Whether you are looking to hire an SEO agency for your digital marketing campaigns, hiring an SEO specialist, or hiring for a general digital marketing role, here are some of the most important characteristics of any SEO consultant when working in the field. While some are more obvious, there are many factors that can be overlooked in the often-varied role that search engine optimisation takes.
1. A Great Communicator
While SEO is often considered a role for the inherently introverted, listening to client requirements is perhaps the most important single characteristic of an SEO. Not only does the consultant need to hear out what the client or hiring manager is trying to achieve, and how this fits in with the greater organisation’s objectives – he or she should also consider the resources that are available, including time, money, human resources, and actively balance this with the expectations of senior management. SEO’s need to evangelise best practice policy in regards to all digital communications, not being afraid to sit down with stakeholders at the highest level within a business or to give presentations to broader teams of employees.
2. Project Management
A great SEO is also a good “delegator” by nature. Once objectives are established and agreed upon, a plan should be put in place as to how to achieve them. This needs to be overlooked and constantly checked on by the project lead – presumably the SEO consultant/Digital Marketing lead, who understands all the elements at play. This individual needs to be on hand to instruct, refine and direct fellow staff within the business in a way that is synonymous with current SEO best practices, and along the tracks of the initial marketing plan. Being able to work alongside technical teams such as web designers and developers and IT teams is also an ideal attribute to consider.
3. Great Research Skills
It goes without saying that SEO is constantly changing at a similar speed to the technological revolution that we all find ourselves in. With new browser developments, search engine algorithm changes, website development trends, anti-spam measures and much more to consider, SEO’s need to be constantly reading and researching new ways of keeping up with the latest in industry news. This might include reading digital marketing blogs, signing up to relevant email newsletters, writing in forums, attending conferences and being surrounded by like minded, curious individuals. The need to stay up to date in this industry is paramount to overall success.
4. Web Analytics Ninja Skills
SEO and web analytics come hand in hand, and gains in SEO should be sure to be both measured by, and taken from insights established in a website’s analytics framework. Google Analytic’s landing page reports, keyword queries, users/sessions/bounces, and Google Adword’s click-through-rates are all examples of metrics that are vital to any SEO campaign. Any SEO and/or Digital Marketing specialist should have complete and ample knowledge of what these metrics are and how they relate to a company’s greater business goals.
5. Teacher
Patience is a virtue that improves the services of any SEO consultant. Teaching and coaching clients and internal stakeholders is vital to ensure best practices are adhered to on a company-wide basis. A steady and persistent attitude towards this goal should also aid to ensure a consistent approach across the organisation. SEO’s need to be able to communicate to a variety of audiences, teaching the latest in industry trends and relating this back to how the company seeks to communicate is broader marketing messages.
6. UX/CRO/General Digital Specialist
A general knowledge of greater digital marketing activities, such as email marketing, SEM or PPC, web-design and development and conversion optimisation is an important element of search engine optimisation. This includes the use of experiments in tools such as Optimizely or Google Analytics Experiments, heatmapping tools such as Crazy Egg, and a plethora of other online marketing tools. The specialist should also have a good knowledge around elements of HTML, CSS and Javascript that relate to search engine specific matters. This includes attributes such as rel=canonical, meta robots and robots.txt, meta data, code snippet implementations and general site code structure. Experience in content management systems and working with copy-writers to create an engaging content strategy is an important part of any greater SEO strategy.
Matt Murfitt is an SEO specialist in Sydney, Australia. He has optimised websites for the NSW Government, major food retailers, and a host of SME’s around Australia. For more information, contact Matt using the details in the section below.