How to hire an in-house SEO expert for your marketing team
An in-house SEO expert quickly becomes an indispensable member of brand teams. So here’s everything you need to know to hire someone for this position. Today, many companies are expanding their internal marketing teams by investing in hiring specialized experts.
Digital marketing experts who specialize in search are increasingly in demand these days. This is mainly because, as an SEO expert, you have unique skills that help a company to be successful.
In fact, search queries with keywords related to SEO jobs are said to have increased by 10 percent (as of November 2020) compared to the previous year. This is the data from the Conductor platform.
In this article, you will learn why you should hire an in-house SEO, what kind of specialist you need, where you can find the best candidates, what you should look for in them and much more.
Why should you hire an SEO expert in your company?
Search engine specialists are trusted advisors who are responsible for driving your brand’s growth and strengthening your position in core markets.
An SEO specialist is effectively an evangelist for all things organic marketing. Unlike many other marketing disciplines, SEO is a team sport that requires close cooperation between all stakeholders.
Exceptional communication and project management skills are also required at company level.
An in-house SEO expert will manage cross-functional partnerships with other content, web, marketing and UX/UI groups for you; to ensure you are visible to your customers when they search for you.
In addition, an in-house SEO expert complements your central marketing team and has an overview of the media that belong to your brand.
What type of SEO specialist do you need to hire for your company?
Identifying the right SEO professional should be your top priority. This coordination should also take place with the entire team.
SEO professionals who have a deeper background knowledge are experts in keyword research, editing and writing. SEO professionals with stronger technical expertise will focus on on-page optimization, off-page optimization, fixing page errors and web development.
In some cases, you may want a hybrid SEO professional who has mastered both content and technology and has a lot of experience in project management.
Will this person then make your individual contribution, or are you more likely to lead a team of other content resources such as copywriters and editors?
Please bear in mind that your candidates must have experience in managing and developing a team.
Once you have determined what type of SEO expert you want to hire, it’s time to write the job description. Create a convincing job description that attracts potential candidates. Also, make sure the job posting includes information on what your prospective SEO specialist will be overseeing. Then there are the tools he will use and what previous experience or background knowledge he should have.
Your description should entice candidates to want to learn more about the potential move to your company, focusing on a single brand or industry.
How will your SEO specialist influence & contribute to success?
Some immediate benefits of hiring an in-house SEO are:
- The increased visibility of the content
- Higher ranking in search results Increase in click rates and therefore conversions
- The content of your brand has the opportunity to rank in the SERPs in the long term and continuously
- When considering cross-functional relationships, your SEO expert can reduce the timeframe for on-page content optimization by building effective partnerships with content and web development teams.
Your SEO specialist will therefore help you to increase the agility of all web-related initiatives.
Where are these types of SEO professionals currently working?
SEO experts can actually be found in many different industries and disciplines.
First and foremost, agencies are a good place to start your search.
SEO professionals typically oversee technical initiatives for clients in a variety of industries.
Some SEO experts may already be working in-house and therefore focus on content-related optimization and project management.
When you’re interviewing these SEO experts, make sure upfront that they’re fully committed to managing one brand, rather than the handful of brands you’d normally oversee at an agency.
And don’t forget – there’s plenty of great SEO talent outside the big cities too.
If your team is mobile, you might consider looking in other up-and-coming cities (such as the Midwest) or looking in more rural areas.
Even though these SEO experts rely on freelance experience, you may very well have the technical skills and know-how needed to ensure your brand ‘s success.
If you hire an external employee, make absolutely sure that all schedules also match the relevant time zones.
Who should conduct the interview with the in-house SEO candidate?
It is worth having several people take part in the interview to ensure optimal coordination of the cross-functional teams.
This also gives your candidate the opportunity to get a holistic understanding of who they will be working closely with.
These are some of the standard participants in the interview:
The core marketing team
Will this person work well within a larger marketing organization?
Will it be able to contribute to achieving the defined marketing objectives?
It is best to consider involving the marketing manager or CMO. This can give the candidate a long-term perspective on the future development of the company.
Content/text teams
How will this person work effectively with content stakeholders?
How will the person incorporate SEO best practices into the content creation process?
Of course, it’s bonus points if your candidate has experience or interest in content creation. This gives you additional support in this area.
Technical teams
Your candidate must have an understanding of the partnership between web development and UI/UX features in relation to web optimization.
By meeting with the technical teams, you enable your candidate to determine the most effective way to build a successful relationship.
Depending on the area and extent to which you want to hire your search engine optimizer, you should consider some of these questions during the interview.
With these helpful tips, you can ensure that you assess the candidates correctly from a technical, content-related and team-related perspective.
When can the SEO expert start working for your company?
Once you’ve identified your SEO specialist (congratulations!), make sure they’re equipped for long-term success with a comprehensive onboarding experience.
So what resources and technical equipment will he need?
Who should you introduce to your SEO specialists?
By creating an effective onboarding plan, you will have a quick ramp-up and be able to deliver value to your marketing organization much faster.
After the training period, define accordingly how the success of your SEO specialist is to be measured.
What will he achieve in the first 30, 80 and 360 days?
How will this person have developed in more than two years?
How will your marketing team’ s organic strategy evolve as a result of the work your SEO specialist will have created during the period?
Are you ready to hire?
Be aware of what your organic search goals are for the coming year.
Now that you’ve solidified your action plan for hiring an SEO specialist, it’s time to get started!