How to Hire an In-House SEO

When you want your business to gain greater visibility in Google’s organic search results, you have a few options for achieving that goal. You can work with an SEO company that will handle the activities needed to fulfil your goal or do the SEO work yourself in-house.

If you don’t want to work with an agency and don’t have anyone in your business with SEO experience, you can recruit an SEO expert to come on board to help you out. Here are some tips for helping you hire a good in-house SEO specialist.

Look for Experience

The person you hire should have the experience needed to make your website rank well. A good candidate will have some analytic skills wherein they’re able to go through available data to know what actions are needed to improve your site’s performance.

Broadly speaking, you should hire someone with the following SEO skill set:

The person you bring on board should also know how to work with some SEO tools like Google Search Console, SEMRush, Google Analytics, and Ahrats because any SEO is only as good as the tools he/she uses.

Set a Reasonable Salary

The best SEO specialists won’t be interested in helping you out if you don’t offer a respectable salary. Determine how much you’re willing and able to pay an in-house SEO person before you begin interviewing people. Include how many hours a day/week you expect the person to work.

Where to Advertise Your Job

To find the right candidate for your in-house SEO position you can place ads in your local newspapers and magazines. If there is a college or university nearby, post your ad on their message boards. LinkedIn is another option for posting a job and for searching for SEOs in your local area.

If there are any SEO conferences and meetings near you, they’re great places for hiring experts. Job fairs are also good places to connect with SEO experts looking for work.

Conducting the Interview

When interviewing a candidate, ask for concrete examples of SEO work they’ve done in the past. Ideally, a candidate will provide you with a few references you can contact to find out what real results they’ve achieved for others.

Ask the person about the latest Google update to see if they keep up with developments in the SEO world. During the interview, be very clear about what you expect from the person you hire including a list of tasks you want the person to do daily/weekly/monthly.

While it takes time and effort to hire an in-house SEO, it will all be worth it in the end when you find the perfect candidate. When you have one person working on your SEO, they’ll get to know your company and its goals to fine tune your SEO strategy. Your SEO’s attention won’t be divided between many clients, but instead will be laser-focused on helping you gain the edge over your competitors.