Having great content on the internet is important for your business and can contribute to those all-important SERPs that you’re trying to rank highest on. In order to produce great content that will reach the right audience, it’s important to have the right experts in place.
Whilst some businesses will choose to outsource SEO services, you might wish to hire them in-house. Finding the right SEO talent to join your company can open up opportunities for your business. After all, a talented workforce is behind every successful company.
In this ultimate guide, you’ll get an insight into how search engine optimization is important for your business and how to hire the best SEO employees that fit what you need and require as a business.
The importance of SEO for your business
Search engine optimization is put in place to give its users the best experience possible and provide them with the information and content that they need. Whilst not all businesses may require SEO, a lot of them do need it in order to connect with their target audience.
According to BrightEdge, 53% of all trackable website traffic comes from organic search. So whilst paid advertising plays an important part in bringing potential customers to your website, SEO helps with the organic part.
Users trust search engines because they are reliable in providing the search results that they need, even if they only key in a couple of keywords, rather than a fully-formed question. With search engine optimization, it’s something that’s cost-effective and can help put you up there with the very best, even if you’re a small business in comparison.
With a focus on SEO, there’s everything to play for and to succeed, you need the right employees.
Consider what requirements your business has
Before you go creating any job advertisements or bringing candidates in for interviews, it’s important to ask yourself what you require and need in relation to SEO.
Some businesses may already have quite a prominent presence on the web but there’s always room for improvement. On the flip side, a business might not have any idea of how SEO works or they’ve only recently made the move to the digital realm.
Think about what your end goal is and what the talent needs to be or have in order to achieve those goals. Goals provide direction and when it comes to SEO, you want to invest wisely in the right places and with the right people for the role. So will you expect just the one person to get you to the top spot of the SERPs or do you think it’ll take a whole team?
That might need some consideration depending on how tough your market is with the competition or how far the budget stretches when it comes to the quality of candidates.
Craft your job advertisement with detail and precision
Next up is the creation of the job advertisement and possibly the most important step in the process. 73% of candidates are passive job seekers, meaning you’ll want to be particular in what you ask for, so that you don’t get an influx of resumes that range from good to bad.
Detail and precision in your job advertisements is key. If you’re not paying enough attention to this part, it’s likely going to impact the process, not to mention the quality of the hire. A few things to consider when drafting up the job ad are as follows:
Job title
Determine the right job title when it comes to the role. There are many options in the field of SEO, whether that’s an SEO specialist or a Director of SEO. You want to be careful that you’re appealing to those with the right level of experience. Otherwise, you could end up with candidates being under or overqualified for the job.
Duties and responsibilities
An important part of the advertisement is making sure you communicate all the relevant duties and respsonsiiblities needed. However, you want to get the balance right. Be concise and try not to scare off your candidates with endless text. Keep it short and specific where you can.
Skills and experience
This part will need to have the same level of detail as the duties and respsonsibilites. You also want to clarify whether the experience mentioned is optional or mandatory. This will be helpful in filtering out some of the candidates you don’t want applying.
Salary is a consideration you’ll want to make when it comes to disclaiming it on the job advert or not. Jobsite reports a 25-35% drop in candidates when a salary isn’t listed and jobs listed with salaries get around twice the number of applications.
Of course, there may be certain politics or other factors at play that influence whether or not you show the salary. You may want to consider any flexible employee benefits that you offer and any other information on the company.
Where should you post your SEO job roles?
Placing your SEO job roles is another careful consideration you’ll need to make. There are certainly many options to choose from, so here are a few suggestions for a role that is fairly niche.
LinkedIn is a great place for networking online and is home to many online-related jobs. With SEO in particular, you can easily find those within an SEO role or whoever may be actively looking for work. Whether that’s a freelancer, a part-timer or maybe someone wanting to leave their current role.
Make use of Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are a good shout for finding clusters of SEO professionals all in one place. There are plenty of groups with active members that may be able to help advertise and pass on your role to others within the group that they’re a part of.
Hit the local events
There will likely be local events related to SEO and online marketing in general, so it’s a good excuse to hit the streets and share the news of your available job openings. It’s also the best place to advertise in-person, amongst all those interested and related to this field of study.
However, if you’re struggling to find the required talent locally, you might have to cast a wider net. In cases like this, hiring internationally could be a worthwhile option — provided you’ve got the right tools and infrastructure in place to support a fully remote team member.
How to narrow down your candidates
Narrowing down your candidates is a difficult one, especially as the average corporate job listing receives around 250 applications.
With that being said, some pre-employment assessments can be helpful in filtering down the resumes. You may want to take your own approach when it comes to culling applicants but there are a few suggestions that can help speeden up the process.
Hiring a company to do it for you, could help save a lot of time, which for some businesses, resources may be tight. It could be a case of looking specifically at certain sections of the resume and making a quick decision on whether they have the right experience or knowledge you’re looking for.
Cover letters are also a good place to pull out key selling points for the candidate and can be a quick way of getting rid of some applicants.
Tips for a successful interview process
When the interview process finally comes around, you want to make sure you’re well prepared for however many stages you conduct.
As the pre-employment assessments are useful to do, you may find it good to incorporate a test. It could be a task that you would expect them to do in their job so that you can see how they’d perform.
Remember that the candidate is also making a decision on whether you’re the right fit for them and not just the other way around. If you end up conducting too many interview stages, they may get despondent or put off by it.
Be sure to ask plenty of questions in relation to the job but also the personal ones that can help you learn about the character of the individual. Although a lot of computer-based jobs were typically seen to be for those who are more introverted, times have certainly changed. Personality and how they fit into the company culture is also important to consider.
There may also be different approaches to how you conduct the interview. Some hiring processes are down over the phone, others via video conference calls and the majority are done in-person. However, you may be a remote company and so video conference or phone calls are more suitable.
Make sure you’re letting your candidates know this in advance and ensure that everything is set up correctly before the interviews begin. If you’re struggling to know what questions to ask, then it’s always worth consulting Google’s search engine for all the resources you need.
Summary
The right SEO employee is going to help achieve great thing for the business online, so care and attention is needed when approaching the hiring process. Be diligent in your job descriptions and understand what you need from the role itself.
Prepare well beforehand and be wary of how long the interview stages go on, to avoid losing out on the best candidates.
