Onward Search Blog

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 7/21/08

Reilly O'Donnell — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 11:51:00 -0400

Last week Glen Allsopp, over at Viper Chill, wrote a great article about, Improving Your Skillset: Your Path to Becoming a Better Internet Marketer. Glen looked at eight areas of internet marketing (affiliate marketing, copywriting, domains, graphic design, PPC, SEO, social media, and website coding) and provided some great resources to keep your skills sharp. From his experience Glen has learned the best way to improve upon your skills, is to strive to learn more. So if you are looking to strengthen your internet marketing skills in any area, check out Glen’s post to keep your career moving in the right direction.

Recruiting for a large company can be extremely difficult. Typically you are looking for someone who can seamlessly transition into an established infrastructure and contribute immediately. This makes the job even harder when recruiting in the talent constrained world of SEO. There is a lot at stake, time is sensitive, and your competitors are gaining ground every minute you are not. Aaron Shear posted an article last week on Search Engine Watch about Recruiting SEO Talent for Big Sites. Aaron makes some great suggestions when looking at potential candidates to work on large sites. One of the biggest aspects he stresses is finding candidates who understand SCALE and scalability. Working with a big site means being able to manage your time appropriately and efficiently, if you are working with a big site it shouldn’t matter whether it is a 1,000 page site or a 100,000 page site. By evaluating the traits that are most important to your organization and the role you are looking to fill, Aaron believes it will help you minimize frustrations and focus on finding the perfect candidate for you open SEO positions.

Ron Jones continued his SEM.edu segment this week with a post titled College and Career Points. Following his discussion of some of continuing education classes offered at colleges across the country, he learned of a course “Search and The New Economy,” which is being offered through NYU’s MBA program. Although the class isn’t devoted to search, it does include good coverage of topics like keyword advertising, SEO, and word of mouth. The class seems to be very popular as there is generally a waitlist to enroll. With the limited number of education options for search marketing, Ron suggests the best way to get into the industry is to get your hands dirty and start working on websites around a personal hobby or passion. As you build your experience you will be able to begin interviewing with various agencies and begin moving onto the next level. Depending on where you begin interviewing, you could end up in a role as a all-round player, or as someone who specializes in one area of search marketing. Get a feel for what your comfortable with and what you want to do, and you will be able to build your career in SEO.

That's it for this week, check back next week for another update.

Where in the World is the SEO Talent?

Reilly O'Donnell — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:03:00 -0400

A couple weeks ago I used Indeed's tools to look at SEO Job Growth and the Top 30 Cities to Work in SEO according to salary numbers. Knowing that the search marketing industry is currently talent constrained, I wanted to take a look at where the search marketing talent was located. To get a feel for this I chose to use SEMPO's member roster as a baseline to assess where search marketing professionals and companies are located throughout the United States and the World.

As you might expect, New York and California have the largest concentrations of both search marketing invididuals and search marketing corporations. Below I have listed the top five states in each group, individuals, corporations, as well as a total of the two.

	Total	Individual	Corporate
1	CA	CA	NY
2	NY	NY	CA
3	FL	IL	FL
4	IL	TX	IL
5	TX	MA	PA

Beyond the top five, here is a break down by percentage of the top twenty states where SEMPO members are located.

	State	% of US Members
1	CA	17.6%
2	NY	13.6%
3	FL	6.0%
4	IL	6.0%
5	TX	5.0%
6	MA	4.3%
7	NJ	4.0%
8	PA	3.8%
9	VA	3.8%
10	AZ	3.8%
11	CO	3.5%
12	GA	2.9%
13	OH	2.6%
14	MN	2.6%
15	WA	2.2%
16	CT	2.1%
17	WI	1.9%
18	NC	1.9%
19	MD	1.4%
20	TN	1.2%

If you are looking for something a little more colorful, I uploaded all my data into a heatmap to give a visual representation of where search marketing professional and organizations are located throughout the country.

