Apr 23 2025
How To Onboard Digital Marketing Talent According To Agency Leaders

Effective onboarding of digital marketing talent is key to setting the foundations for a positive employee experience.

It’s also vital for accelerating productivity, boosting employee retention, and cultivating a positive company culture.

When done right, it leads to more engaged and profitable staff in the long run.

Solid and thorough inductions also help new employees understand the company culture, responsibilities, and nuanced team dynamics. More importantly, they can also serve to bridge any skill gaps and set the stage for success.

With all of this considered,  you’d naturally think that onboarding would be a top priority for all founders.  Sadly, this is often not the case.

Poor Onboarding Or Lack Thereof Is Killing Your Retention

Last year I placed 70 candidates in new roles. Seven quit of their own accord before their probation was up. Of these, all of them but one attributed a poor onboarding process to their early departure.

  • Three had never met their manager in person, not even once.
  • Two cited feeling isolated and removed from the rest of the business, despite working in the office.
  • Three had commented about trying but being unable to meet every stakeholder in the business to understand their motivations.
  • One reported not having a single proper conversation with their manager about key performance indicators (KPIs).

Historical Resentment Combined With Poor Communications

Nobody intentionally onboards staff poorly.

It often happens when there’s a rush to get the new hire started fast, usually because of bad planning and a long recruitment process, which translates to: “We needed you yesterday, so just jump in.”

This urgency can create a stressful environment for new staff.

Existing team members who might have taken the slack in their absence may quickly start offloading responsibilities, potentially overwhelming the employee.

Businesses that don’t address this early on end up with a high turnover.

So, How Can Agencies Improve Their Onboarding Process?

I spoke to various agency founders and directors across the UK, the U.S., Australia, and Dubai and I asked them for their insights and advice about onboarding.

Here’s what they recommend:

Observation And Shadowing Are Vital

Zoe Blogg, the Director of Operations at independent SEO & Content Marketing agency, Reboot, says:  “It’s about immersion. Our process is designed to give new hires time to truly absorb how we work before they’re expected to contribute. In the first two weeks, we encourage new team members – especially at a senior level – to focus on listening, observing, and understanding our culture, processes, and workflows before making any major changes or suggestions.”

Supporting the idea that early collaboration and involvement are key, Kristi Hoyle of Kaizen actively encourages new starters to sit in on ideation sessions and client strategy meetings, even with teams they won’t directly work with. The ultimate aim is to gradually ease them into the agency.

Phil Dukarsky, SEO lead at Dubai-based SEO Sherpa, leverages a buddy system to ensure that new starters are given the best introduction. Effectively, somebody from the same department is chosen to take this person under their wing and induct them into the department and the wider business.

Emma Welland, founder of paid media agency House of Performance, emphasizes a similar approach with a twist: “We assign everyone a mentor as well as a manager to make sure they have multiple people to check in with and speak to from day one.” They also make sure new employees have time with the founders on a weekly basis to ask questions and get extra support.

Use The Right Tool Kit

I’ve spoken to many digital agency founders and hiring managers, and many have their own nuanced tool stack to ensure that their onboarding is on point.

Zoe Blogg was the first to recommend ClickUp as a project management platform that has been adopted by businesses all over the world.

She explains: “We use the tool to centralise everything from training materials to role-specific onboarding tasks.”

“A key feature we leverage is a dedicated ‘sandbox’ space, where new team members can test ideas, experiment with workflows, and familiarise themselves with our systems in a low-pressure environment before making live changes,” she shares.

Systems like this provide central spaces for new employees to get to grips with existing workflows and ways of working very early on, so they’re not in the dark. This also offers them the chance to ask questions and even make suggestions for improvements, making them feel valued early on.

Kristi Hoyle of Kaizen Search uses ClickUp in combination with Notion, another project management tool, to centralize all learning resources, induction documents, and educational resources.

Vervaunt was the only agency that cited Asana as a key onboarding tool.

Bethan Rainford, the company’s general manager, shares: “We use Asana across Vervaunt and have a comprehensive on-boarding flow which all new starters enroll within.”

Tools For Positive And Negative Feedback

Kaizen Search is an agency that takes considerable steps to continuously improve its employee experiences.

It uses 15Five, a performance management tool that enables new starters to record confidential feedback on their onboarding experience, helping the agency record any shortcomings or needs for improvement.

Emma Welland takes a similar proactive approach to this at House of Performance: “We ask every new joiner for feedback on the joining process, so we can evolve it.” She expects their process to be even more advanced over the next 12 months.

This is actually worlds apart from some of the experiences I’ve been told about.

Of the seven people who left their roles before probation, only one was even given an exit interview with an opportunity to give their feedback, while the rest were never asked what had gone wrong.

In fact, some of the hiring managers refused to acknowledge any feedback given by the employees.

CharlieHR

Zoe shares that CharlieHR helps them make the heavy administrative side of onboarding more efficient.

It also gives new starters immediate access to key information early on, such as company benefits, perks, and policies. “This removes the logistical friction and allows them to focus on integrating into the team”, says Blogg.

Jen Wlodyka, who heads up the talent team at London and Hertfordshire-based Distinctly Digital, also praises the tool for its ability to schedule performance reviews and ensure that detailed feedback is created and distributed privately and timely. This is vital for keeping staff happy and loyal.

Breathe HR

Breathe is another solid tool for onboarding.

Olivia Royce, the operations director at ecommerce SEO agency NOVOS, explains, “We rely on tools such as ClickUp for task management, BreatheHR for HR processes, and Assembly for fostering team connections. Cybersecurity training during the first week equips our team to handle IT security.”

Jen Wlodyka also stresses the importance of having the right tools for success.

She points to Slack and their bespoke intranet as vital for smooth communication from the start. Both platforms serve as the company’s centralised hub for policy documents, internal communication between teams, and regular company updates, making new starters feel included right away.

Onboarding Shouldn’t Stop After 2-4 Weeks

Many agencies and brands see onboarding as a short, 30-day process, but that’s not enough. Here’s what the best agencies are doing in that respect:

Rolling Inductions

Zoe Blog from Reboot addresses this head-on as she tells us, “We recognise that onboarding is more than your ‘first month’. That’s why we have rolling induction slots in the calendar, so if someone wants a refresher or misses a session, they can easily join again. This ensures that information isn’t just received once and forgotten – it’s reinforced in a way that makes it stick.”

The 30/60/90-Day Approach

The ecommerce-focused agency NOVOS adopts a structured approach to onboarding.

Its 1-30-60-90-day plan aligns with probation periods and breaks the process into clear milestones: a structure for day 1, week 1, and months 1, 2, and 3.

Olivia Royce, the company’s operations director, explains, “We have a clear onboarding process in our task management system which outlines who is responsible for what during the onboarding process.”

This structured approach consists of a comprehensive introduction to the company and its mission, vision, and values, and helps set personalized KPIs that match the employee’s development areas for the first three months.

Bethan Rainford from Vervaunt outlines their ongoing approach that ensures onboarding doesn’t end after probation: “At the end of a probationary period, we have a tradition of ‘end of probation presentation’.”

They started this when they were a team of five, and now at 65, it still continues.

She goes on to explain the process: “The employee presents back to the full team on a topic they are passionate about or a key project they have worked on during their initial time here. We’ve always found this to be a really rewarding and supportive way for new team members to close up on their probation, and the support and encouragement from the wider team is always really lovely to see.”

Onboarding Should Start Before Day One

Kristi Hoyle from Kaizen Search explains that their onboarding actually starts before an employee even steps foot in the office: “Our process begins two weeks before their official start date to ensure employees feel informed, prepared, and welcomed.”

She breaks this down in detail:

Pre-Start Preparation

Hoyle describes how 14 weeks prior to starting, new hires are given a comprehensive welcome deck they’re encouraged to look over in detail.

The document includes key company information, details on benefits and key policies, a full organization structure chart, short bios and photos of everybody in the company, and a comprehensive outline of what to expect from day one, including training schedules and full immersion sessions.

Emma Welland shares a similar philosophy: “When we bring new people into House of Performance, we make sure our onboarding starts before they walk through the door, whether that is inviting them to any company events we have in the lead-up to their start date or a simple email answering all those little questions such as ‘what should I wear?’, ‘who am I working with’, ‘where do I get lunch on my first day’, etc.”

As Hoyle points out, this proactive approach ensures new hires arrive feeling comfortable, informed, and excited for their first day. She then goes on to outline the full and detailed itinerary.

Day 1 Experience

“On their first day, new employees receive an HR onboarding session introducing them to our core systems, including 15Five, Breathe HR, and ClickUp. We aim to align new starter dates where possible to deliver these sessions efficiently in group settings. New joiners also enjoy a welcome lunch with their manager and buddy to foster early connections,” she explains.

Similarly, at House of Performance, they always start new joiners at 10 a.m., when the rest of the company is already in the office and set up. This creates a smooth entry, avoiding the common situation of arriving on time only to find that managers aren’t there.

Welland goes on to say: “We always go out for lunch on the first day, and try and ensure there is some social event in their first few weeks so they can start building relationships (an integral part of account management life!).”

First Week Focus

Hoyle goes on to say that the first seven days are centred around training, with new joiners gradually taking on client tasks designed as learning exercises.

This structured approach allows them to contribute early without pressure, ensuring mistakes are treated as learning opportunities with full support from their line manager and buddy.

New starters also have a values session with the CEO to better understand the behaviors expected of them and the culture they are trying to build from the start.

Check-Ins And Progress Tracking

Midway through onboarding, Hoyle and the directors at Kaizen conduct a formal HR check-in to assess how the role aligns with expectations and identify any points of friction.

Monthly probation check-ins track progress against probation goals to ensure success.

Refreshingly, this agency views probation as a two-way process, using this time to gather feedback and make adjustments where needed.

Jennifer Wlodyka also advocates for regular check-ins, stating that they prioritize ongoing support with daily check-ins throughout the onboarding process and weekly meetings with their managers. And they don’t stop there!

New starters are also invited to monthly reviews for the first six months, giving them the opportunity to share their thoughts about the process, too.

Top Tips For A Smooth And Effective Onboarding

In my experience as a former marketer, hiring manager, and now a recruiter for the space, I recommend the following:

  • Take the time to map your onboarding process carefully and tailor it to the size you are currently at – it’s not a one-size-fits-all.
  • Certain tasks can be automated using the key management tools cited above.
  • Speak to new starters and ask them for feedback early on, during, and after their onboarding to keep improving.
  • Don’t let one single person handle onboarding. Get the whole team involved so new hires feel truly welcomed.
  • Encourage the entire business to partake in onboarding in some way by involving reps from every department. This will display a genuine desire to make new starters feel at home.
  • Take it slow. Onboarding can feel overwhelming for new members of staff, so spread it out. The NOVOS 30/60/90 day approach is a prime example of how it’s a marathon and not a sprint.

Olivia Royce sums it up: ”When it comes to onboarding digital marketing talent, effective onboarding serves as the launchpad for success.”

Emma Welland explains the emotional aspect perfectly: “I fundamentally believe a good onboarding is judged by how you make someone feel. For us, making sure expectations are clear from day one, is a big part of this. We want people to feel comfortable asking questions (there are no silly questions) and getting involved.”

