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7 Steps to Hiring an Insanely Great SEO
- 1. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 7 Steps to Hiring an Insanely Great SEO Stephan Spencer SEO Expert, founder of Netconcepts, co-author of The Art of SEO, www.stephanspencer.com @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 2. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld STEPHAN SPENCER SEO Expert | Author | Speaker Co-Author of The Art of SEO, Co-Author of Social eCommerce, Author of Google Power Search @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 4. QUESTION: Are you in the market to hire an SEO employee, contractor, or agency?
- 5. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 1 Get the Garden to Weed Itself @sspencer• #CMWorld
- 6. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld
- 7. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld THE JOB POSTING
- 8. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld DELEGATE THE SCREENING
- 9. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld INCLUDE A RIDDLE OR TEST ASSIGNMENT
- 10. QUESTION: What are some test assignments you would give?
- 11. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld DID THEY DEFEND THEIR WRONG ANSWER? DEALBREAKER!
- 12. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 2 Review Their Social Media Profiles @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 13. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS
- 14. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld Social Media Questions • Are they connected and active with other SEOs? • Do they ask and answer SEO questions? • What kind of content do they share? • Have they ever publicly criticized or bashed their employers or clients? • Is there evidence they participate in SEO conferences, Meetups, discussion groups? @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 15. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld Social Media Questions • How are their spelling and grammar in their social media posts? • Do they participate in events or donate time to volunteering? • Are there "personality flags" such as anti-social behavior or mood swings? • Is there racist, sexist, or other prejudiced content in their profiles? • Is there evidence of excessive drinking or illegal drug use? • Are there other red flags that the candidate is not a good cultural fit with your team? @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 16. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld BE CAREFUL
- 17. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 3 Use A/B Testing for Your Job Postings @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 18. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld
- 19. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 4 Use Trick Questions in the First Interview @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 20. QUESTION: What are some trick questions you would ask?
- 21. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld Trick Questions • What's your process for optimizing meta keywords? • What's a good keyword density to aim for? • What's the difference between Panda and Penguin? • What’s more important: attention to detail, honesty, dedication, technical acumen, creativity? @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 22. QUESTION: What’s most important of these 5 qualities?
- 23. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld Trick Questions @sspencer • #CMWorld Text the word DFWSEM to 33444
- 24. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 5 Ask Specific Questions that Can Prove Expertise @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 26. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld EXPERIENCE / EXAMPLES: GET SPECIFICS, CONTRARY EVIDENCE, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT
- 27. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld LINK BUILDING PHILOSPHY
- 28. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld TRAINING & TEACHING
- 29. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 6 The Second Interview – Bring in an Expert @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 30. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld HIRE AN EXPERT FOR THE DAY
- 31. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld AGENDA @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld 7 Confirm the Fit During the Trial Period @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 32. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld WHAT ARE THEIR STRENGTHS, PRIMARY & SECONDARY ADVANTAGES, DISC, VALUES?
- 33. QUESTION: Do you run finalists or new hires through personality assessments?
- 34. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld DEFINE ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES, HANDOFFS, SUCCESS METRICS
- 35. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@TwitterHandle • #CMWorld DETERMINING VALUES Dr. John Demartini's Value Determination test https://drdemartini.com/value_determination/determine_your_values @sspencer • #CMWorld
- 36. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld MATCH DUTIES TO VALUES
- 37. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld FINAL THOUGHTS
- 38. QUESTION: What’s the best indicator of future behavior?
- 39. @TwitterHandle • #CMWorld@sspencer • #CMWorld THANK YOU! You can reach me directly at stephan@stephanspencer.com For my free SEO Hiring Practices PDF & SEO B.S. Detector PDF, text the word DFWSEM to 33444
Editor's Notes
- Step #1
- David Lee Roth from Van Halen had a no brown M&Ms clause Complicated lighting
- Set up deliberate hurdles for applicants to jump over, like Roth did. For example, leave a vm to apply, not email. If they don’t do that, or in the vm they ramble, forget to leave their #, or have unprofessional background noises, they’re out. Attention to detail is incredibly important in SEO. However, instead of a light falling, your company's Google traffic could be decimated.
- Delegate to an assistant or direct report the job of reviewing the applications. He or she should scour over those applications not for content, but first for typos and grammatical errors. Lack of attention to detail in the application process portends even greater lack of attention to detail in the job itself. Also, big gaps in the resume?
- An extra handy tip is to include a problem to solve or essay question to answer in the job posting. A riddle is one of my favorites because it demonstrates problem-solving skills and competence. Guarantee an in-person interview if they passed the test assignment.
- Do specialized Google queries Check the cached date, page authority, IP address, mobile friendliness, page speed, last-modified date, of a particular URL Check if a PDF has been noindexed Check the EXACT number of pages indexed of a site
- Dig deep. Look back at least a year in their history.
- You do have to be careful about basing hiring decisions on viewing social media profiles however. Disregard much of the information you see on social media that should not affect the hiring process such as the person's age, disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation. Having said that, over half of hiring managers do check social media profiles during the recruiting process!
- A/B split test the job post – copy and images Try including the salary range then not including it Test the job title/headline especially. The term "geeky" in the title attracted much more qualified candidates than the term "wicked smart." Test different ad outlets too. Does Linkedln produce better candidates than Monster.com? Does Craigslist work for you compared to SEMPO?
- Trick questions aren't posed in an effort to trick the good candidate. They are instead designed to trick the person feigning up-to-date knowledge about good SEO.
- Whoever talks the most in the interview loses. Ask about their favorite SEO tools. primary metrics of their supposedly favorite tools (e.g., PA, DA, mozRank, mozTrust), Panda vs Penguin
- How do they get in in front of the people who might link to them? If they talk about old school link building like wide scale guest blogging, buying links, exchanging links, etc. run, don't walk, the other way.
- Ask what SEO training they have given other people. Best way to learn is to teach it to others
- Don’t train them yet. Give them discreet tasks. Minimum 2 weeks