go even a few years back, and you’ll see there have been tremendous changes in SEO.
The introduction of Google algorithms—such as Penguin, Panda, Hummingbird, BERT and constant core updates—have contributed to these drastic changes.
Gone are the days when keyword stuffing, keyword density, guest posting randomly, exact-match domains, unfocused linkbait, comment spamming and flat URLs mattered or worked. SEO is now a whole different game.
SEO managers need to be ready to adapt to any new algorithm changes for the work they’re already doing.
Managers should be knowledgeable in a whole range of skills, including on-page optimization, earning links and shares, making sites search-friendly, keyword research and targeting, rich snippets, schema, data-driven tools and metrics, redirection and canonicalization, personalization and localization, and local SEO and citation building.
Your SEO managers should also have some level of knowledge of skills such as email marketing, PPC, display, video, HTML, UX, social media marketing, community growth, blogging and content creation.
Below, we’ll be looking at eight traits you want to see in a potential employee when you’re about to hire an SEO manager for the enterprise business you’re looking to grow.
Ability To Strategize And Restrategize
Your SEO manager must be able to suggest strategic measures that coincide with SEO plans to achieve the goals and objectives of your business.
As for the latter, a good SEO specialist should be able to recommend new ways to execute your business’s campaign goals if an idea seems to not be working. Lacking this quality is likely to make things difficult as your enterprise attempts to implement SEO features.
Keeps Up With Best Practices
With search engine algorithms becoming more complex year in and year out, SEOs must keep their skills up to date. They must acquire the ability to use the most effective organic traffic tactics, follow Google’s social media handles and read updates frequently.
Basically, if your SEO manager is locked into one way only of doing things, that person may not be a good fit in the long run.
Competency In Content Marketing
The popular saying “content is king,” is fine, of course. But content marketing is way more important than the content itself. Today, the importance of content marketing in SEO cannot be overemphasized.
The fundamentals of content include keyword research, generating relevant and competitive content ideas and developing quality content. That process breaks down even further into campaign planning, content distribution and post-publication content analysis.
Your SEO manager should adapt the content-driven approach to creating a mix across the marketing strategies, especially if your enterprise is looking for durable campaign execution and content distribution.
Analysis And Metrics
Commonly, most enterprises hire analytics teams separately. However, being able to give actionable insights and analyze data is expected from a true SEO expert, as that’s going to be a greater edge for them.
If you are serious about taking your business to the next level, hiring an SEO manager who can give effective analysis and insight for your company is the key. If an SEO manager possesses these skills, it’ll give the person some credibility and a huge advantage within the organization.
Brand Management
Good SEO practice is not about creating content and optimizing websites alone.
Your SEO manager requires the ability to see the bigger picture of your enterprise. That being said, the person needs to have a strong understanding of your brand and how this collides with your business objectives.
Your SEO expert does not need to become a branding expert but should clarify how your brand positioning influences work.
People Management
People management can be difficult, as we all have different personalities and are brought up in different ways. An SEO expert who wants to make a good name for himself during his regime as the leading SEO manager of an enterprise ought to know how to manage individual differences.
Team Building
The majority of SEO managers prefer to work alone as independent consultants. But we still have many other SEO managers who like to work with a team in the same discipline to reduce the work. Hence, you want to be sure your SEO manager has the quality to maintain a high relationship with his co-workers without issues or frequent misunderstandings.
Stakeholders Management
Just like when building a team, reflecting one’s influence across every person in the business is also a trait an SEO manager should possess.
A good SEO manager should always be ready to seek the consent and interest of various stakeholders.
Stakeholders in this context refer to key stakeholders, such as the senior management, e-commerce, brand, PR, procurement, agency, Google, etc.
If you want to hire an SEO manager for your enterprise business, it’s best to employ someone who has not only in-depth SEO knowledge but also a wide range of skills and capabilities to effectively manage strategies and set a realistic vision for your company. Bonus points if they are also up-to-date with current SEO tactics on-site, off-site and in the technical factors of SEO.
A present-day SEO manager must be smart enough to communicate with other team members and understand why branding is important to your business.
Possessing such a wide array of skills will enable your SEO manager to develop his or her career while working within your enterprise.
However, the manager should continue to advance his or her skills within the SEO discipline while also updating knowledge of other technical aspects such as analytics, pay-per-click, web development, team management and communication.
Did someone say “well-rounded?” Well, your SEO manager should be exactly that.