I also used SEMPO's member list to take a look at where search marketing professionals and organizations are internationally. Based on their information, the top five countries (excluding the US) with the most search marketing professionals and organizations are:

	Total	Individual	Corporate
1	Canada	Canada	United Kingdom
2	United Kingdom	United Kingdom	Canada
3	Spain	Australia	Spain
4	Australia	Spain	Italy
5	Italy	India	Sweden

By looking at the heat map you can see that the majority of search marketing professionals and organizations (outside the United States) are located in the UK and Canada.

This correlates with the fact that Canada and the UK are among the countries with the highest figures for total internet users and internet penetration (Canada - 22 million 65.9%, UK 40 million, 66.4%). Since our research is also based on SEMPO's data, it also make sense that English speaking countries would be at the top of the list.

As SEO continues to grow it will be interesting to watch how each area of the world responds. Only time will tell whether in a year's time this list will be identical, hopefully with more color across the board, or if there will be a major shake up in the distribution of SEOs. Either way for the industry to maintain its growth, it is going to need more quality professionals which means better training, and hopefully the introduction of the SEO college diploma.

Let me know if this data corresponds to what you are seeing in your part of the world, I'm interested to know which areas really have a good concentration of search marketers, and which are hurting for quality talent.

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 7/14/08

Reilly O'Donnell — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:43:00 -0400

If you are looking to really supercharge your SEO career, take a look at Gyutae Park's, 14 Steps to Transforming Your Career Path to Super SEO Status. Gyutae lays out his advice for starting your career with a great foundation and building a rock solid career. His advice starts with "learning design and programming from the start." Whether you continue to handling coding or not, this step is very important for being comfortable with everything SEO. Gyutae goes on to suggest a business degree as a good way to familiarize yourself with marketing principles. Your clients will always be concerned with the bottom line, so understanding basic business principles will give you a headstart. Search marketers who understand business principles will be able to find the marketing value in the next "twitter" before having to read about it in the blogosphere. Take a look at Gyutae's guide, you might have skipped a step that is holding back your career.

Over at Techipedia, Tamar Weinberg wrote a great piece on What Traits Define a Social Media Marketer. As one of the best social media marketers out there, her research on the topic carries a lot of weight. Tamar asked a stable of top notch experts in the industry what skills they consider necessary for social media marketing success and compiled the responses into a great post. Some my favorite points were.

A social media marketer’s job never ends - Reem Abeidoh

A knowledgeable social media marketer has experienced repeated success on various social media websites and knows what sort of content succeeds and fails, and effective ways to write, submit, and promote various pieces. - Rebecca Kelley

A social media marketer is someone who is fundamentally oriented towards LISTENING first, and only then offering contributions that move the conversation forward. - Laura Fitton,

Without a working knowledge of customers, markets, online communities, and the dynamics of their company’s business model, Social Media Marketers will succumb to the brilliance of shiny new social objects and remain hypnotized by their allure and promise. - Brian Solis

Whether you are looking to get into social media, or are looking to refine your tactics, read through Tamar’s post as she really received input from some of the best in the industry.

Are you looking to hiring someone to help improve your conversion rates? Well Mae Allam, of Invesp Blog, has put together a list of 14 Smart Questions to Ask Conversion Optimization Consultants. When looking for someone to help optimize your website, it is easy to get wooed by people with quick answers and a snazzy sales pitch. To avoid hiring the wrong person all you need to do is ask the right questions. Mae’s list will help you find the right person and hopefully avoid wasting time and money on someone who pulled the wool over your eyes. Some of my favorite questions from her list were:

#3 What happens if our conversion rates do not increase at the end of the project?
#5 Do you follow a specific methodology to optimization?
#9 What is expected from my team?
#11 What will I learn from you?

For anyone looking for a little outside help, Mae’s post is great start to finding the perfect consultant.

On the other hand if you are looking for a decrease in traffic, plummeting conversion rates, and a virtually non-existent website, take a look at Conversion Marketing’s Hire a Crappy SEO Firm in Only 10 Steps. Sometimes it can be hard to find a great SEO Firm, or at least the right SEO firm to fit your needs, but it isn’t hard to drop a bomb on your progress and send your site to the bottom. Conversion Marketing has put together a very funny list of how to make sure you don’t hire a good SEO. If you are interested in improving your website, reverse the list and you should be able to eliminate the majority of the snake-oil salesmen out there.