A well-structured onboarding process, tailored to individual roles and supported by the right technology, empowers digital marketing talent.

By investing in onboarding, agencies and companies can nurture talent and drive remarkable outcomes in the fast-moving digital world.

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Featured Image: insta_photos/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 17 2025
How To Get A Job In Digital Marketing In 2025

It can be hard to get a job, especially right now it is difficult to land a job as the market has changed.

There are significantly fewer jobs available for both permanent and temporary positions.

But, this article will provide you with tips and advice to help you stay motivated.

Falling Job Vacancies

The current market, with fewer jobs available, is in stark contrast to what we saw during the Great Resignation (a term coined by Anthony Klotz), where there appeared to be a spike in the number of people quitting their jobs in 2021 that started before the pandemic.

According to a survey by KPMG and REC, vacancies for permanent jobs in the UK declined at their fastest pace for four years in January 2025.

The survey also shows that temporary vacancies fell in December 2024, and the labor market had been slowing down in 2024.

The U.S. has also seen the number of job openings fall.

In October 2024, this dropped to 7.4 million versus 7.9 million in September 2024.

Jobs in healthcare and government agencies also saw a lot of losses (the latter may be due to the election).

According to Newsweek, the number of Americans leaving their jobs dropped to its lowest since August 2020, but the number of layoffs increased.

There may be fewer Americans leaving their jobs voluntarily because they are more satisfied with their jobs.

According to Pew Research, half of U.S. workers are happy with their jobs, and 38% are somewhat satisfied.

There are 12% who are not satisfied with their job. Those who are self-employed (60%) are more likely to be highly satisfied than those who are not self-employed.

11 Tips To Get A Job In Marketing in 2025

Employers can now be more picky about who they hire. So, how can you make sure you land your job this year?

Here are my tips from my experience of looking for a job in this current climate.

1. Be Patient

Securing a job will take longer, unfortunately.

Data from recruiting software company iCIMS, a recruiting software company, said that the average time it takes to fill a role is seven weeks.

A friend of mine in Australia applied to 74 jobs over a 4-month period, but they only heard back from 27 – just 36% of companies responded.

Some job sites state they will not get back to you (such as the recruitment site called Seek in Australia). But, there were some jobs where after making a presentation it took two months to be told they were not successful.

Candidates are not happy about waiting so long.

Hays recruitment firm in the UK carried out a survey of 11,900 employers and employees in March 2024.

It found that only 18% of candidates believe three rounds of interviews are acceptable, and 6% are willing to wait more than a week to hear back from the company after the final interview. This means candidates want to hear back from potential employers quickly.

2. Build On What You Know. Don’t Try To Get Into A New Sector Without Experience

The market is already tough. Do not try to “pivot” as people may have done during the pandemic.

Focus on your skills. Do the job you want to get.

For example, if you want to do a podcast in your next job, create your own YouTube show.

I started Tea Time SEO during the pandemic, and I really enjoyed it. Then, in November 2023, Mike asked me to co-host SEO Office Hours.

The show did not give me a new job, but it did help me market myself and allowed me to learn a new skill, which I feel more confident in applying in my new job.

3. Make Yourself Stand Out: Building Your Brand Is Key

According to iCiMS, in March 2024, there were 43 job applications per opening in the UK and EMEA, which is 44% higher than in February 2023.

Competition is fierce, so focus this year on building your brand.

If you do not know how to start your personal brand or what is your brand, have a friend or former colleague help you.

Brainstorm first what you want to be known for and have a neutral person (not your family) write down what they think your brand is all about.

4. Network

Make the most of your contacts. Go to networking events in your sector.

According to Money.co.uk, among the 2,000 people surveyed, 40% secured a job through networking. This is particularly true for Millennials. 50% of those who took part in the survey landed their job through networking.

5. LinkedIn

Do not be afraid to ask others for help. There is no shame in posting on LinkedIn if you are looking for work.

Globally, more than 220 million people used the “open to work” banner on Linkedin in January 2025, which is 35% higher than it was in January 2024.

I posted on LinkedIn that I was looking for work, and I have seen far more people do this in 2025 and 2024 than in previous years.

Posting that I was looking for work led me to others sharing the type of job I was after and also meant my current employer reached out to me.

6. Refresh Your CV

A friend of mine in Australia applied for 74 jobs between November 2023 and March 2024. They managed to secure a job after having their CV reviewed and amended.

Ideally, a CV should be no more than two pages and highlight the key achievements in the role you are applying for.

Many CVs describe what you did at the job, for example, managed the content on the website, created a PR campaign.

Instead, try to show the results. For example “I doubled the content on the news section and increased downloads by 40% over the space of 12 months.”

“I created and launched a PR campaign that drove 3,000 unique visits in one day, which was 75% more than what was seen in previous campaigns.”

7. Try Not To Do Too Much Free Work

We have seen an increase in the amount of unpaid work during the interview process.

I know many who have done presentations, only to be then told they are not successful.

According to a LinkedIn poll, 85% of respondents said they had been asked to do unpaid work during the interview process, with 44% of them spending three to five hours and over 19% over six hours.

If a company is asking you to do free work, ask them to specify the time for the tasks and when they expect to come back to you with an answer.

8. Make A Realistic Plan

Research the types of companies you want to work for, whether they are a big brand, whether they share the same values as you, or if they are 100% remote-only companies. Make a list and plan when you will apply to them.

Try not to overload yourself by applying for 10 jobs one day and one the next. Instead, plan it out evenly over the month.

I kept a Google Sheet so I could see where and what roles I applied to and was able to follow up if I had not heard back. It helped me with my job application process.

Out of the jobs I applied to, I heard from just 40% of them.

Out of those initial replies, I then followed up but had no further contact, meaning that 30% of those who initially messaged me ghosted me. Having this Google Sheet helped me to track my progress.

If you have a plan for the number of jobs you apply to and when, it is easier to control your hours.

9. Try Not To Take Things Personally

You cannot control whether or not someone will return to you, but you can manage how you react.

Some companies will not be transparent, and some companies will not respect your time. They will not get back to you to tell you no, the position has changed, or it has been canceled.

It can help to talk to a neutral party about your experience or even colleagues or friends in the same recruitment drive position as you.

10. Join Communities

Applying for jobs can be soul-destroying. Join communities where people can also share job opportunities.

People within these communities want to help one another and support one another, and they are more than happy to pass on referrals.

However, be careful, as there are still people within the communities who are looking for help but then do not reply.

Out of the jobs I applied to within a community, where people were asking for candidates to fill a role, 56% ghosted me.

11. Get A Mentor

I started speaking with a mentor after being in my “career” for 10 years. It is probably best to do this sooner rather than later.

According to Forbes, 76% of people think having a mentor is important, but only 37% have one.

A mentee may not know where to look for a mentor, but 61% of mentor relationships have developed naturally. Therefore, there may be someone at work or an older friend who could help you.

Many mentors are happy to pass on their knowledge to others, and they found it enhanced the meaningfulness of their work.

Keep Applying, Keep Improving

My last piece of advice is not to give up. Applying for jobs is soul-destroying, and you can really feel you are not making any progress, yet you spend hours researching and applying.

However, if you give up, as we are moving so fast in digital marketing, you will be moving backward.

You are not alone and will get work, just don’t give up.

Methodology:

Please note that my research covers the U.S. and UK markets. I applied for 160 jobs from when I started making a record, which was from April 2024 until December 2024. I applied for remote jobs in the UK, the U.S., and hybrid jobs in Barcelona. I used LinkedIn to find jobs, and also through the communities I am part of.

I posted on Linkedin in October 2024 that I was looking for a full-time job and I was contacted by a few people and I now have my job because of that. It took me 8 months of looking for work to secure a full-time contract. I had started looking before April 2024 as I could see the market was slowing down, but as I was going to become a parent and take a couple of months out, I was not apply to secure a full-time role. Therefore I started the research again after my child was born.

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Featured Image: ImageFlow/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 4 2025
The Secret To Great Presentations? Connection Over Perfection via @sejournal, @brentcsutoras

After speaking internationally for almost 20 years and reviewing professional presentations for speakers of all levels, from Search Engine Journal webinars to helping out my colleagues, I’ve developed a deep understanding of what makes presentations truly resonate.

Through this journey, I’ve studied how people receive information and connect with speakers, and ultimately, how influence works in these settings.

When I first started reviewing presentations and giving feedback, it was just some quick ideas I would share based on my own speaking experience.

But, as more speakers began reporting positive results and requesting my input, I realized my approach was genuinely helping others elevate their presentations.

That evolution led to me conducting all the dry runs for the presenters for Search Engine Journal webinars, something I take great pride in today.

As someone who has been immersed in speaker prep and presentation dynamics for years, I’ve observed patterns in what makes audiences lean in versus tune out.

I’ve really focused on what makes presentations work and why people want to hear the psychology of it all.

These insights aren’t just theoretical; they’ve been battle-tested across continents, industries, and presentation formats.

Let me share some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned about creating presentations that not only inform but also truly connect with your audience.

Master The Art Of Storytelling And Authenticity

People don’t connect with slide decks; they connect with stories and authentic experiences.

Your presentation needs a narrative backbone.

As Jennifer Aaker, professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, notes, “Stories are remembered up to 22 times more than facts alone.”

This is backed by research showing that after a presentation, 63% of attendees remembered stories, while only 5% remembered statistics.

When you get in here, people are going to be a little apprehensive about being sold something. They always are. And also, people get distracted easily.

So, there is a sort of attention span, a sort of “how do I feel about you?” that works itself out throughout the presentation.

The most effective approach follows a three-part formula:

  1. First, identify the problem that resonates with your audience. Everybody’s coming in because they have a problem. Make it painful and relatable: This problem is painful. You feel this problem sucks for you.
  2. Second, establish that you’ve walked in their shoes: You connect that you also have this problem. You put yourself in the same space. You bring yourself to the same level as them.
  3. Third, position your insights as the solution: I found a solution by spending an enormous amount of time and energy and work doing only this, because this is how crazy I am. This is just what it is.

Talk like you’re sharing insights with a friend at a bar who asked about your area of expertise. This conversational approach feels authentic rather than rehearsed.

Rethink Your Approach To Slides

Your presentation is for you, not for them. Slides should serve as visual anchors for your natural thought process, not as reading material for the audience.

For me, every slide has only one core required talking point. I could talk about more, but there’s only one that’s required before I can go to the next slide. So, if I ever lose my train of thought, all I have to do is go to the next slide and reset.

Here’s a powerful exercise I recommend: Build out your presentation and talk through it, then set it aside and have that same conversation without any slides. Your mental dialogue is your authentic story.

When you notice there’s a disconnection between your natural flow and your slide arrangement, adjust the slides, not your thinking.

If you find yourself jumping to slide seven when you should be on slide two, you don’t change your mind; you change the slides because your internal story is your authenticity.

This approach ensures that even if you get lost or distracted, as soon as you go to the next slide, you’ll immediately reconnect with your narrative flow.

Master The Psychology Of Audience Connection

Understanding psychological triggers that create a connection is essential for presentations that truly resonate.

