I own an Internet Retailer Top 500 company, and I have two openings: One for SEM and one for SEO. We are doing SEM inhouse and manage and plan on attacking SEO both internally and with the help of an agency.
Do you have an opinion if it would be better to hire one senior SEO/SEM person who maybe we pay $100-125K and one junior person to assist (maybe $45-60k)? Or would you go for two independent leads one for SEO (around $90-100k) and an SEM person ($60-85k)?
Any insight that you could provide would be appreciated.
Signed,
Curious in Seattle
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Dear Curious,
Here are three thoughts:
1. One person should make more than the other -- even if not by much -- so that your SEO function has one leader. I'm not a big believer in democracy in organizations. I like for there to be one guy with whom the buck stops.
2. The lead dog should oversee all SEM -- which includes PPC and organic search. Essentially, this is a customer acquisition role, so the metrics on which the lead dog gets paid should include cost per lead and cost per sale.
3. Set a budget for the two employees -- say $170K base -- and hire the first one first. Advertise a "six figure base" and a "senior director" level title, as these will help you attract an A-player.
Also advertise the fact that this will be a "high visibility role." Once you have the Sr Director in place, get that person to help you hire his direct report. This way, from Day 1 the new hire will see his Sr Director as "the boss" and you won't have two people vying unhealthily for advancement in your company.
Kind regards,
Harry Joiner
SearchEngineExperts.com
Ph. (678) 795-0900
Executive Recruiting for SEO | SEM
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