That’s it for this week, please check back next week for another update.

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 7/8/08

Reilly O'Donnell — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:47:00 -0400

Over at SEOmoz, Duncan Morris wrote a great article covering How to Turn Yourself From a Great Developer to a Great SEO. In his piece Duncan goes through 7 ways developers can use their strengths to become great SEOs.

Realize that you can get a long way with a great site
Develop stuff
Test, tweak, rinse, repeat
Reverse engineering other sites
Become a blackhat
Don't be afraid to learn
Break the stereotype

By nature developers are more detail orientated and therefore have an easier time handling some of the more technical aspects of website creation and promotion. Developers who are initially getting into SEO will undoubtedly have an easier time than some other professionals because of their overall understanding of the internet, as well as the problem solving nature of their work. Personally I believe #6 “Don't Be Afraid to Learn” is one of the most important tips he gives. Even after you can consider yourself an SEO it is still the key to remaining successful.

In Ron Jones' latest post, SEM Going Legit - Literally EDU, he takes a look at the road to an accredited SEM course. One of Ron's readers wrote him concerned about the collegiate options for someone looking to get into the internet marketing industry. A growing number of college students are asking for classes in search marketing, but the process for accrediting a college course is lengthy and is causing the industry to loss potential professionals due to its lack of standards and training. Fortunately several schools are beginning to incorporate search marketing lessons into various course modules. Many colleges are also beginning to offer full SEM courses in the continuing education branches of their schools. These courses aren't accredited but offer a starting point to an accredited course in the future as well as an SEM major some day.

Aaron Wall, of SEO Book, wrote a great piece this week about Why Traditional SEO Consulting Usually Sucks. Through Aaron's many years of SEO experience he has developed good sense as why SEO campaigns are carried out ineffectively and questions the long-term value of SEO consulting to the consultant. Although Aaron questions the value there are still four instances when he still considers performing SEO consulting.

Projects where I feel I can learn
Projects where I feel I can have fun
Ego and validation
Diversity

With all the factors that go into SEO consulting how you structure your offerings can really affect your success. Aaron suggests three consulting models to provide long term success, Quasi Publishing, Paid SEO Tools, and In-House SEO Training. If none of these options appeal to you, Aaron also suggests PPC consulting as a good avenue to take. Many companies are comfortable spending a lot of money on PPC because they can see the results immediately, and if you can provide proper consulting services to help boost savings you will be able to maintain a full workload.

Thats it for this week, check back next week for another update.

What to Ask an SEO... According to Google

Reilly O'Donnell — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:50:00 -0400

Yesterday Google updated their "What's an SEO?" page, and integrated new content that focuses on the benefits website owners can get from employing an SEO. In previous versions of the page, the messaging was more focused on how to identify "bad SEO" practitioners than talking about how to identify "good SEO" practitioners.

As part of the update they provided a list of questions companies can ask to qualify an SEO. I decided to take a look at each question individually and assess how each question can help you find the right SEO.

1) Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?

Evaluating prior experience and previous successes is integral to finding a quality SEO. When a candidate reviews his / her experience, you want to ensure you are digging deep enough to understand if they are the right fit for your company. Some follow-up questions you might want to ask include:

What industry were you working in -- one that was highly competitive where everyone has an online presence, or a small niche industry where using the internet is revolutionary?
How many keywords did you achieve top 20 rankings for? Were they long-tail terms, or just brand names?
What resources were you given to achieve these results? A full suite of tools, or a mouse and your own ingenuity?
What was the site like before you arrived? Was it tear-down and rebuild, or did it just need proper optimization?
Were you working with anyone else, i.e. agencies, other in-house SEOs, or various departments within the company?

2) Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?

Google's Webmaster Guidelines are a great foundation to the structure of any website. Having an SEO who follows their guidelines will ensure that your site isn't penalized because of unsanctioned practices and techniques. Generally if a candidate has any hesitation about following Google's guidelines they may be working outside the lines and might be practicing black hat techniques; which are risky and can cause your website to be removed from Google's index.

3) Do you offer any online marketing services to complement your organic search business?