People don’t need the right answer. They need to feel that they resonate with the answer they hear and that they came to it on their own.

So, you’re kind of giving them enough of a feeling that they’re in a mutual resolution step.

This creates a powerful dynamic: By putting them in that state, they become your friend and they believe in you.

People naturally want to share decision-making because it distributes responsibility. It’s hardwired into our survival instincts.

When painting problem scenarios, elaborate enough that everyone finds at least one element that resonates with their situation.

You can rattle off a list of problems so that each one of those problems resonates with somebody. By highlighting various issues, each person will find something that speaks to them.

This technique means everybody’s got an “OK, this relates to me” moment and they start solving their own problems through your guidance.

Strategic Engagement Through Pacing And Pauses

One often overlooked aspect of great presentations is giving audiences time to process information mentally.

People can’t process until you stop talking. They need a moment to process with their own audio, like their own internal dialogue.

Incorporate deliberate pauses after key points with simple phrases like:

  • Just think about that for a second.
  • Just absorb that for a second, and then let’s keep going.
  • Let’s wrap your head around that for a second.

Even microsecond pauses allow people to connect the dots and make the neurological connections they need to.

Without these processing moments, you’ll observe a classic case of “information overload,” where retention plummets regardless of content quality.

When speakers continuously deliver information without breaks, the audience simply can’t absorb what’s being shared, no matter how valuable it might be.

Expertly Navigate Transitions Between Topics

People come in and out of attention during presentations, so your storytelling needs to be consistent across all slides.

Every single time you shift the topic, remind them of where we just came from and where we are going in the journey. This makes everybody feel like they’re going along, like a tour guide.

Create these connective transitions with phrases like:

  • Well, now that we’ve got the setup done, in order to get us to the point where we can see the return on investment (ROI), we want to go and do this next, right?
  • Now that we’ve seen that side, let’s check out where they slept.

You’re essentially guiding people through a tour of your ideas, constantly reorienting them to maintain engagement regardless of attention fluctuations.

Time Management And Content Prioritization

Knowing yourself as a presenter is crucial for effective time management.

I would plan to have about 20 minutes for Q&A. And in order to do that, you want your presentation to be about 25 to 30 minutes.

It’s helpful to run through it, practice it, and know yourself. Do you talk fast when you’re actually doing it live? Do you digress and give a lot of extra examples? And it ends up going longer.

Remember that every minute you kind of go past is just a minute that’s taken away from Q&A. When prioritizing content, it’s better to go deeper on fewer topics than to rush through many.

If you have 10 things to share and you scale it down to four, but tell those four things in three different ways so that everybody can resonate with them and feel like they really mean something to them, they’ll walk away with more than if you just gave them 10 things that they can’t connect with.

Effectively Using Polls For Reengagement

I am not a fan of polls personally, but they do serve a crucial reengagement function during presentations.

What we look at polls for is a reconnection of the eyes on the screen. People get distracted, and they end up talking to colleagues and stuff. And when there’s a poll, it’s like, “Oh, I need to come and participate.”

Strategic poll placement matters: If you put them at the beginning, then you’re reconnecting them when they’re already reconnected, which is fine. But for that purpose, you’d want it a little bit later on, in the middle or something.

Polls can also segment your audience for targeted follow-up: Being able to identify pain points where you can adjust the wording when you send your emails afterwards and you reach out.

Technical Preparation For Seamless Delivery

Technical hiccups can derail even the best content, so preparation is essential.

Jump in about 10-15 minutes before and just do a tech check for basic stuff, like rebooting the system real quick. If you have a Cat cable, run it because it’s more stable. Little things like closing out programs would also help.

Having backup options is crucial: Having a PDF is a great way. You can still break off and go live if you want. Same thing with sharing your screen.

This preparedness ensures you can navigate potential technical challenges without losing momentum.

The Final Word On Presentation Excellence

Throughout my career, speaking around the world, I’ve found that the most impactful presentations blend technical skill with authentic human connection.

Whether you’re presenting to five people or 5,000, these principles hold true.

One speaker recently shared their experience, which reinforced my passion to keep sharing my speaking experience and thoughts: “Your presentation advice has been invaluable, Brent. You have this remarkable talent for making complex communication principles feel intuitive and actionable.

Since implementing your storytelling techniques and engagement strategies, I’ve felt more confident and authentic on stage, and my audiences are clearly more responsive. You’ve helped me transform from simply delivering content to creating genuine connections. Thank you for being such an insightful presentation partner.”

Remember that your audience isn’t looking for perfection; they’re looking for value delivered in a way that respects their time and intelligence.

As I often tell speakers I’m coaching: Nobody’s looking to break you. They’re genuinely there because they are trying to learn.

By consistently implementing these strategies, you’ll transform from simply presenting information to creating memorable experiences that drive real action and change. And ultimately, isn’t that what great speaking is all about?

More Resources:

Featured Image: Anton Vierietin/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Apr 1 2025
Ask An SEO: If I Am Not An SEO Expert, Is It Better For Me To Start An Agency? via @sejournal, @HelenPollitt1

Today’s question from Kazi is such an honest and important one for our industry. Kazi asks:

“I’m new to this sector. Should I start an agency as an one-man employee? I know it sounds ridiculous, but I am very much in need of work – more specifically, in need of money.

So, I think an agency will have better pull power than me working as a solo search engine optimizer because clients won’t get attracted if they see a new SEO learner…”

I understand that the crux of this question is, “Will you appear more legitimate and competitive if you are offering services as an agency rather than a solo contractor?”

However, I really want to address the more important aspect of this: Should you be offering SEO services for a fee as someone brand new to the industry?

My answer to that is no. Not only shouldn’t you be offering SEO services as an agency, but you also shouldn’t be offering them as a solo contractor if you are brand new to SEO.

Why SEO Is A Great Career Move

I completely get the appeal of this as a career move. On the face of it, SEO has no barriers to entry, which is great!

I fully recommend this industry to anyone passionate about analysis, psychology, creativity, sustainability, and technology.

You’ll hear me encourage it for people who like to problem-solve and find solutions that don’t have obvious answers.

I recommend it not only for those who have a background in creative pursuits, but also for those whose background is more tech-focused. It is a career that captures the interests of a lot of different types of people.

Not only does it give you the opportunity to earn money through skills that are in demand, but there are also no expensive overheads.

There are no formal qualifications needed and no regulatory bodies to convince. All you need is a computer, the internet, and the passion to develop your skills.

But it’s not easy.

There is a lot to learn before you can realistically start charging for your services. It is not just about the mechanics of SEO, but also how to apply them in different situations.

Risks To Clients

If you take on SEO work for a business or organization without knowing how to apply SEO concepts in practice, you could open them up to significant risk.

Learning On The Job

SEO is not a straightforward practice. There are a lot of variables and circumstances that affect what we might deem “good practice.” Because of this, you can’t apply a blanket solution to every situation you encounter.

If you are brand new to SEO, there may be nuances with your client’s industry, website, or tech stack that you aren’t aware of, which will impact how successful your strategy is.

A lot of SEO comes down to problem-solving. This is a skill that gets honed over time. As you encounter more situations and learn from what worked and what didn’t, you will become more adept at creating successful strategies.

If you are a brand-new SEO bearing full responsibility for the success of the organic performance of a client, you will come unstuck.

SEO is a great industry for learning on the job. However, if you are learning SEO from scratch, you don’t want the pressure of being the most senior SEO in the room. You will likely make mistakes, and these could be costly to your client.

May Cause Significant Traffic Loss

In some situations, a junior SEO working on a website alone could cause significant traffic loss for a client.

For example, you could accidentally set live a solution that de-indexes their whole site. You may not know how to guard against that sort of mistake. You could see your client’s organic traffic disappear in a matter of days.

These are risks that more experienced SEO professionals face as well, but after years of working in SEO, we can foresee what issues might arise from the recommendations we make.

Could Cause Financial Harm

If your SEO recommendations cause organic performance issues, your client’s revenue could be significantly affected.

If they run a business that relies on their website – and in particular, organic traffic – then your mistakes could be very costly.

People have lost jobs over organic traffic loss. Without much experience in SEO and no one more senior to help flag risks, this is something that you could easily cause.

Risks To You

Not only would charging for your services as an SEO when you’ve never done it before put your clients at risk, but it could also be harmful to you.

Significant Pressure

You will face significant pressure. You will be expected to set reasonable goals and achieve them in a timely manner.

Without much experience in SEO, that’s going to be incredibly difficult to do. You’ll either set unattainable goals that no SEO could realistically achieve, or you simply won’t have the skills to achieve more practical objectives.

With that, you will find yourself trying to appease an increasingly disgruntled client.

Any SEO professional who has worked as a freelancer or as part of an agency has had to have difficult conversations with a client. They have expected results that you have not been able to deliver.

However, an experienced SEO will be able to identify when that is likely to be the case and adapt strategy, or inform the client of more realistic timelines or goals.

They will also have ways to help the client feel like they are getting a genuine return on their investment, even if it’s not as much or as quickly as they had anticipated.

A brand-new SEO specialist simply will not know how to do that. It’s too much to expect from someone so early on in their career. You will likely feel the pressure of that.

Your lack Of Experience Will Be Discovered Quickly

The above is really a best-case scenario – you actually make it to the point where you have convinced clients to trust you, and you are beginning to see that you can’t hold up to the promised performance standards.

Most likely, your lack of knowledge and experience will be identified more quickly. You may be working with people with more SEO knowledge than you, such as marketers or product owners.

They may not consider themselves experts in SEO, but they will assume you are if you sell it as a service. They will probably be able to identify significant gaps in your knowledge very early on in your relationship.

Not only will that likely sour the client-agency relationship, but you may also find yourself without a client pretty quickly.

Could Have Legal Ramifications

In some situations, positioning yourself as someone who can get results through offering a service – without the ability to fulfill that – could be a breach of contract.

I would be very wary of making promises to clients about your abilities unless you are upfront that you are brand new to SEO and they are among your first-ever clients.

What You Could Try Instead

So, if I’ve managed to give you pause about committing to offering SEO services as a contractor or an agency, may I suggest some other ways forward?

You can still make money through a career in SEO, even if you are beginning to learn about it.

Join A Company As An Intern

You are clearly passionate about SEO if you are already thinking about starting a business working in the industry. That passion is a great start.

Consider finding an entry-level job in the SEO field and learning on the job in a more supportive, less pressured way.

You could find an agency or in-house position that values your drive and ambition but can support you with the right resources and opportunities to learn SEO while minimizing the risk to yourself and others.

Practice On Sites That You Can Fail With And Learn

If you are struggling to find employment within SEO but want to learn it to get into a position where you can legitimately offer SEO services, you need practice.

Do not practice on sites that rely on organic traffic. Instead, consider building your own sites around subjects you are passionate about and develop your experience and confidence in SEO.

You can make mistakes, weather traffic drops, and be hit by algorithm updates – all without risking anyone’s livelihood. Through that, you will develop the skills you need to work on other people’s sites.

I would still consider graduating to other sites where the risk is low. For example, volunteering your time to work alongside other SEO professionals.

