Search Engine Experts.com

Career Advice for SEO's

BOSTON, MA - Some quick advice for SEO's / SEM's looking to get ahead in the world:  Make sure that any brand you mention on your resume is on the first page of Google's organic rankings at the time of your resume submission.

I just reviewed the resume of an SEO who's working with a major consumer brand.  He has three bullets on his resume about all of the great things he's doing for the brand, but when I Googled the brand name (ie "Coke" or "Gucci"), he wasn't even on the first page.  Not good.

SEO's, please bear in mind that I use Aaron Wall's SEO toolbar for Firefox, and I can tell how many back links your pages are getting (and from whom), how many times they get Del.icio.us'd, and so on.  It's all right there.  I also have a subscription to Keyword Discovery -- so I have an idea of how competitive your categories are, where you might be spending your PPC dollars, etc.

I'm not trying to impress you.  Actually, my point is that I'm not any smarter than the average recruiter.  All recruiters and potential employers can see how you are doing.  Your results are on the web.

When Google ranks your client, it ranks YOU.

These days, recruiters can tell if an SEO candidate is any good.  And given the dynamism of the web, it's okay to lose once in a while.  We understand, especially if your category is dominated by black and gray hats (mortgages, vitamin supplements, etc).

But it's not okay to lose and put it on your resume that you are #1 or #2 for seven out of eight keyword phrases.  I'm not as dum as you think I are.  I know how to use Google.  Everyone does.

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SEO Recruiter Viewer Mail

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

____________________________________________

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