Depending on your needs you may be looking for someone to handle more than just the optimization of your website. Many SEOs are also qualified to handle various aspects of online marketing, including paid advertising, social media marketing, press releases, link building, and many of the backend procedures needed to support your marketing campaigns. If you are looking to hire someone who can handle these extra duties make sure you have appropriate assessments ready for each additional area.

4) What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe?

When optimizing your website, it is all about long term success. If an SEO guarantees you a number one ranking, be very weary. Many of the best candidates will be very pragmatic about guaranteeing you anything, but will have no problem providing you with a timeline of what they aim to accomplish throughout the length of the project. In order for an SEO to give you an accurate timeframe, they need to have a good understanding of the depth of your website as well as its current condition. The timeframe for optimizing a 20 page site will be very different from optimizing a 300 page site. As changes are made, you should expect to see increases in traffic to your website, but biggest spikes will likely be after optimization is complete.

5) What's your experience in my industry?

When optimizing a website, having relevant knowledge about the industry is a huge advantage. From researching keywords to crafting the messages on the website, relevant knowledge and experience help make a better website. Depending on your particular project and industry you should determine how much of an advantage previous industry experience might be. If you end up with two nearly identical candidates, where the industry experience is the only differentiator, its a no-brainer to go with the candidate with industry experience. When you end up with one candidate who is very strong with no relevant industry experience, and another candidate who isn't as strong, but has extensive experience within your industry, it will be a tougher decision. In cases like these a number of other questions will come into play. Are the salaries different? Would each person fit well within your corporate culture? What is the learning curve to understand your industry? What might the cost be if you choose the wrong person?

6) How long have you been in business?

This question goes hand in hand with the first question about experience. If someone has been performing SEO since the first SERP appeared, but has just opened up shop, you might want to be weary about how well they will be able to manage your account and their employees. Personally they might be top-notch experts, but that doesn't mean the people they are managing are also experts. Someone who has been in business for 10+ years will have more experience managing projects, managing employees, and handling problems that arise. Ask for a list of previous clients, and look at the jobs they performed for them. Are there any that seem to have been in similar situations as yourself? Do all of the client's websites look identical? Which client's have taken advantage of the same services you are looking to use?

Whenever you are spending money on SEO you need to be sure you are spending it wisely. There are a number of people looking to make a quick buck off the majority of the population that doesn't understand SEO. As long as you assess all your needs properly and are patient when searching for the right candidate to handle your SEO, you will avoid wasting time and money on someone is not properly qualified for the job.

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 6/30/08

Reilly O'Donnell — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:26:00 -0400

In a move to further monetize their business model, today Linkedin began a soft launch of their DirectAds program. The DirectAds program will help boost Linkedin's revenue numbers as they allow advertisers to directly target their users by age, gender, geography, educational institution, industry, and seniority. The cost of the ads will be based on a CPM model, with minimum orders starting at $25. This is big move in the right direction for Linkedin who last week received a valuation of $1 Billion. As they rollout this program, it will be interesting to watch which companies are the first to take advantage of the program and which ones do it the best.

This week Shari Thurow wrote an interesting article for Search Engine Land, "So You Think You're a Search Engine Optimization Expert?" In the article Shari reevaluated statements she had previously made as to what makes a true SEO expert. Previously Shari had labeled copywriters as beginners and programmers as experts. She decided to reevaluate her assessment, after realizing having a programmer write your copy was a potentially foolish mistake. Shari leaves it open as to which side is more of an SEO expert, but points out true SEO experts are people who have a wide range of skills and knowledge. If you are just a copywriter, you will be limited in what you are able to technically accomplish with you website, whereas if you are a programming wiz, you might have a hard time taking your target keywords and crafting the best possible message.

Following the departure of several key executives and the upcoming partnership with Google, Yahoo! has reorganized their corporate structure to support their core strategies. The new structure has created three new team which will report to Sue Decker, President of Yahoo! The three new teams, an Audience Products Division, a US Region, and an Insights Strategy Team, have been created to streamline activities. Jerry Yang has guaranteed the company is positioning itself to make some big moves in the near future to support their wide set of products, while others are speculating that the recent reorganization was done in order to pick up the pieces following the recent departures and the failed acquisition by Microsoft.

