acquiring enterprise seo talent
TRANSCRIPT
#pubcon@billhunt
Acquiring and Managing
Enterprise Talent
Presented by: Bill Hunt
#pubcon@billhunt
• 20+ years experience in Enterprise Search
• Built, Grew and Sold 2 large search firms
• Managed Global Search for IBM
• Helped build 20+ Enterprise Search Teams
About Me
#pubcon@billhunt
Why is Acquiring Search Talent so Hard?
• People doing the hiring don’t know what they need
• Salary does not align to traditional salary bands
• Search Marketers are technical w/no management, large
organization, or broader web experience
• No real “Career Path” in many companies
#pubcon@billhunt
Traits of a Search 3.0 Marketer
• Curiosity of a 5 Year Old – always ask why and why again
• Sherlock Holmes’ Deductive Reasoning
• Olympic Athlete's Competitive Nature
• Bill Clinton’s Communication Skills
• Madelyn Albright’s Negotiation Skills
• Thomas Edison’s Innovation
• Ability to see the future like Nostradamus
• Patience of a Saint!
#pubcon@billhunt
Key Focus of the Modern Search Team
1. SEO Algorithm & Technology Compliance
2. Portfolio & External Opportunity Maximization
3. Business & Search Program Process
Improvement
4. Center of Excellence Management
Enterprise
Search Team
#pubcon@billhunt
Typical Enterprise Search Manager
Time Allocations
80%
10%
5%5%
Evangelizing/Justifying
Fixing/Doing
Strategy
Management
#pubcon@billhunt
Salary does not Align To Market
• Hard to align top search experts in salary bands
– 21 y/o with 6 years experience year old wanting $100k
• Hard to justify salary for search skills against
corporate functions
– Many high “band positions” require MBA’s or experience
#pubcon@billhunt
Salary Solutions
• Manager Leverage
– Use Comp time to offset salary restrictions*
– Bonus pools and company awards
• Discretionary Budgets
– Conference attendance – Speaking Gigs
– Gift cards and technical goodies – multiple monitors, iPad*
• Off Hours Consulting
– Allow them to work on other projects and offer
recommendations* *Could be a violation of company policy so use discretion
#pubcon@billhunt
Mad Search Skills but Not a Manager
• Have never managed teams of people
• Have never worked in a matrix organization
• Have never had to work across teams
• How to wrangle staff and executive risk
• Have never had the corporate straight jacket
• Cannot develop business impact or business case
#pubcon@billhunt
Manager Skills Solutions
• Reassign experienced manager then train in Search
• Give them an Executive mentor
• Send to leadership training programs
• Pay for university classes in management, sales and
negotiating
#pubcon@billhunt
Hiring Process is Horrible
• HR or Hiring Manager does not understand Search so
not able to set skills expectations
• Have exaggerated requirements or unrealistic needs
• Don’t have strict criteria and required skills
• Don’t have the ability to critique skills of candidates
• Looks for Skills and Not Cultural fit
#pubcon@billhunt
Senior Director SEO
#pubcon@billhunt
#pubcon@billhunt
Candidate Reviews
• F50 Tech Company – 47 candidates
– 99% had no senior management experience
– Majority had not managed global or company-wide search team
• Online Travel Company – UK – 22 candidates
– Only 1 could articulate business requirements to different roles
– Only 3 had ever worked with a multi-country team
• Luxury Brand Company – 16 candidates
– Only 1 had worked in category - all were strict SEO-minded
– Only 1 could articulate web changes to creative and brand
#pubcon@billhunt
1. Try to transfer someone from IT/DEV then teach search skills
2. Understands the current CMS and development platform (Wappalyzer)
3. Can translate a SEO Fix into a requirements document that is easy
to action by the development team
4. Can perform SQL Queries and understand basic data analysis
5. Can demonstrate how to diagnose basic SEO problems to
determine a course of action (without having to ask on Moz.com)
6. Can understand the different from a search way and the generally
accepted development method or process
What do I look for when I hire
SEO Team Members
#pubcon@billhunt
1. Never hire people with extensive search experience – unless
they did this role successfully at a similar size company.
2. Ability to articulate the value of Search Marketing for this
company
3. Ability to communicate business problem and how to fix it and
why this problem/need is greater than all the others
4. Experience managing team in matrix organization
5. Ability to make the management team look good vs. themselves
What do I look for when I hire
Global/Enterprise Search Managers?
#pubcon@billhunt
Retain Quality People
• Find what motivates them and focus on maximizing it
• Money is rarely the most important element
• Give them ownership and responsibility!
• Give them credit and and access to Senior Management
#pubcon@billhunt
Retain Quality People
• Train them to grow beyond SEO & PPC
• Help them understand their growth path
• Help them grow as people and in their career
#pubcon@billhunt
What do you do next?
• Have a clear understanding of your needs and the type of person that is best for the job
• Develop a plan to backfill any missing skills and give them time to adjust
• Focus less on celebrity and more on change management skills
• Use consultants that are willing to transition into FT job
