How to hire for a SEO Manager?
Summary:
An SEO Analyst/ Manager helps businesses to build and improve their online brand presence. SEO Analysts conduct keyword research, monitor website traffic and come up with improvement strategies to ensure the best possible user experience. They also keep up to date with current SEO techniques.
An SEO Analyst/ Manager are experts at getting your website indexed in major search engines to drive more organic traffic. An SEO Analyst would prepare your website while keeping into consideration various factors that search engines prescribe for indexing your website and improve its rankings over time.
They use a lot of analytical tools to draw conclusions, brainstorm ideas for improvement, and implement those ideas to make your website better and get the attention it deserves.
Standard Job Description:
SEO, or, Search Engine Optimization is an evolving process that changes based on what’s required today and what will be required in the future. An SEO Analyst/ Manager will have to create lists of projects you can take on that will help you fight your way up the proverbial Google rankings.
These tactics can include:
· New blogs, blog categories, and content
· Creating a new online community
· Posting evergreen e-books and white papers
An SEO Analyst/ Manager will also have to identify your audience with research to identify targets. That plays a pivotal role in SEO as you must ensure the keywords and strategy are designed to meet your audience’s needs. They will focus on learning what they search for and how they search in order to find the best keywords to help drive content.
As each new tactic is in play, An SEO Analyst/ Manager then must measure progress and see where it can be improved. Improvement is a constant in this position, and it will even affect your targets. If the market is changing, you might find new opportunities with different targets that you never worried about before. SEO Manager is a position in which as much as things change, they also stay the same.
To be successful as an SEO expert; you need to build on the momentum of that T-shaped ideal. Here are some areas to hone your skills:
· Strategy: You must take a strategic perspective, so you can define a plan that has a long-term vision aligned with the goals and objectives of the business. You’ll need insight and the ability to recognize goals, identify trends that might impact those goals, and have a vision that will be shared by the senior players in the company.
· Updated Tactics: Every strategy requires tactics artfully used to help you meet your goals. In SEO, it’s all about the most effective organic search tactics, which are constantly changing thanks to the challenge of algorithms. You must remain up to date on everything going on in the industry because what works today will not work tomorrow. Having a thirst for knowledge is a must, so you are continually relearning the business.
· Content: You might very well find yourself at odds with the content marketing team in some companies. That is because the company structure is not always created to get the best digital marketing results. Understanding content marketing is a must as it is a tactic that goes hand in hand with SEO. Demonstrating you can handle both will work in your favour. An SEO Manager who can handle keyword research, campaign planning, overseeing quality content, content distribution, and analysis is the supreme being of the digital marketing world.
· Data Analysis: SEO Managers must be able to analyze their own data in order to maintain credibility. If you can show how you’re performing and how it fits into the strategy you recommended, you can save your job again and again. You also need to benchmark your performance and
show clear results that you are improving rankings and taking advantage of areas to improve.
· Branding: This is an overarching skill that will do wonders for your career. With an appreciation for branding and brand management, you will see the big picture and understand how it fits into the overall objectives of the business. Without it, you cannot be useful in setting up your SEO strategy.
· People Skills: This can be a job done in isolation but is often dependent on a wide selection of players across many different departments and levels. Either way, you have to demonstrate people management skills, and more specifically, your ability to manage people across all levels. It’s all about dynamics, optics, and politically correct communication. You have to manage expectations and motivate and persuade without alienating any major players. In this role, you will need people at high levels onside to get your plan into action.
Key Job Responsibilities:
1. Conducting keyword research using dedicated software and generating new keyword ideas.
2. Analyzing website and social media pages, then making recommendations for improvement.
3. Monitoring website traffic, search results, and developing strategies.
4. Generating content ideas and delegating these to the team.
5. Overseeing content creation and offering suggestions.
6. Updating outdated content.
7. Optimizing pages for desktop, tablet, and mobile use.
8. Developing link-building strategies.
9. Managing paid search campaigns.
10. Keeping up to date with new trends and best SEO practices.
Ideal Candidate:
1. Proficiency in MS Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
2. Experience with website analysis using a variety of analytics tools including Google Analytics as well as internal reporting tool.
3. Experience working with popular keyword tools (Google, WordTracker, Keyword Discovery, etc).
4. Experience working with CMS and building/administering content in CMS environments.
5. Desired: Knowledge of HTML/CSS and website administrations.
6. Knowledge of web analytics tools including Moz, Clicktale, Matomo, Google Analytics, etc.
7. Proficient with Technical SEO, Content Marketing and Search Marketing techniques.
8. Should Have the knowledge of Content Marketing.
9. Should have knowledge of latest algorithm changes on Google.
Desired Education:
Bachelors or Masters in the field of Marketing, Computer Science field.
Certifications Associated:
1. Google Adwords
2. Google Analytics
3. YouTube Certification
4. Facebook Ad Certification
Key Skills:
SEO, SEM, Content Marketing, Google Analytics, web coding and Content Management systems (CMS), Customer Engagement, Media Campaigns, PPC, Keyword Search, Content Optimization, Social Media Optimization, Google AdWords.