Or, you could try optimizing the site of a friend who understands you are still learning SEO and is happy for you to practice and make mistakes on their site.

Set Up Your Own Site And Monetize It

If you are determined to make money through SEO right away, then build and optimize a site that you can monetize.

This might mean an affiliate site, or perhaps you can start a business that drop-ships.

Whatever course you take, make sure that the risk is minimal, and you will not suffer if you lose traffic and revenue while perfecting your SEO skills.

Make Sure You Have The Experience Before You Go Alone

Most importantly, understand that learning SEO well takes time.

You can easily read up on SEO and have a very high theoretical knowledge of it, but you still need to put what you’ve learned into practice.

This way, you will be able to understand how to adapt strategies for different goals or how to rally when performance doesn’t go as expected.

I want to encourage you to pursue a career in SEO, but I caution you against running before you can walk.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Mar 11 2025
Ask An SEO: How Can You Distinguish Yourself In This Era Of AI Search Engines? via @sejournal, @HelenPollitt1

Today’s question comes from FC, who asks:

“As an SEO specialist for over 6 years now, what and where does one need to focus with regard to SEO in this current dispensation.

How can you distinguish yourself and standout as an SEO specialist in this era of generative AI and AI search engines?”

This is an excellent question because it goes right to the heart of concerns I hear from a lot of SEO professionals. They have managed to build a solid career and name for themselves as an SEO specialist, but it now feels like the game has changed.

They worry that the skills and experience that got them to this point will not be enough to keep them excelling.

I want to address those concerns, both from the perspective of job seekers and those looking to make an impression in their current role.

What’s Changed

Up until a couple of years ago, it felt like there were clear career choices for SEO specialists to make.

Employed or self-employed? In-house or agency? Technical SEO or content SEO? Small business or enterprise sites? People manager or hands-on practitioner?

These series of decisions, or simply circumstances we found ourselves in, shaped our career paths.

There were central components to SEO. Primarily, you would be working with Google. You would be measured on key performance indicators (KPIs) like clicks and conversions.

You could impress stakeholders by linking your work directly to revenue.

It doesn’t seem as simple as that now, though.

LLMs And Social Media

More recently, there has been a focus on looking at optimizing brands’ presence in other search platforms, not just Bing, Yandex, Baidu, and other regionally relevant search engines.

It now includes platforms not traditionally thought of as belonging to the purview of SEO: TikTok, Perplexity AI, and app stores.

KPIs And Metrics

Google’s walled garden is growing larger, and proving the worth of SEO is getting harder. It’s increasingly difficult to show growth in your share of organic clicks when the pot is getting smaller.

With more answers being given in the search results themselves, and a reduction in the need for clicks off the SERPs, tracking the impact of SEO isn’t straightforward.

With potential – and current – employers still looking at year-on-year clicks, impressions, and revenue growth as their measure of an SEO’s success, this makes standing out quite challenging.

The Skills That Remain Important

I fundamentally believe that the foundational principles of SEO remain unchanged.

However, how we apply them may change with the advent of LLMs and other search platforms.

Technical SEO

A crawl issue that is preventing Googlebot smartphone from accessing the key pages on your site will likely also affect PerplexityBot and OpenAI’s OAI-SearchBot.

As an SEO, we will need to be able to identify where these bots are struggling to crawl pages. We will need to find solutions that enable them to access the pages we want to have served in their search results.

To stand out, make sure you are not just thinking Google-first with your technical solutions.

Consider the other sources of traffic, like LLMs and social media, which might be impacted by the decisions you are making.

Ensure you are also tracking and reporting on the impact of these changes across these other platforms.

Content SEO

Understanding what content searchers are looking for, how search engines perceive it, and what they are choosing to serve as search results is a fundamental aspect of SEO. This won’t change.

However, how you discuss it and the actions you take will change.

From now on, not only are the Google algorithms important for how you create and optimize content, but so are a host of other algorithms.

You will need to consider how searchers are surfacing content through other search platforms. You will also need to know how to make sure your content is served as the result.

Make sure you are moving away from Google as the only algorithm to optimize for and towards the other drivers of traffic and visibility.

Digital PR

I would suggest that digital PR is becoming even more important.

As the search engines we are optimizing for become more numerous, the key factor that seems to unite them is a reward of “authority.”

That is, to give your content a chance of being served as a result in any search engine, it needs to be perceived as authoritative on the subject.

These newer search platforms will still need to use similar methods to Google in identifying expertise and authoritativeness. Digital PR will be key in that.

I do feel that we need to stop making backlinks the main priority of digital PR, however.

Instead, we need to start focusing on how we report on mentions, citations, and conversations about brands and products.

For example, we can look at social media engagement metrics as an indicator of authority. Brand perception may well be formed through forum discussions, reviews, and comments on social media sites.

Just because we know that Googlebot discounts links from some social media platforms in attributing authority doesn’t mean that the newer search engines will. Indeed, they will not rely on social media sites heavily to understand brands.

For now, set yourself apart by rethinking the purpose of digital PR for SEO. Look at the benefits to the brand as a whole and start factoring this into your strategies.

“Soft” Skills

I maintain that the most successful SEO professionals are those who have mastered the non-SEO-specific skills that make businesses work.

Strategic thinking, stakeholder management, and leadership skills are all critical to success not only in SEO, but also in any career.

To really stand out in the changing SEO industry, focus on how these skills will need to be applied.

For example, factor in social media and LLMs into your SEO strategies. Make sure you are not just focusing on Google, but introducing the idea that SEO is broader than that.

Make sure you are liaising with development teams to loop them into your ideas for how to make the site accessible to AI bots. Work on being a thought leader in LLMs and new search platforms for your company.

These sorts of skills are those that will really make you stand out, but you need to apply them with the future of SEO in mind. Future-proof your careers as well as your websites!

Cross-Platform Knowledge

This is probably the hardest one for some SEO specialists to do. Stop looking at Google as the source of all SEO performance and widen the net.

Get comfortable with the other AI search platforms that are beginning to send traffic to your site. Use them yourself, and get familiar with what sort of content they serve and why.

Use social media sites and forums that are where your audience discusses brands like yours. Make sure that you are aware of how they work, and how to participate in those discussions without negative backlash.

Stand out by looking outside of the narrow “Google is SEO” box.

Being An Expert In The New Era Of SEO

How, then, can you guarantee that you are still perceived as an expert in SEO while the goalposts are changing?

What will make you stand out when you are applying for new jobs right now?

How can you prove that your skillset is still relevant whilst others are proclaiming “SEO is dead” (again)?

Demonstrate Impact Through Other Channels

Look at how you can collaborate more with adjacent channels.

For example, I’ve mentioned that social media and forums will be key areas where LLMs will discern brand relevancy and trustworthiness. Work with your teams who are already on those platforms.

Start helping them in areas that you are already an expert, for example: understanding algorithms, creating optimized content and measuring brand authority.

Drive impact in those areas and report on it alongside your more traditional SEO metrics.

Demonstrate Impact Through Other Metrics That Still Line Up With Corporate Goals

Although we are used to reporting on metrics like clicks, rankings, and impressions for SEO, we may need to start looking at other metrics if we want to continue showing the worth of SEO.

For example, consider utilizing tools like Otterly and Goodie to measure visibility in AI search platforms. Or, at the very least, some of the more traditional search engine rankings tools also cover Google’s AI Overview visibility.

Use these tools to demonstrate how the work you are doing is impacting the brand’s performance in AI search platforms.

Continue to relate all work you do back to revenue, or other core conversion goals for your business. Don’t forget to show how traffic from LLMs is converting on your site.

Continue Learning

A key way to stand out in your SEO career at the moment is to show a willingness to upskill and diversify your skillset.

The SEO landscape is shifting, and as such, it’s important to stay on top of new platforms and how they work.

Make sure you are utilizing training that is available on LLM optimization. Use the platforms yourself so you can understand what search real estate is available on them.

Share your findings in interviews and discussions with colleagues so you are highlighting what you’ve learned.

Although this may seem basic, you may find there are a lot of SEO professionals out there with their heads still buried in the sand when it comes to the evolution of the discipline.

Stand Out By Being Adaptable

At the end of the day, SEO is changing. That doesn’t mean that the skills we’ve developed over the past years are obsolete.

Instead, they are even more in demand as new platforms promise new avenues to reach prospective audiences.

The best way to stand out as an SEO in the current era of SEO is by being adaptable.

Learn how to apply your SEO skills to these emerging platforms and track your success.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Feb 3 2025
15 Interview Questions To Ask Your Next Digital Marketer Candidates via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Hiring the right digital marketer can make or break your marketing team.

With new tools, platforms, and regulations cropping up constantly, you’re not just looking for someone who “gets PPC” or can crank out social media posts.

You need a pro who can adapt to change, think strategically, and roll with the punches when things don’t go as planned (because they rarely do).

Whether you’re at an agency or in-house managing a marketing department, hiring for digital marketing roles today means going beyond surface-level questions.

It’s about diving deeper to understand how candidates think, problem-solve, and approach their craft in a way that aligns with your business goals.

Sometimes, the “why” behind these questions is more important than the question itself.

Here are 15 crucial interview questions to help you hire your next digital marketing rockstar.

Tactical Knowledge Questions

The first set of questions focuses on an individual’s tactical knowledge of digital marketing.

1. How Do You Use AI And Automation To Improve Your Campaigns?

AI and automation aren’t just buzzwords anymore. They’re tools shaping how marketers work.

This question uncovers whether the candidate is using these tools for better performance or simply riding the hype wave.

  • What to listen for: Candidates should provide specific examples, such as using AI for bid adjustments in PPC or helping analyze campaign data for better optimizations. Red flags include vague responses or over-reliance on automation without understanding its impact.

2. What’s Your Approach To Building And Refining Audience Segments For Targeted Campaigns?

Audience targeting has become more nuanced, and it’s a skill you can’t skip.

This question dives into their strategy for reaching the right people at the right time.

  • What to listen for: Specific techniques like combining customer relationship management (CRM) data with platform insights or testing lookalike audiences. Be wary of candidates who rely solely on pre-set audience templates without customization.

3. What Platforms Are Your Favorite To Work In, And Why?

Asking this question helps understand the individual’s strengths in certain channels, and where they could use room to grow.

  • What to listen for: A great digital marketer should be able to comfortably work across platforms and different tools. This is true whether you’re talking about hiring someone for PPC or SEO, or even a cross-channel marketer.

4. How Do You Leverage First-Party Data To Inform Your Campaigns?

First-party data is becoming increasingly valuable as the reliance on third-party cookies still remains questionable. This question uncovers how a candidate adapts to this shift of having a privacy-first mindset.

  • What to listen for: A candidate may talk about strategies like email segmentation, loyalty programs, or even how they’ve approached capturing first-party data to ensure they’re able to properly use them in campaigns. A potential red flag is relying on outdated cookie-based methods without a backup plan.

5. Can You Share An Example Of Using Cross-Platform Advertising That Has Driven Results?

As digital marketers, we know most campaigns aren’t “one and done” on a single platform. Candidates need to show how they think holistically about digital ecosystems.

