How To Hire a SEO Specialist
Complete with job descriptions, skill profiles, and interview templates. Use this SEO Specialist hiring guide to help you make the right decisions, fast.
SEO Specialist Recruitment Guide
What does a SEO Specialist do?
A search engine optimization (SEO) specialist improves website rankings on major search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. They ensure on-page optimization to produce relevant search results for the brand and a positive user experience, growing site traffic, lead volume and brand awareness. Their primary goal is to build the sales funnel and assist in marketing campaign performance. By employing smart on-page tactics (keywords, internal linking, and quality URLs, they will be able to increase the website’s visibility within search engines, which will then lead to high quality traffic, leads and sales.
Day to day tasks of a SEO Specialist
- Recommend best practice changes to website structure, content, linking and other factors to improve SEO positions for target keywords.
- Work with Marketing to develop and implement link building strategy and to drive SEO in content creation
- Research and implement search engine optimization recommendations.
- Work with the marketing team colleagues to ensure broader marketing campaigns are coordinated and content and SEO dependencies are met.
- Work with the marketing team to optimise copy and landing pages.
- Develop, monitor and distribute meaningful performance metrics as a way to evidence SEO improvement and performance.
- Keeping up-to-date with SEO best practice and search trends.
SEO Specialist definition
A search engine optimization specialist (or SEO specialist) is someone who analyzes a website and implements any necessary changes in order for it to be optimized for search engines. In addition, they will become an integral part of the company’s marketing department as they assist in optimizing web traffic, social media pages and ultimately end to end marketing campaigns.
HIRING PROCESS
SEO Specialist Hiring Process
Build the ideal candidate profile
Skills needed for a SEO Specialist
A seo specialist must have great attention to detail and sound knowledge of data analytics. They will understand how to build and optimize websites, alongside working with various arms of the business to ensure continuity.
- Google Analytics
- Stakeholder Management
- SEO
- Website Strategy
Pro Tip
For senior roles, you’re likely to receive a smaller number of applications than you would for a junior position. Ensure you provide details about what it’s like to work for your company, and what your company values are so applicants know whether your company is the right fit for them.
WRITE A JOB DESCRIPTION BASED ON SKILLS
How to write a SEO Specialist job description
Once you’ve determined the skills required for the role, you can write the job description to advertise for your position. Here’s what to include in your SEO Specialist job description:
Job Title: What position are you hiring for?
Summary: What makes your company unique? What would it be like to work for you?
Responsibilities: An overview of the role’s day-to-day activities, and how the position contributes to the organization
Requirements: Skills a candidate must have to perform the job successfully
Benefits: Details of compensation, benefits, and any perks on offer
Pro Tip
In building your candidate profile, remember you’ve already identified what skills are needed to succeed in the role. Here’s where to list your “must-have” skills and maybe a couple of “nice-to-have” skills. For example, a SEO Specialist must understand Google analytics, and it would be nice to have graphic design skills.
SELECTING THE IDEAL CANDIDATE
Sample skill tests for a SEO Specialist
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Question 1
Stakeholder Management
Question Type: Video
You are working on a project for the website that includes input from multidisciplinary teams in the company, where everyone works remotely. How would you ensure that everyone’s key milestones are met to meet the project deadlines and maintain updates across all stakeholders when necessary?
Question 2
Website Strategy
Question Type: Text
Your client’s website has a category page with loads of products for each category. There are too many products to fit on 1 page, so they will need to have a way to show all the products. What is the best practice from an SEO perspective to avoid duplicate content?
Question 3
SEO
Question Type: Text
Your client has a website with 4 main services that they offer. What is the best way, from a SEO perspective, to set up the URL structure and URL Hierarchy? Should they have 1 page with all the services or separate pages for each service?
INTERVIEW TOP PERFORMERS
How to interview a SEO Specialist
Once your Vervoe skills assessment has surfaced the most qualified people for your open role, you can focus on interviewing these candidates. The interview should focus on any skills that require development that were highlighted from the skills assessment.
Now you know that candidates can do the job, the interview becomes more of a relationship building exercise where you can get to know the candidate on a more personal level, understand their motivations, and how they would fit in with the team.
Making An Offer
How much does it cost to hire a SEO Specialist?
The US average for a SEO Specialist is $70,400 according to Celarity.com while the reported average salary on Indeed amounts to $51,962. 25 percent of SEO specialists earn above $75,900 with 25 percent receiving less than $63,000.
SEO Specialist Salary United States
SEO Specialist salaries in the United States range from $63,000 – $75,900 (USD). SEO Specialist salaries in the U.S vary a lot depending on the industry and the location of the business.
Source: Celarity.com
SEO Specialist Salary United Kingdom
SEO Specialist salaries in the United Kingdom range from £18,000 – £36,000 (GBP). SEO Specialist salaries in the UK vary a lot depending on the industry and the location of the business.
Source: Payscale.com
SEO Specialist Salary Australia
SEO Specialist salaries in Australia range from $50,000 – $94,000 (AUD). SEO Specialist salaries in Australia vary a lot depending on the industry and the location of the business.
Source: Glassdoor