Common Positions:
1. PPC (Pay Per Click) Manager
2. SEO Specialist
3. Digital Marketing Specialist
4. SEO Strategist
5. Content Strategist
6. Social Media Strategist
Screening Questions/Assessment Parameters:
1. Have a basic understanding of HTML coding and how websites work.
2. Understanding of web design and site structures.
3. Good knowledge of backlink analysis.
4. Experience in driving Google’s algorithms, Keyword Optimization techniques.
5. Experience in tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Keywords Planner, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Hootsuite, Google Page Speed
Insights, Google XML Sitemaps, SEO Site Checkup, Microsoft Office Tools.
6. What sort of Content has he worked so far and how the candidate has managed to attract web traffic for the content.
Basic Terminologies:
1. CTR (Click-Through Rate). Click-through Rate identifies the percentage of people who click on link.
2. Landing Page. This is the page on a company’s website that is optimized to act as the entry page to a site. When redirected from external links, this is where the visitors will be led back.
3. CPC (Cost per Click). Cost per Click is a pricing model where companies are charged by publishers for every click people make on a displayed / test ad which leads people to your company’s website.
4. Organic Traffic. This is traffic that is generated to your website which is generated by a Search Engine. This could be traffic from Google, Yahoo or Bing. It’s also known as “Free” traffic.
5. Paid Traffic. Paid search is when a company bids on keywords and makes advertisements around those keywords to be displayed on search engines.
6. Domain Authority. This is a scale from 1-100 that search engines use to determine how authoritative a company’s website is, 1 being the
lowest rank and 100 being the highest. The higher your domain authority the more Search Engines trust you.
7. Keyword Stuffing. This is the practice of using too many keywords in content in hopes of making it more visible on search engines. You will be penalized by search engines if you resort to it. Never keyword stuff, just provide great and valuable content.
8. META Description. The META description is the few lines of text that appear on the search engine results page.
9. RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Really Simple Syndication is a technology that allows users to become subscribers of content and ultimately get automatic alerts if updates are made.
10. Subscriber. A subscriber is a person who allows a company to send him/her messages through email or other personal communication means. These subscribers are high value to publishers and businesses alike.
Industry Jargons:
1. Impressions. This term is used to define the number of times a company’s ad will appear to its target audience. Impression could also be related to a website and the number of times the web page appears in total.
2. Contextual Marketing. Contextual marketing is all about delivering the right content at the right moment based on a potential client’s preferences using behavioral targeting and enabling brand awareness, recall and engagement. It fuels targeted ads based on user information such as recent searches and web histories. The purpose is to offer products and services to customers who are already interested in them.
3. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). CPA is the measurement of the cost of acquiring a customer who clicks on a website link or completes any action—in other words, the return on marketing investment, in particular, total marketing spend over total front-end conversions.
4. Hyperlocal. To build a loyal local customer base, it’s important to be accepted as part of the community. Hyperlocal advertising is an efficient way to accomplish this goal. Hyperlocal means an area close to home—the people within walking or driving distance to a particular destination or those united in one identifiable community.
5. Keyword Proximity. When it comes to keywords, a factor that’s weighted by Google’s search algorithms is keyword proximity. Keyword proximity refers to how close two or more keywords are to each other. You will achieve higher rankings if you place your keywords close together in a natural sounding way.
6. Keyword Stemming. Search engines group search results not only by exact keyword matches, but also by variations of keywords in semantic
groups, such as singular-plural, related suffixes and synonyms. Search engines view these similar keywords as synonyms. As a result, “keyword stemming” can subsequently help extend your reach.
7. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). This is a mathematical method used to determine the relationship between keyword phrases within a piece of content. Search engines use it to form a better understanding of text’s subject matter. Google rewards sites that include relevant LSI keywords
with higher rankings and more traffic.
8. Lookalike Audiences. Facebook’s lookalike audiences is an advanced targeting option in its ad services that goes beyond basic interest and demographic targeting. It provides the ability to find new people based on their resemblance to your customers using a percentage sample of people in your target country (from 1 to 10 percent)—effectively cloning your ideal audiences.
9. Lost Impression Share (Budget) & Lost Impression Share (Rank). Lost impression share (budget) is the percent of impressions an ad lost out on because of an insufficient budget. Lost impression share (rank) is the percent of impressions an ad lost out on because of a low ad rank. In
paid search, impression share is used to evaluate the marketplace opportunity (or consumer demand) for a defined set of keywords. Impression share is meant to answer the question: “How often is my ad served when consumers are searching my keywords?”
10. Quality Score. Quality Score is Google AdWords’ rating of the relevance and quality of keywords used in PPC campaigns. It is largely determined by the expected click-through rates (CTR), the relevance of ad copy, landing page quality and relevance and other factors.
Benchmark Profile:
Benchmark Profile on LinkedIn (1)
Benchmark Profile on LinkedIn (2)
Benchmark Profile on LinkedIn (3)
References:
https://www.betterteam.com/seo-analyst-job-description
https://www.digitoly.com/become-seo-analyst/
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/what-does-an-seo-manager-do
https://komarketing.com/about/careers/seo-analyst/