  • What to listen for: Strong examples include integrating Google Ads with Meta campaigns or leveraging TikTok for awareness and retargeting on a different platform. A red flag is a candidate focusing only on one platform without considering how they interconnect and inform each other.

6. What’s Your Experience With Data Visualization Tools, And How Do You Present Campaign Performance To Stakeholders?

Explaining results is just as important as achieving them. This question gets into their communication skills and ability to tell a story with data.

  • What to listen for: Candidates should mention the use of different tools like Looker Studio and explain how they tailor reports to different audiences. Watch out for overly technical explanations that might confuse stakeholders.

Strategic Knowledge Questions

It’s not only important to know how to do the job, but also to know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

The next set of questions allows you to dive deeper into the candidate’s mindset and see if they can put the strategic pieces together for clients.

7. How Do You Stay On Top Of Industry Changes, And What’s Something You’ve Learned Recently That Impacted Your Work?

The digital landscape changes every single day.

If someone isn’t staying current with best practices and platform changes, it can be detrimental to client success. You need to have someone on the team who is fully aware of any changes in the industry that could impact performance.

  • What to listen for: Understanding what methods a candidate uses to stay “in the know” is important. If a candidate says they’re too busy to set aside time to read up on trends, I’d consider that a red flag.

8. Have You Had To Pivot A Campaign Due To Changing Data Privacy Regulations?

Data privacy laws have changed the name of the game, especially in PPC.

This question tests how the candidate navigates regulations while keeping campaigns effective and compliant.

  • What to listen for: Look for examples like shifting to first-party data or adjusting targeting strategies in light of GDPR or CCPA. Red flags include ignoring compliance issues or struggling to adapt when audience data becomes restricted.

9. How Do You Measure Success Across Different Types Of Campaigns?

Success isn’t one-size-fits-all. The answer should show how they align goals, metrics, and performance analysis for various strategies.

  • What to listen for: Candidates should mention setting specific KPI goals based on the channel and objective of a campaign. Be wary of those who rely on vanity metrics like impressions without tying them to business outcomes.

10. How Do You Explain Complex Answers To A Client Or Someone In A C-Suite Role?

This will inevitably happen in any digital marketing role. It’s easy when you’re working as a team, and everyone knows the ins and outs of acronyms, in the weeds content.

Sometimes, you need to explain something like you’re talking to a third grader. Less is more.

  • Green flags to listen for:
    • Candidates who know how to navigate their language based on the role of the person they’re talking to.
    • When a candidate has the knowledge of basic business questions that the role cares about.
    • They know how to explain the “why” behind performance peaks and valleys.
  • Red flags to listen for:
    • Does the candidate dance around this question?
    • Is this candidate someone who might have difficulty thinking on their feet?
    • Do they believe in sharing too much data in order to avoid questions?

Culture & Fit Questions

This last set of questions is really looking at the long-term impact of your digital marketing hire.

You’re not looking to hire temporarily; you’re hiring for the long haul.

You want to feel confident in your candidate selection based on their character, the ability to collaborate with others (teams and clients), and, of course, the empathy factor.

11. What Is Your Management Style, And How Do You Ensure Alignment Within A Team?

Leadership and collaboration are critical in marketing roles.

This question helps asses how their approach complements your team dynamics.

  • Green flags to listen for: Strong candidates will mention fostering open communication, using clear goal-setting frameworks, or adapting their style to individual team members.
  • Red flags to listen for: If you notice any micro-management tendencies or when the candidate avoids conflict resolution.

12. How Do You Balance Working Independently With Collaborating Across Departments?

Similar to the question above, digital marketers often juggle solo tasks with cross-functional initiatives.

Everyone performs their duties well in different scenarios. In some cases, digital marketers are required to work alone, on a team, or both.

This question highlights their adaptability to working together as a team versus in a silo.

  • What to listen for: Examples of successfully managing independent projects while aligning with other team departments. Be cautious of candidates who struggle to collaborate, communicate, or prefer working in silos.

13. Can You Describe A Time You Contributed To Maintaining A Positive Team Culture?

A strong company culture is key to retention and productivity.

This question reveals how they value and influence workplace dynamics.

  • What to listen for: Specific instances where they recognized a fellow colleague, facilitated team bonding, or helped resolve conflicts. Avoid candidates who dismiss culture-building as unimportant.

14. How Do You Handle Constructive Feedback, Both Giving And Receiving It?

Feedback is essential for any type of growth. This question assesses their ability to engage in productive conversations.

  • What to listen for: Look for examples of accepting feedback gracefully, acting on it, and offering constructive criticism thoughtfully. Red flags include defensiveness or avoiding difficult conversations.

15. What Are You Looking For In This Role?

Personally, I used to cringe at this question. Now, I find myself asking this to anyone I interview.

Bringing in a new person to an organization costs a lot of time and money. Think of all the training that goes into a new hire, the staffing that’s required to help train and mentor them, etc.

  • What to listen for: If they don’t have a clear answer, that’s a potential red flag. Are they simply looking for a stepping-stone position? While there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s better to know upfront to align expectations for both parties.

At the end of the day, do their motives fit in with your company’s culture and values? If not, they likely aren’t the right candidate.

Wrapping It Up

Hiring the right digital marketer isn’t just about finding someone with a great resume.

It’s about finding someone who fits with your team, aligns with your company goals, and has the skills to thrive in an ever-changing space.

Use these questions to dig deeper and uncover candidates who have the mix of experience, adaptability, and strategic thinking you need for this year and beyond.

Because let’s face it: You’re not just hiring for today’s challenges – you’re hiring for tomorrow’s opportunities.

More Resources:

Featured Image: insta_photos/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 21 2025
How To Accelerate Your SEO Career via @sejournal, @Kevin_Indig

Advancing your in-house SEO career can be incredibly lucrative and fulfilling. But most advice is theoretical, too high-level, and comes from people who haven’t done it.

I had the good fortune of a very fruitful in-house career, leading large organizations at companies like Atlassian, G2, or Shopify.

Over the recent years, I have had the honor of helping companies like Ramp, Hims, Nextdoor, and many others hire top-tier talent and design effective teams.

But my experience is subjective, so I asked four of the most accomplished SEO pros in the world to share their insights as well (you can find their full answers at the end of the Memo):

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Thank you so much for sharing your valuable insights!

The 5 Core Competencies Of SEO

SEO professionals need five core competencies to succeed in the long-term, that I broke down into three skills each.

I created the framework based on John’s, Malte’s, Jordan’s, Tom’s, and my own experience.  Each skill is critical. You cannot just be strong in four. You need to be strong in all of them to succeed in the long term.

Image Credit: Kevin Indig

Skill 1: Communication

Communication is made up of alignment, collaboration, and outward communication.

  1. Creating internal alignment means helping everyone understand what matters in SEO to get buy in, but also contemplate what’s happening in a crisis. For example, when an algorithm update hits your site.
  2. Since SEO is a recommended discipline, it’s critical to collaborate effectively with supporting teams like engineering, design, content, etc., and adjacent teams like legal or procurement.
  3. Outward communication, the way you present yourself and the company at events or on social media, matters it comes to hiring new talent and raising your company’s reputation.

Skill 2: Learning

Learning  breaks down into adaptability, experience, and filtering information.

  1. Adaptability is important because Google’s algorithms and design change a lot. Just think about the shift we’re going through with AI search right now. So, you need to be able to shift gears, leave old mental models behind, and develop new ones. You can learn about SEO, but doing it is a different kind of beast. To learn, you can have one or more side projects to tinker with or analyze and reverse engineer other sites.
  2. It’s also important to at least know the basics of other disciplines because they all impact SEO: copywriting, positioning and messaging, conversion optimization, design, web development, and product development.
  3. Lastly, get good at filtering information. What do you read? How do you learn from experiments, and how well are you connected to the industry so you can learn from peers?

Skill 3: Business Savviness

Business savviness breaks down into planning, focus, and execution.

  1. Planning is a crucial skill for almost anything in life. You need to be good at setting goals, priorities, timings, and responsibilities. Planning also includes knowing what resources you need and pitching for them. Also, develop proficiency in forecasting and projecting impact.
  2. Focus is the skill of working on the most important projects while tuning out the noise. It’s measuring the right data to know whether you’re successful and to report upwards and sideways.
  3. Good execution is really hard. In my experience, it comes down to good project management but also understanding how your business and industry work.

Technicality doesn’t mean technical SEO but the skills of automation, data analysis, and a general technical understanding.

  1. Automation is about doing work more efficiently while controlling for dependencies and liabilities. This skill is rapidly becoming more important as AI gets better. It used to be about proficiency with Excel, Google Sheets, SQL, web analytics, etc. But in the future, a lot of it will come down to prompt engineering and workflow automation.
  2. Data analysis is the skill of getting and analyzing data, i.e., knowing which data to look at and how to interpret it well.
  3. A good technical understanding comes down to learning how Google works but also being “technical” enough to talk to engineers and product managers. For example, you want to learn what tech stack your company’s site and application is built on, how the engineering team works, etc.

Leadership is the result of advocacy, hiring, and relationship building. To be clear, you should develop leadership qualities, whether you have management responsibility or not.

  1. Advocacy means representing SEO where it matters. It demands you to proactively find out where conversations happen that impact SEO and how to influence them.
  2. Good hiring skills come down to whether you have a high bar and if you can bring in good talent. Who do you know, and how do you evaluate them for the job?
  3. Relationship building is critical for rapport with your manager and peers. You need allies and “friends” to lean on and learn from. Part of this is getting good at coaching others and finding a good coach.

The five core competencies offer you a helpful overview of what you need to develop. But without understanding how to apply them, they’re only half as useful.

General Vs. Specific Skills

Everybody needs to be proficient in the five core competencies, but you need to adjust the emphasis of your skills based on the industry and business model of the company you work for.

I have three tips for you:

  1. Learn more about technical SEO and product development when you work on larger sites, usually in B2C. Get better at demand generation and content marketing for smaller sites, usually in B2B. The reason is that you want to align your skills with the biggest growth levers of the business.
  2. Develop expertise in SERP Features that matter for your industry. For example:
    • News: top stories.
    • Ecommerce: product grids.
    • SaaS: video carousels.
    • SMB: Map Packs.
  3. Tailor your skills to the size and maturity of a company. For example, in startups it’s more important to execute fast while you need to invest more time into creating alignment at large enterprises.

Hard Vs. Soft Skills

Hard skills are not as important as soft skills in SEO because you need to constantly adapt to Google changes and learn new hard skills as tech and consumer behavior evolve.

I recommend writing down and refining your mental model about how Google works and what drives success.

Forcing yourself to explain and think about why things are the way they are allows you to truly refine your approach to SEO.

You need to balance two things at the same time: being confident in your approach but open to new insights. Jeff Bezos: “Strong opinions, loosely held.”

Career Planning

This is hard, but most people never think about where they want to be and what it takes to get there.

But without focus, it’s easy to dabble in too many areas and waste time. What are you optimizing for?

Think about your endgame and what you need to get there. Remember, you can always change your goal. But have one.

