Build a Great SEO Team [Organisational SEO]
Putting together a team of the right people for great SEO is just one step towards reaching organisational SEO nirvana. In my post at Blogstorm I covered the concept of how great SEO starts with the right people, and what qualities you’re looking out for during your recruiting process. This post takes a step back and discusses the organisational layout of your team.
Design an SEO team before you start recruiting
It sounds obvious enough, but search engine optimisation is still a relatively new profession in marketing and organisationally not always well established or structured. It’s very common that SEO’s are recruited to conduct a range of tasks, from reporting to linkbuilding and technical SEO. That generalist experience is rather critical for a senior search engine optimiser to progress towards SEO Management, but it’s not absolutely nessecary for SEO team building. The last thing you want your SEO doing is a day and a half reporting, every week, so how do you structure and organise a more effective SEO team?
Design your team structure by common SEO activities
There’s no definitive SEO team structure out there, and ultimately the roles you choose need to fit with the needs of your organisational framework. That said, it pays to really consider your team design, especially when you’re communicating your resourcing requirements to HR and the Board.
Here’s an example of a team structure:
SEO typically breaks down into 4 main tasks
- Technical SEO
- Content Creation and social media
- Link building, baiting and realignment
- Metrics, analytics and reporting
If these are your typical tasks then you either have a team that do a small part of everything, a more compartmentalised team with groups that are responsible for each activity [like the diagram above] or you just don’t have enough resource to be doing everything, and you need to recruit more SEO’s.
After you’ve built your perfect team, and everyone has their roles set in place, there’s no reason why your links team wouldn’t be making technical requests or requiring keyword research or tracking. That’s the beauty of a nicely built team! Encouraged to work together every member can support the group with their own individual strengths. If you can justify the recruitment, having an independent resource for each of our SEO activities makes the process of doing SEO and being competitive, easier.
Photo credit: Veni Markovski
Similar Posts:
- Make an SEO Activity Plan for 2010
- SEO Management 101 – What Makes for a Good SEO Manager?
- My SES London 2009 Presentation
- Creating an optimised site structure – guide to recruitment SEO part 1
- Steps to Recruiting an SEO Manager
SEOgadget is an SEO Company and blog founded by SEO Consultant Richard Baxter.
Build a Great SEO Team [Organisational SEO]