That it for this week. Check back next Monday for another update.

SEO Interview Preparation Checklist

Reilly O'Donnell — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:40:00 -0400

How should I prepare for my SEO interview? That is one of the most common questions Onward Search recruiters receive from our candidates once they have been presented to our clients for a position. We’ve put together a quick checklist to ensure you are ready to go for your next interview.

SEO Interview Preparation Checklist Download the PDF

The Days Leading Up To the Interview:

Review Your Online Reputation
- SERP Ownership - Run a search for “your name” on each of the major engines and see what comes back. Get a feel for how visible you are in the results and if examples of your best work show up on the first page of results. If there is anything negative related to your personal search make a note of it and be ready to talk about it if it is brought up in the interview.
- Monitor Your Personal Brand – Set up Google Alerts and/or Trackur to monitor “your name” so you know what a potential employer can see about you online.
Research the Company
- Company History – Know how the company started and how it evolved to where it is today. Know what industry the company is in and who their competitors are. Business Week has a great directory of public and private companies to start your research.
- Company Status – Are they making headlines or sailing under the radar? Search for them on Reuters. Do they have a lot of job openings? Search for them on Indeed so you know what jobs are currently active. If they are public, what do their financial statements say? Yahoo! Finance has some of the best financial news and Big Charts does a great job of visualizing it.
- News Alerts – Search for the company you are interviewing with on Google News and Technorati and get a feel for what news is going around and what people are saying about the company. Set up automatic alerts for the company using Google Alerts.
- SEO Strategy – Tear the company’s website apart. Anticipate you will be asked for your opinion on their current online marketing strategy. Be ready to demonstrate you have researched their existing strategy and have taken the time to prepare recommendations on how they can improve moving forward.
- PPC Campaigns – Start by doing some light keyword research. See if the company is running paid search ads and get a feeling for the scope of their campaign. Start by checking if they are bidding on their own branded terms and then expand to generic and eventually long tail terms.
- Competitors – Research who their competitors are and how they stack up to the company you are interviewing with. Compare each company’s online strategy and determine if there is anything the competitors are doing that is giving them an advantage. SEOBook has a great set of tools to assist you with competitive research, and these tools can be used to research the company you’re interviewing with as well.
- Research who you will be interviewing you – Find out who you will be interviewing with and their role(s) within the company. Search for them on Linkedin and see if you have worked with any of the same people, in competing companies, or share any of the same interests. These factors can be very important when developing a rapport with your interviewer.
Prepare Questions
- Assuming you’ve done the above research, it should be pretty easy for you to come up with a couple questions about the company that you would like answered. This could be related to their industry, growth strategy, benefits, search marketing strategy, or other areas.
- We recommend you put together at least 5 questions for your interview, so you are able to not only learn more about the company but also use it as a means to demonstrate your interest in the business.
Review Your Resume
- At this point your resume should be in good shape, considering it has already landed you an interview. However, before you go into the interview you want to do one last review to align it with the company/position you are applying for.
  - Review the messaging - Do your objectives match with position you are applying for?
  - Typos – The last thing you want is typos and grammatical errors. Have a friend or trusted colleague take a look at your resume to catch anything you might have missed.
  - Language – Do you use any industry jargon in your resume? If so, make sure the company you are interviewing with will understand it.
  - Additional Resume Resources – review some of Onward Search’s articles on resume preparation: 5 Keys to Improving Your Search Marketing Resume, and Get Your Search Marketing Resume Indexed By a Recruiter
Map Your Route
- If this is an in-person interview, ensure you know how to get to the company and how long it will take you to get there. You might want to do a dry run if you don’t know the area. Print out directions in advance so it is one less thing you are scrambling to do on the day of the interview. I recommend using Google Maps. It is much cleaner than MapQuest and you can easily change the route if you know where you might get stuck in traffic.
Prepare Your Clothes (and Yourself…)
- Again, for an in-person interview, you should figure out what you are going to wear and most importantly that it is clean. You don’t want to assume your lucky interview shirt is clean, only to find out the day of the interview it’s been crumpled at the bottom of your closet since the last time you wore it.
- Trim and clean your finger nails. (I don’t think I should need to tell you this…should I?)