I love Ray Dalio’s five-step framework for endgame planning 1:

  1. Have clear goals.
  2. Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of your achieving those goals.
  3. Accurately diagnose the problems to get at their root causes.
  4. Design plans that will get you around them.
  5. Do what’s necessary to push these designs through to results.

I want to finish by leaving you with some top-notch resources you can use to keep developing yourself.

1. Malte suggests Learning SEO by Aleyda Solis,  probably the most comprehensive repository of SEO learning material.

2. Jordan recommends three books:

3. Tom suggests the SEO MBA, especially the SEO maturity matrix, and the Lethain article, A forty-year career.

4. John mentions Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, WIX SEO Guide, Semrush Academy, Ahrefs Academy, Harvard Business Review Case Studies, and two books:

  1. “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek.
  2. “Lost and Founder” by Rand Fishkin.

Full Answers

I present to you the raw inputs I got from John, Tom, Jordan, and Malte:

What core skills and knowledge areas are essential for success in SEO today, and how do you recommend developing them?

Jordan Silton: If I were recreating my personal career path, I would emphasize technical expertise, data analysis, communication skills, and business acumen.

However, SEO roles today are so varied across different business types, industries, and strategies that a multitude of skills are valuable and relevant.

Malte Landwehr: I think SEO has become so diverse that there is no longer one set of skills.

A technical SEO needs very different skills from a content-marketing-focused SEO. A director of SEO needs very different skills from a principal SEO consultant. The SEO work for a B2B SaaS looks totally different from the SEO work for a marketplace or aggregator. News SEO is completely different from ecommerce SEO.

If I had to pick the traits that helped me the most, I would say:

  • The ability to simultaneously hold multiple, contradicting frameworks and mental models in your head. Two SEOs might tell you two completely different models, how they implement SEO. Both might be wrong – but you might still learn something from both approaches.
  • Embrace uncertainty. When reverse engineering the Google algorithm, there are many unknowns. You need to get comfortable with that.
  • ELI5 & ELIPhD. You need to be able to explain SEO to everyone. During your career, you might talk to a CEO, CFO, CMO, CTO, CPO, Head of Web Product, Product Manager, Content Editor, Software Developer, Analyst, and many other roles. Each of these people needs different information. And to convince them, you need to tell different stories. You must develop the ability to talk to each of them.

John Shehata: Today’s SEO landscape has evolved from a generalist approach to a more specialized one. We now see technical SEOs, content SEOs, commerce SEOs, and many more.

The most critical skill right now is adaptability. Google’s algorithms are becoming more sophisticated, advanced, and complex, requiring SEOs to maneuver through frequent changes and quickly pivot strategies when necessary.

Developing this skill involves staying informed through industry updates, engaging with the community, and experimenting to see what works in real time.

Equally important is the ability to think with a business mindset. Historically, SEOs have been focused heavily on driving traffic, but generating traffic for traffic’s sake is no longer enough.

SEOs today need to align their strategies with business goals and revenue streams, focusing on attracting the right audience that converts rather than casting the widest net possible. This shift requires optimizing content not just to attract visitors but to support key business objectives.

Additionally, leveraging AI is essential – not just for automating tasks but for enhancing your analysis and decision-making.

AI can streamline workflows, handle complex data analysis, and support content optimization, allowing SEOs to focus on strategic tasks.

To build these skills, SEOs should learn about AI tools, experiment with them, and stay updated on new developments.

However, none of these skills will be fully effective without strong communication abilities. Being able to translate complex SEO insights into clear, actionable recommendations for non-technical stakeholders is invaluable.

This involves bridging the gap between technical teams and business units, ensuring that all departments are aligned and moving toward shared objectives.

Lastly, data analytics is a foundational skill that ties everything together. A deep understanding of data helps uncover hidden opportunities and supports informed, strategic decisions.

Mastery of tools like Google Analytics, BigQuery, and Looker Studio will allow SEOs to extract meaningful insights that can shape strategies, validate recommendations, and ultimately drive better business outcomes.

Tom Critchlow: This will be no surprise to those who know me, but business skills are critical.

The ability to first understand the full revenue profile and mechanics of the companies you work with, and then being able to communicate confidently, credibly, and clearly.

SEO is more than ever a cross-functional activity and so what we consider “soft skills” are actually critical to be able to convince teams, stakeholders, clients and organizations to invest appropriately in SEO.

Of course, you need some knowledge of SEO too! I think the ideal career experience is a role that allows you to invest in your technical and analytical SEO skills while getting a front-row seat to the wider business context and communication.

What pivotal experiences contributed most to your professional growth?

Jordan Silton: I’ve been fortunate to keep learning different roles, and each shift into a new context accelerated my growth.

Starting in paid search/SEM taught me to monitor KPIs, optimize for ROI, and use an experimental approach to improvement.

Evolving a reporting team into a data science and experimentation team expanded my understanding of how teams and metrics connect across the entire business.

Becoming a product leader was transformational in teaching me how to build consensus and influence to move a business forward.

Malte Landwehr: For me personally, it was a combination of three things:

  • I started tinkering with websites in my early teen year. I did everything on my own, from repairing corrupted SQL databases, to editing .htaccess files, creating content, attracting visitors, and former partnerships for monetization. This allowed me to understand the full picture of running a website.
  • I studied Computer Science with a focus on graph algorithms, web scraping, machine learning, information retrieval, and NLP. This allowed me to form a deep understanding of Google’s algorithms and patents.
  • I worked in Management Consulting. One thing I oversaw was making sure our PowerPoint slides can be read on a BlackBerry in the backseat of a car. This gave me the skills to talk to the C-level and craft proper proposals.

John Shehata: My career growth has been shaped by a diverse range of experiences.

Coming from a technical background as a software engineer and transitioning to marketing has given me a strong foundation.

One key moment was learning to translate complex SEO concepts into a language that editorial, PR, and marketing teams could understand, which helped bridge the gap between SEO needs and business objectives.

Another pivotal decision early in my career was to become a well-rounded marketer instead of specializing only in SEO.

I gained expertise in social media when platforms like Twitter and Facebook were in their infancy, built one of the first social media teams for a major news publisher, and developed a deep understanding of newsletters and partnerships. This diverse experience allowed me to eventually lead global audience development strategies for large organizations.

Managing cross-functional teams was another formative experience.

Working closely with development and engineering teams taught me to speak their language, advocate for SEO needs, and propose technical solutions that accelerated our initiatives.

While working with Editorial teams taught me how to respect the craft and appreciate all the due diligence that goes into writing content.

Working with all these different teams and understanding their strengths and needs, strengthened my ability to push back when necessary and collaborate effectively, which is crucial for driving SEO projects forward within complex organizations.

One of the most fulfilling aspects of my career has been mentoring and team building. I’ve had the privilege of hiring hundreds of SEOs and mentoring some of the best SEOs in the industry, helping them develop their own skills and grow into leadership roles.

Watching them succeed has been one of the most rewarding parts of my journey.

Finally, a turning point in my career was the conscious effort I made to build my personal brand.

Early on, I had supportive managers who encouraged me to refine my public speaking skills and present within the company.

I took these opportunities seriously, which eventually led to my first speaking engagement at SES 18 years ago, the largest SEO conference at the time with thousands of attendees.

From there, I focused on establishing my presence both online and offline, which not only advanced my career but also opened doors for me to promote my own software solutions.

Building a personal brand has proven invaluable in expanding my influence and credibility in the industry.

Tom Critchlow: My first job in digital was as an account manager for a digital agency. The first week on the job the account director and the SEO director both quit!

So, I was left speaking directly to clients about SEO with zero experience. Great way to learn both sides of the equation.

After that, working at Distilled, my brother Will taught me everything I know. I am forever indebted to his guidance.

What are the biggest mistakes you made or have seen others make in developing their career?

Jordan Silton: Most of my early career success was predicated on finding an issue or problem or opportunity and shining a light on it to get others to rally and fix it.

That approach worked well in a world of technical audits and a focus purely on what to do, rather than how to get it done.

I wish I had understood earlier how crucial it is to build up the people and relationships along the way.

In larger organizations (and small ones, too), success is almost exclusively driven by teamwork and communication rather than individual expertise.

Recognizing the value of people in the process transformed my approach, and I believe it has made me a more effective leader.

Malte Landwehr: For a long time, I underestimated the impact a good coach can have. Mindset and manifestation sound like a scam. But they work – also beyond career topics.

John Shehata: One mistake I made early on was focusing too much on rankings as a primary metric. While rankings are a great indicator, they are not the ultimate measure of success.

As I matured, I evolved to focus on traffic, and ultimately how SEO metrics align with overall business goals.

Now, my primary focus is on understanding how each SEO activity impacts revenue and long-term business growth.

I’ve also seen many SEOs panic over algorithm updates. While these changes can be disruptive, a better approach is to remain calm, evaluate the impact, and create both immediate and long-term action plans.

Sometimes, Google reverses its changes, so it’s important not to overreact.

Another common mistake is made by managers transitioning into director roles. Many struggle with balancing tactical and strategic thinking. They might dive into tactical details when speaking with C-level executives instead of focusing on strategy.

Mastering the art of switching between tactical and strategic conversations is crucial for career growth at this level.

Tom Critchlow: Not giving yourself access to context. Whatever role you’re in, if you’re not in the room where budgets are discussed and decisions are made, then you’re missing so much context.

So much of this comes down to your manager and how much they invite you into conversations “above your pay grade,” so to speak.

How do you think strategically about your career?

Jordan Silton: My favorite question about career aspirations is, “What’s your endgame?”

While it’s not crucial to stick to the same endgame, having a clear vision of what you want to achieve is vital.

My aspiration has been fairly consistent in helping businesses turn themselves around and accelerate growth, but my approach has evolved.

Initially, I thought that meant becoming a management consultant, but I was able to reframe this early in my career by realizing that agencies had significant leverage in this area.

This mindset guided my career decisions, including transitioning in-house to gain insight into internal business dynamics and knowing when to leave a successful, industry-leading business to explore opportunities with companies focused on reimagining and rebuilding their brands.

Having an end state to point toward – no matter how much you zigzag to get there – helps ground you in your professional journey.

Malte Landwehr: I am in the incredibly lucky and privileged position that I found something that I thoroughly enjoy doing, happen to be very good at it, and that companies are willing to pay a lot of money for.

I just show up every day at work and focus on whatever task sounds reasonable (and fun) to me.

John Shehata: I’ve always focused on becoming a well-rounded digital marketer rather than a specialist. My strategy was to gain experience across different channels – SEO, social media, newsletters, partnerships, etc. – so I could integrate these areas into a cohesive strategy.

This approach has paid off as I moved into senior leadership roles, where I was able to oversee not just SEO but broader audience development strategies.

Now, as the founder of an SEO software company, my focus has shifted significantly.

Running a SaaS startup requires wearing many hats – product development, sales, support, and client relations – each demanding its own set of skills.

My strategy now is centered on building long-term relationships, and deeply understanding my customers, identifying their pain points, and positioning our software as a long-term solution rather than just a tactical tool.

This means continuously evaluating how our products can deliver real value and helping publishers see the impact through clear, actionable insights.

It’s a constant balance between addressing immediate customer needs and aligning those solutions with their long-term business goals.

