Building an in house SEO team

[James@DM]

Hello,

I am currently investigating the feasibility of building a in-house SEO team.

I would really appreciate some insights in terms of which roles could be cross functional in your experience.

I was thinking about one content writer and 2 inbound marketers / community managers (title TBA).

The content writer can write internal and external articles whilst supporting social promotion of articles and potentially partnerships. With the two inbound marketers doing keyword research, link building, online PR, social management & partnerships.

I guess every department / company is different, but with the evolving nature of SEO do you think this gives enough coverage to the core components?

[gazzahk]

Hello,

I am currently investigating the feasibility of building a in-house SEO team.

I would really appreciate some insights in terms of which roles could be cross functional in your experience.

I was thinking about one content writer and 2 inbound marketers / community managers (title TBA).

The content writer can write internal and external articles whilst supporting social promotion of articles and potentially partnerships. With the two inbound marketers doing keyword research, link building, online PR, social management & partnerships.

I guess every department / company is different, but with the evolving nature of SEO do you think this gives enough coverage to the core components?

It is very difficult to answer a question like this not knowing anything about your website, target market etc…

I suppose it depends also on the skills of those you hire. For example if you have a GREAT content writer the others are probably unnecessary.

If you site ends up with lots of average to poor content the others probably are not going to be able to get you any/many decent links no matter what they do.

The key to links is the quality of the material on your site that other webmasters may want to link to. This is not the same as saying great quality content always get links. It does not. Linkable content gets links. Creating viral content is a hit and miss thing at best…

However you do seem to have a plan… Good luck…

[James@DM]

If it helps, we have terrible content at the moment and I am working with an agency to flesh out a content strategy to target head terms and develop a medium / long tail keyword strategy. This is really starting from the ground up as the site I am looking after has been hit by an unnatural link warning.

[EGOL]

For example if you have a GREAT content writer the others are probably unnecessary.

I agree.

Although, if I had the money to hire three additional content writers, I would go for it - unless my site is in such a tiny niche that all of those writers would oversaturate the niche.

[EGOL]

we have terrible content at the moment [...] the site I am looking after has been hit by an unnatural link warning.

It sounds like this site has gotten cheap work on all fronts.

I would move to quality.

I am working with an agency to flesh out a content strategy to target head terms and develop a medium / long tail keyword strategy.

OK... but I hope that the company who owns this site has expert expert people (who are also great writers) who can generate the content... and the content isn't going to be written by an egghead who doesn't know a damn thing about the hydraulic jacks that you sell.

[JBacchi]

It sounds like this site has gotten cheap work on all fronts.

I would move to quality.

OK... but I hope that the company who owns this site has expert expert people (who are also great writers) who can generate the content... and the content isn't going to be written by an egghead who doesn't know a damn thing about the hydraulic jacks that you sell.

Agree 100% You really need SMEs and they don't come cheap. Don't hire spinners or foreigners where your target audience language is not the writer's language. The nuances will make your readers crazy.

Also agree with gazz/EGOL about not needing the other two EEs if you have a great writer(s). Writers that have written for the www before and have success in getting links or ideas for link bait would be a plus. Someone that can write and edit their own content is also huge. Depending on the type site, I would hire a writer and an illustrator before I would hire a social media "expert." Sometimes a picture can be worth a 1000 words, even if those words aren't searchable, they can be link bait.

[Isaac Wendt]

Personally I would hirer 2 content writers,video products depending on your market and online one inbound marketer. Allot of people like the idea that building great content will bring you visitors but I don't think the same way. I think it's just one of many step to marketing your message properly.

Great content is a must and you need allot of it in most markets to make an impact.

Hope this helps.

[fathom]

Hello,

I am currently investigating the feasibility of building a in-house SEO team.

Are you creating in-house to offer outsource solutions - or just your internal developments?

Anyone can learn SEO... but from an in-house vantagepoint they are the least useful person no matter their level of experience. A great SEO is $250,000/year minimum salary & benefits... but they are not worth it if is just you paying their salary (unless a sale has an enormous profit margin/unit sold.

Content writers... anyone with grade 12 education can write... few are amazing in wordsmithing... but you don't need a permanent position wordsmithing genius (periodic outsource). Indian writers are a dime a dozen and cost $2/page... it's original while superficial information... but it is great filler. You will need subject matter experts that cost upward $1.00/word but they are multidisciplinary in the professional field you need (not just a journalist that knows little about your topics - which means you pay top dollar to train them... not getting real literary value out of them from the start) But again, outsource this expertise as you do not need them full time.

My problem... (your likely problem) I know it all but I cannot program anything and a multidisciplinary programmer is 1. hard to find, and 2. expensive and 3. difficult to control in a employee position... but this is the person you need with a couple of flunkies to do their chores.

[SEO_AM]

Fathom... You are mostly correct... I will forgive the rest.

What you are describing is an entrepreneur that knows his discipline, market, and SEO/SEM. I have run several high tech companies. The software group has always been and will likely remain to be the most difficult. To control them is truly like herding cats. However, it can be done, e.g. Apple and Microsoft.

To the meat: The SEO that is hard to beat (I always use EGOL as my example) is the one that is a master at their discipline, fully understands his/her market niche, and is more than just proficient at what needs to be done within SEO/SEM. Many such SEO qualified CEOs of smaller concerns eat the lunch of the bigger kids on the block.