The Night Before/Day of the Interview

Set Your Alarm
- Snooze, AM/PM, Volume – these are all your friends, but can also be your enemies. Make sure you have them set right so you aren’t scrambling to make up for lost time.□ If your interview is in the morning, consider setting a second alarm in case you ignore the first.
Get Adequate Sleep
- Just as it has been since you were taking tests in middle school, sleep can be a giant game changer when it comes to performing well in an interview.
Wash and Dress
- Another one in the “shouldn’t have to tell you” category: scrub up so you are fresh and clean for your interview. You don’t want the interviewer to be able to smell your nerves so remember deodorant. Once you are fresh, put on the clothes you made sure were clean and do any fine tuning necessary.
- If you have a dirty mouth, stick a bar of soap in it, foul language is a big NO-NO for interviews.
Review Industry Blogs
- This is very important. Read and check the latest headlines for related industry and SEO blogs. Interviewers commonly ask questions about current industry events, popular blogs, and thought leaders to test your knowledge of the space and their industry.
Bring the Essentials
- A pen and pad of paper.
- Enough copies of your resume for each person you are meeting with, and five extras so you are prepared if you meet with additional people.
- A list of websites you have worked on and the keywords you have optimized them for.
  - Make sure to filter the list for sites you are still receiving high rankings on.
Adhere to the 15 minute rule
- You should be ready to go for the interview 15 minutes before the scheduled time.
- For an in-person interview, give yourself a cushion to get to the interview on time, so if you hit a little traffic you will avoid showing up late and starting the interview off on the wrong foot.
- For a phone interview, clear your desk and have any reference materials ready 15 minutes prior to the start so you are not scrambling at the start of the interview.

Good luck! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at rodonnell@onwardsearch.com.

How To Land an SEO Dream Job via Linkedin

Reilly O'Donnell — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:48:00 -0400

Josh Gampel, our VP of Staffing Services, wrote a great article for Search Engine Journal about how to optimize your Linkedin profile to find your SEO dream job.

Josh's article covers the basics of how to use Linkedin to maximize your exposure when employers are looking for new talent. Josh gives 7 detailed steps which can help employers find you:

Build A Complete Profile
Optimize Your Profile
Customize Your Public URL
Add Connections
Add Recommendations
Answer Questions
Update Your Profile Regularly

Even if you are not actively looking for a job, having a fully optimized Linkedin profile will keep you in the loop when your dream job opens up.

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 6/23/08

Reilly O'Donnell — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:01:00 -0400

This week the IAB announced Internet Advertising Revenues are up 18.2% YOY. These figures are a great sign for the internet marketing industry which continues to fight against the slowing economy. In Q1 $5.8 billion dollars were generated through internet advertising. This marked the second highest quarter ever recorded for internet advertising revenue, trailing only Q4 ’07, which generated $5.9 billion through the holiday season. The IAB which has measured internet ad revenue’s since 1996, has seen internet advertising revenue jump over 500% since it began measuring the statistic.

Source: PwC/IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (www.iab.net)

Whether you are looking to hiring more employees, or you are looking for a job, Search Engine Watch put together a great list of resources to help with the search. The list includes a good set of job boards, headhunters, and us, Onward Search. The article also gives a good analysis of which college majors support transitioning into search marketing. They suggest journalism majors fit in well with SEO and social media, accountants match up naturally with PPC, and musicians often turn out to be great SEOs and link builders.

Ron Jones continued his series this week evaluating whether we need SEO Education Standards. From the feedback Ron received since his last post it seems that the most obvious reason to support education standards is to establish more credibility in the industry. One of his commenter’s mentioned that those people opposed to standards are typically black hats and the overnight “experts”. Standards would help reduce the number of businesses who look to SEO to benefit their business, only to be suckered in by people trying to “make a quick buck at the expense of the industry.” Before standards can successfully be carried out, two big questions remain; how can they be crafted so they can evolve over time? And If we do create standards, who will enforce them? If solutions to these questions are established, the industry will be that much closer to adopting useful standards.

That’s it for this week in search marketing staffing news, check in next week for another update.