In addition, I place a strong emphasis on long-term skill building. I focus on developing skills that I anticipate will be critical in the next 5 to 10 years, such as AI, automation, and business development.

Staying ahead of the curve is essential in such a fast-evolving industry, and it’s important to proactively build expertise in emerging areas.

Another crucial element of my strategy is networking. Building a strong network has consistently opened new doors and opportunities for collaboration.

It’s not just about who you know, but ensuring that the people in your network know the value you bring to the table.

By fostering genuine relationships and contributing to the community, I’ve been able to establish connections that have proven invaluable throughout my career journey.

Tom Critchlow: There’s a great post on a 40-year career that uses a framework of “pace, people, prestige, profit and learning” where different career/life stages require different focus. I like that a lot.

Personally, I’ve always been motivated by learning primarily – the ability to learn new skills and new industries.

Can you suggest any resources or material for career growth?

Jordan Silton: Three books that come to mind immediately are “Turn the Ship Around! A True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders” by L. David Marquet, “The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande, and “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It” by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz.

Each of these challenges traditional norms and presents innovative approaches grounded in science and contemporary insights.

Additionally, I’m excited about what Evan LaPointe is building at CORE Sciences. His team leverages clinical insights from neuroscience to evolve business thinking, addressing the many counterproductive norms that persist in the workplace. It’s time to upgrade our understanding, thinking, and practices for better outcomes.

Malte Landwehr: https://learningseo.io/ is the only resource you need to advance your SEO career.

John Shehata: The resources you should focus on depend on where you are in your career.

For early-stage professionals, I recommend mastering tactical skills using resources like Aleyda’s Learning SEO, Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO, WIX, Semrush, or Ahrefs’ Academy.

As you progress, start exploring strategic resources like Kevin’s Growth Memo newsletter.

For more experienced professionals and SaaS owners, I suggest diving into leadership books like “Leaders Eat Last” by Simon Sinek or exploring resources that help you develop a business mindset, Rand Fishkin’s “Lost and Founder,” case studies from Harvard Business Review.

Additionally, staying connected with the SEO community through conferences, webinars, and podcasts is invaluable for continuous learning and networking.

One thing that applies across all stages is the need to stay updated.

SEO and digital marketing are constantly evolving, and keeping a pulse on the latest Google algorithm updates, industry changes, and new tools is crucial to maintaining a competitive edge.

Beyond reading, mentorship is a powerful tool for career growth. Finding a mentor in your field, or becoming one for others, accelerates learning in ways that books and courses alone cannot.

Teaching and guiding others not only solidifies your own understanding but also deepens your expertise.

Finally, hands-on experience is irreplaceable. No amount of reading or watching tutorials can substitute for real-world application.

Create your own projects, build websites, do your own affiliate content, and test different strategies.

Experimenting firsthand is the best way to learn what works and, just as importantly, what doesn’t.

Ultimately, it’s the combination of learning, mentorship, and practical application that will propel your career forward.

Tom Critchlow: I mean, I’m biased, but I think a lot of the SEO MBA archives are relevant!

In particular, the SEO skills maturity matrix is my most popular all-time post and looks at career progression, specifically balancing the “hard” and “soft” skills you need as you grow.

1 Use the 5-Step Process to Get What You Want Out of Life

Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 13 2025
39% Of Skills May Be Obsolete By 2030, WEF Jobs Report Warns via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

A new report shows the most in-demand jobs as AI and automation change industries worldwide.

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Future of Jobs report (PDF link) lists the jobs expected to grow the most in the next five years.

Here’s what you need to know.

AI’s Impact On Job Market

The report surveyed over 1,000 global executives, representing over 14 million workers in 55 economies.

Most executives—86%—believe AI and related technologies will significantly change their businesses by 2030.

Key points include:

  • AI & Information Processing: This technology is expected to create about 11 million new jobs while displacing around 9 million, leading to net job growth in AI fields.
  • Robotics and Autonomous Systems: While some jobs may be replaced, many positions will support robotic tasks.
  • Broadening Digital Access: 60% of businesses see this as essential to their operations.

Despite advances in AI, human workers are still crucial. New job opportunities will emerge in big data, cybersecurity, and human-focused roles such as talent management and customer service.

The Fastest-Growing Jobs

According to the report, technology-related roles are expected to grow most by 2030.

Leading the pack are positions like:

  1. Big Data Specialists
  2. FinTech Engineers
  3. AI and Machine Learning Specialists
  4. Software and Applications Developers
  5. Security Management Specialists
  6. Data Warehousing Specialists
  7. Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Specialists
  8. UI and UX Designers
  9. Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers
  10. Internet of Things Specialists
  11. Data Analysts and Scientists
  12. Environmental Engineers
  13. Information Security Analysts
  14. DevOps Engineer
  15. Renewable Energy Engineers

The demand for tech workers is increasing as businesses adopt AI, information processing technologies, and robotics.

The report notes that “AI and big data are the fastest-growing skills,” followed by networks, cybersecurity, and technology literacy.

Green jobs, like Electric Vehicle Specialists and Environmental Engineers, are also among the fastest-growing roles due to efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

While tech jobs grow the fastest in percentage terms, the largest increase in actual job numbers is expected in traditional frontline roles.

These include:

  1. Farmworkers, Labourers, and Other Agricultural Workers
  2. Light Truck or Delivery Services Drivers
  3. Software and Applications Developers
  4. Building Framers, Finishers, and Related Trades Workers
  5. Shop Salespersons
  6. Food Processing and Related Trades Workers
  7. Car, Van and Motorcycle Drivers
  8. Nursing Professionals
  9. Food and Beverage Serving Workers
  10. General and Operations Managers
  11. Social Work and Counselling Professionals
  12. Project Managers
  13. University and Higher Education Teachers
  14. Secondary Education Teachers
  15. Personal Care Aides

Care economy jobs, such as nursing professionals, social workers, counselors, and personal care aides, are also expected to grow significantly.

The Most In Demand Skills

As job roles transform, so do the skills required to perform them successfully.

The Future of Jobs Report finds that, on average, workers can expect 39% of their core skills to become outdated over the next five years.

However, this “skill instability” has slowed compared to the predictions in previous editions of the report, potentially due to increasing employee reskilling and upskilling rates.

Employers surveyed identified the following as the top skills workers will need in 2025 and beyond:

  • Analytical thinking
  • Resilience, flexibility, and agility
  • Leadership and social influence
  • AI and big data
  • Networks and cybersecurity
  • Technological literacy
  • Creative thinking
  • Curiosity and lifelong learning
  • Environmental stewardship
  • Systems thinking

Skills such as manual dexterity, endurance, precision, and basic skills such as reading, writing, and math are expected to be in less demand.

The report notes:

“Manual dexterity, endurance, and precision stand out with notable net declines in skills demand, with 24% of respondents foreseeing a decrease in their importance.”

Preparing The Workforce

The report highlights the need to upskill and reskill workers due to upcoming skill changes. Employers can upskill 29% of their staff and redeploy 19%, but 11% may not receive the necessary training.

The report states:

“If the world’s workforce was made up of 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030.”

To address these challenges, 85% of employers plan to focus on upskilling current workers, 70% will hire new staff with needed skills, and 50% aim to move workers from declining jobs to growing ones.

Saadia Zahidi, the Managing Director at the World Economic Forum, emphasized the need for collective action:

“The disruptions of recent years have underscored the importance of foresight and collective action. We hope this report will inspire an ambitious, multistakeholder agenda—one that equips workers, businesses, governments, educators, and civil society to navigate the complex transitions ahead.”

What Does This Mean?

The rise of AI and data-driven marketing is reshaping SEO roles.

Here’s what matters:

  1. SEO pros need AI basics. Understanding machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and analytics tools is becoming essential for managing automated systems and content optimization.
  2. While AI helps create content, success needs human insight. Focus on storytelling and brand strategy that connects with users and satisfies search intent.
  3. Better tools mean more data. Winners will be those who can turn metrics into effective campaigns and prove ROI.
  4. Privacy and data protection knowledge sets you apart. Expect more overlap with security teams.
  5. SEO isn’t solo work anymore. Success means working well with devs, AI teams, and product managers.

Bottom line: Blend AI and analytics skills with human creativity and strategy to stay competitive.

Featured Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Jan 8 2025
How To Get Buy-In From Stakeholders Using Overlooked Soft Skills

Getting buy-in for projects either at work, or from an organization can be difficult, but for SEO projects, it can be even more challenging as it is not always easy to tie the SEO work to results.

To improve buy-in, looking to soft skills outside of SEO can make the difference.

If we know our soft skills and and what our strengths are, then we can understand others and be able to communicate with them better. This then helps when we want to get buy-in for projects, including SEO.

In this article, we go through some key areas to address to help you get buy-in at your company such as communication and the ability to cultivate trust.

Soft Skills

We spend a lot of time improving our technical SEO or working on keyword research and reporting, especially getting up to speed with Google Analytics 4 (GA4), but how much time do we spend on improving our soft skills? Do we know what our strengths are?

When working in SEO and with the wider team, soft skills become important.

Soft skills, also called interpersonal skills, are non-technical and impact your performance not only at work but also in your personal life.

They include how to manage your time, communicate with others, resolve conflict, and listen to others, to name just a few.

The CliftonStrengths helps individuals focus on what they are naturally good at. It helps assess your soft skills, including how empathetic you are, which is a great leadership and team player skill.

Empathy

Tom Critchlow said getting buy-in requires executive empathy. He explained that “executive presence is the art of seeing the problem from someone else’s point of view.”

We need to make the stakeholders, such as the CEO or CFO, want to care about SEO and how it can help them achieve their goals and the broader business objectives.

Empathy is putting oneself in another person’s shoes and seeing it from their side. We should apply this not only to the main stakeholders but to the development team or design team and others who will become your biggest allies.

Trust

Empathy is a key part of the trust triangle, and it also includes authenticity and logic.

It takes a long time to build trust, and when it is lost, most of the time, it can be traced back to a breakdown of one of them.

Your colleagues and the key stakeholders will trust you when:

  • They feel you care about them, which is empathy.
  • They have faith in your competence, which is the logic (and why it is important to show results from SEO work clearly)
  • They believe they are interacting with the real you, which is authenticity.
Trust TriangleScreenshot from hbr.org/2020/05/begin-with-trust, November 2024

Reporting

If we want the stakeholders to allocate more budget next quarter or even next year to SEO, review the previous reports you and your team have worked on and have shared with them over the year.

What reports have they read? Which ones have they ignored?

Make sure that you get feedback monthly or at least quarterly on what reports the stakeholders find useful and which metrics they want to see more of in the future.

Nobody wants to see pages of reports – the stakeholders are busy people. You should focus on reporting on the most important KPIs to them.

Some people with minimal time to fully understand SEO (such as the CEO and CFO) may think organic traffic is a given, and less investment would not necessarily mean less traffic.

Therefore, it is always important to show what the SEO team did and provide clear results.

For example, tell them “we created the content strategy and built out the blog on X topics, and this created an uplift in traffic and revenue by X%”. Showing the direct impact of SEO helps justify the SEO team and their work.

