When should you hire a SEO?
Deciding on whether or not to hire an SEO can by quite a frustrating task even if you only have basic knowledge of what Search engine optimisation is all about. Often I get calls to do interviews for company’s looking to hire in house, but are not sure what they should be looking for in a potential new employee. Even recruitment agencies have a major lack of understanding of what they should be looking for in a candidate’s CV.
When to start looking for a SEO Consultant
Ideally SEO should begin from the start of a site build as website architecture and crawl-ability are big factors in search engine optimisation and is often overlooked as the design takes preference. If search engine spiders have issue crawling your site then you’re not going to get even close to the potential visibility you could ultimately achieve in organic search results.
Other on page factors includes:
• Use of JavaScript
• Search engine friendly URL’S
• Internal link structure
• Consistent unique and relevant Meta tags for page content (title, description, keywords)
• Proper use of H1,H2,H3, tags
• Using alt tags with all your images
• Page imagery to content ratio ( Don’t out weigh content with imagery)
What to look for in your new SEO
Before I even decide if a candidate would be suitable for an interview I look for a sign of involvement in the search industry as this shows that they have a passion for what they do. I believe a SEO that has passion for the subject would have some public involvement either being an active contributor to SEO forums or their own blog/site dedicated to the subject.
SEO involves both a technical and analytical aspect and the candidates CV should indicate a good understanding of web Development languages such as Html, CSS, PHP, JavaScript and a interest into looking at Data or at least familiar with analytic tools .
A track record of working with websites that are not owned as sideline projects is preferable. A good knowledge of search engines is also extremely important as you need to understand what factors search engines use to rank a website.
before you hire a consultant
I would strongly advise learning more about the concept of SEO and don’t be afraid to ask questions if you are unsure about a certain topic. The internet has mountains of resources online that provide great information on Search engine optimisation.
Neil
I work as a full time SEO consultant with one of the biggest Digital marketing companies in Ireland. this is my personal site were i consult on SEO and share my random thoughts and tips.