KISS

KISS stands for Keep It Simple, Stupid. Although this framework is used mainly in the design space, it can also be applied to the wider business.

It has been used in many companies, like Apple with the iPhone. Keeping something focused and simple is difficult.

We can also apply the KISS principle to SEO and get buy-in by removing the jargon that comes with it – just focusing on what the impact will be.

For example, instead of saying that we have a lot of 404 status codes when products are out of stock, show the stakeholders that the product pages return an empty page. There is nothing on the page to keep the user there.

Show the traffic to some of these key product pages, and when they are out of stock, calculate how much revenue is lost.

KISS goes back to the reporting element. Keep the reports simple and show only what the stakeholders value as important. Don’t include tracking of hundreds of keywords if they are not driving clicks.

Focus on the main terms that generate clicks and impressions in Google Search Console. Use the events in GA4 to show how many conversions the site and the pages have generated.

Open Line Of Communication

Make sure you speak to the stakeholders throughout the year, not just when reports are due or when you need more budget.

Share with them news such as the Google updates or any positive impact from the SEO work that has meant revenue and conversions are up.

Google updates are still important to share whether your site has been affected. It is better for the stakeholders to find out about these updates from the SEO team than from the client services team or those who do not work in SEO.

Other key elements to share are some insights from conferences. What are some initiatives they have done that have been successful? Were some of these the same initiatives you wanted to implement, but there was resistance?

Is there a company newsletter you can feature, or is there a marketing newsletter you can contribute to? Share these with the stakeholders.

If you or the team write for any third-party sites, share these articles internally.

Alternatively, if there was a webinar the SEO team took part in that had a lot of views and likes, send this to the stakeholders.

Integrate SEO Within The Company

Make SEO everyone’s responsibility.

Highlight in the meetings or conversations with stakeholders that doing a site migration, changing the homepage of the site, or amending the content management system (CMS) is not just the work of the SEO team. It is the responsibility of the whole company.

For example, a site migration cannot be done on a Friday evening, or the homepage should not be drastically changed during sales periods.

SEO should never be seen as an add-on and should be an integrated part of the marketing strategy.

Unfortunately, in many organizations, the SEO strategy can be outside the product and outside the marketing strategy. Create allies within the marketing and product team. Show them how SEO impacts and affects their KPIs and how SEO can help improve them.

Creating allies comes back to working on your soft skills.

We can still have those “water cooler moments” or informal chats even if we are remote working. Ask them how their weekend was, what their hobbies are, do they have family nearby.

In these informal chats, you may also find out their pain points. What are they struggling with? How can SEO help them?

When you start building your KPIs together and helping one another, this builds teamwork outside of your immediate team and helps build more trust.

Competitor Analysis

Not many are happy when their direct competitors beat them in revenue and traffic.

Competitor or market analysis always helps to show some of what others are doing. We can see an estimate of the traffic, the paid ads they are running, and the terms they are ranking for using third-party tools.

However, context should not be underestimated. It may be that the drop in traffic and revenue you are experiencing on your site, is not just your site. Some industries may have seen a dip, while others have seen an increase.

For example, during COVID-19, travel and hospitality saw a drop, whereas Zoom and online applications and games saw their sales increase.

It is now becoming more difficult to track customers, due to AI. And this won’t get easier next year as the search landscape will continue to change. Therefore, always remember to include the context of the industry when reporting on how your site is performing.

Show what others are doing in the market, including new initiatives. This will help build and keep the trust of the key stakeholders.

Mastering Soft Skills In Securing SEO Buy-In

Soft skills should never be underestimated when trying to get buy-in for projects. Understand the needs of your stakeholders and the wider team.

Spend time building rapport with them and learning about their challenges and how SEO and their team can work together to achieve more than if each one worked independently.

However, if you find yourself in a position where nobody is paying attention to the SEO, plan to start testing different elements of what they want to change with the website, for example, changing the categories or changing the home page.

Use a tool such as SEO Testing that allows you to test different URLs; you can do split testing and time-based testing. When you have the data, present it to the stakeholders to show them the results.

SEO is an industry where it is hard to get buy-in and harder to get the budget approved. But work on your soft skills – empathy and trust – to build a team that believes in SEO and supports you 100%.

More resources:

Featured Image: Marciobnws/Shutterstock

Ecommerce MGMT 0 Comments
Oct 31 2024
Marketing & SEO Conference Value Is More Than Information via @sejournal, @rollerblader

If you’ve attended a marketing conference and felt like everything was below your knowledge level or that your questions weren’t answered, there’s a good reason for that.

Not everyone is advanced, and not everyone is a beginner.

National conferences ensure that the speakers cater to the majority of the group rather than specific individuals at higher and lower levels, with the exception of pre-show workshops and beginner-level tracks.

Pro-tip: Ask questions during the Q&A and at the show. The speaker can and will likely answer your advanced-level question and provide a solution. They do know the answers, but they may not present them because they are too advanced for the show, including on advanced tracks. If you don’t ask, you won’t get an answer. Don’t be afraid. It is literally why you are there and why they are on stage.

Information isn’t the only reason to go to a show. If you’re beginning your career, yes and absolutely. If you’re mid-level or advanced, there’s a lot more you will gain by going to conferences, even if it isn’t information. And that’s what this post is about.

The three headers are in a specific order, as one leads to the next.

One of the most valuable assets I gained from attending conferences is being able to get solutions in a matter of minutes or days, rather than researching for weeks and hoping to find answers.

Builds Your Network For Job And Income Security

The first and largest benefit of conferences is that you’ll build your network of peers. For marketers, this includes in-house professionals, agencies, and vendors.

When you build trust with these people, bonds are formed – and those bonds carry you through the rough times.

They also lead to increased compensation and new titles as opportunities become available at your own and at different companies.

One of my first conferences was around 2005 or 2006 at Commission Junction University (CJU). The rep there liked what I had to say, saw the information shared at two dinners and a networking event, and took note of it.

When I got back to my office in Washington DC, CJU offered me a job, either remote or in Santa Barbara. I stayed at my current company, but I still talk to a few people I met there, almost 20 years later.

Next was the Affiliate Summit West in 2006 at Bally’s in Las Vegas.

I already knew multiple industry people from a forum called ABestWeb.com, but the conference introduced us all at an unofficial event at the dueling piano bar – and I’m still working with some of these people today.

If I hadn’t gone, these specific people may not have promoted the affiliate programs we managed. Affiliates get pitched daily, and the in-person aspect makes a huge difference on who they work with and who they do not.

As an agency owner, if I hadn’t met the affiliates, merchants, solution providers, and competing agencies, they wouldn’t be sending my agency SEO, conversion, and affiliate management leads.

If I hadn’t gone to these two shows above, my career network would not have been built, and I would not have the access I have today, including writing for SEJ.

More importantly, when things go bad, the people in this group always help in any way they can. This includes sending contracts to each other, sharing job openings, or trying to take on new business so we can hire each other if the bond is strong.

Local Groups And Communities Lead To Better Marketing

National shows like Pubcon, Affiliate Summit, SMX, etc. lead me to meeting local groups like SEMPDX, the Duluth Chamber of Commerce and AimClear, DFWSEM, Houston’s marketing group, Raleigh Tech Triangle, among others – all of which have local annual shows and/or monthly meetups.

Being able to explore and speak at local groups gave me career opportunities and information I’d never have learned if speaking and attending national shows never happened.

Local Cultures And Customs

Engaging even just for a week lets me better target and market for local SEO, affiliate, and paid media.

By being a tourist, I got to know landmarks, what it is like to be at them, and most importantly, the ones that matter most to the locals as they are the ones answering my questions about what to do and why.

Their slang and recommendations help you speak their language and reference their communities using their own words vs. one person’s opinion.

Show Size Means Better Networking

When there are fewer people attending, you get more time to actually learn what others do.

There’s less of a feeling of rushing and hustling and more of a calm atmosphere in which to engage with each other.

These bonds are equally as strong as the long-term ones, and if the speakers and brands you want to meet are there, you get more time to actually say hi vs. a handshake.

This goes a long way with relationship building.

Less Expensive And More Networking

The cost of the local shows is a lot less than a national show because they’re less expensive to put on.

The quality of speakers and information is equal, if not better, and can be customized for the audience members.

I just presented in Portland and used examples of what to do based on the companies attending so they could leave with actionable items.

At Zenith in Duluth and Barbados SEO, you had some of the most sought-after SEO professionals in the world at a fraction of the normal cost, including Lily Ray, Michael Icon King, Aleyda Solis, Purna Virji, Andrew Shotland, and Cindy Krum.

I also got to meet new people and learn new things from like Isa Lavahun and Apurva Bose.

The cost of a ticket is a fraction of the national shows, but the speaker quality was the same (if not higher).

I mentioned the networking and bonds from these local shows above. Here’s one of many examples of how local shows lead to international relationships.

At a local State of Search conference, Arsen Rabinovich and I were both speaking and met for the first time. He invited me out for pizza (my favorite food), and we bonded.

A couple of years later, he forced me to sit at a blackjack table (I hate card games), and that was when I met the other players, who included Aleyda Solis (Spain), Dawn Anderson (England), Lily Ray (NYC).

If I hadn’t been at that State of Search, I wouldn’t have had the next opportunity (or that really good pizza), and each of these people has impacted my career and speaking at different points in time now.

Getting Answers To Difficult And Impossible Questions

Once the relationships were built and people trusted me, I found myself being invited to private communities hosted on custom URLs, on Facebook, etc.

This is where the most value came from, as I attended marketing conferences. These groups are carefully vetted, and where you can get detailed answers with actual data based on actual experience.

We all encounter situations we don’t have answers to and that we cannot ask publicly – whether it is an NDA or your company prohibits sharing problems outside of the organization.

These groups are where you can ask and share as much as you are able, and others will respond with what they did or how they solved the issue.

If nobody has solved the issue before, people in the groups often look for solutions or run tests on their own websites and platforms to see if they can replicate the problem and then fix it.

When I didn’t have a software solution for other channels, someone else in these groups did.

The added benefit of being in the private group is these people won’t say the actual issues they have with the products publicly, but they go into detail on what to avoid and the reasons why.

It helped me avoid pitfalls when my clients were about to invest in new tools and tech stacks.

One of the most valuable assets I gained from attending conferences is being able to get solutions in a matter of minutes or days, rather than researching for weeks and hoping to find answers.

If I didn’t go to the big ones and wasn’t invited to speak at them, I wouldn’t have met these local groups from around the country and the world.

If I didn’t attend those, I wouldn’t have been able to market as effectively locally which impacts both local and national marketing campaigns.

Most importantly, I wouldn’t have access to the communities and groups that help me solve problems.

Attending Conferences Helped Me Build Essential Relationships

Conferences, whether they’re marketing, human resources, IT, or even houseware and photography shows, have more value than a bit of information in a session.

It’s the network you build, the relationships you form, and the power they add to your career, financial, and mental well-being.

If I didn’t get out of my comfort zone and begin attending, speaking at, and in some cases exhibiting at these shows, life would be a lot harder.

I still have struggles just like everyone, but I have a network and community to help me through them, thanks to attending conferences.

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