Building an In-House SEO Team - Positions


Building an in-house SEO team from scratch is an important and delicate process that should never be rushed. As part of our Digital Marketing Recruitment Guide, we've invited some great industry minds to share their expert knowledge and explain what calibre of employee you'll be looking for in order to fill specific positions.

In this section Matt Janaway, a seasoned digital marketer who regularly contributes to the largest SEO websites on the planet, gives his insight into the different positions and working structures within an in-house SEO team. Matt touches on various positions such as paid marketing specialists and social media managers, where these roles fit in when you're building a digital marketing team from scratch and the exact kind of person you'll want as part of your in-house SEO team.

Your recruitment policy depends on your budget but if you are lucky enough to be in a position where you can build an in-house digital marketing team from scratch then you might benefit from checking out our guide.

The Strategist

Often referred to as "Head of Digital", "Head of eCommerce" or "Head of Search". This is the role that often matters the most. The holder of this position is the brains of the operation and should be integral to the results. This position should be incredibly important to the company so the ideal person for this Head of Digital role will have a wealth of digital experience and not only be a Jack-of-all-trades but a master-of-all-trades.

The Paid Marketing Specialist

PPC and Adwords spend has grown exponentially over the last few years since Google released a variety of Panda and Penguin algorithm updates. Paid marketing has the added advantage of not relying on ludicrous levels of knowledge about PageRank, trust, content and outreach. Ideally this position should be filled by a Google Adwords certified specialist who is analytical and reactive.

The Content Creator

Behind every digital team should be a good writer. Without somebody who literally breathes words, your marketing strategy could fall apart. The copywriter is the foundations of the structure and - it goes without saying - has have superior written skills. You won't often catch a copywriter working in Excel!

The Link Builder

Links are the currency of the web. Without a good quality link builder things don't get any better and increasing the visitor levels is nigh-on-impossible. A link is a link, right? No, not even close. Hundreds of metrics go into a decent link and generally, the better the link - the harder it is to attain. Assuming that "a link is a link" could do more damage than good.

The Social Media Manager

The dream job for somebody who loves gossip and chatter. All you have to do is interact, be creative and think of fun things to get involved with. Confidence is a must.

The Email Marketer

Contrary to a growing belief within the digital world, email marketing can still generate big money. Email marketing is digital marketing in its most classic form. The email marketer loves proving that emails aren't dead at every opportunity they get.

The Technician

If the copywriter breathes words, the technician breathes HTML code and enjoys nothing more than keeping an XML sitemap company at lunch time. If you have a web related problem, the technician should be the first person you call.

The Candidate… Matt sets the record straight on a few incorrect industry assumptions such as writing off the power of email marketing and the implied simplicity of link building. These tips and person specifications should provide some solid foundations when looking to build your in-house SEO team and enable the recruitment process to be a lot more focussed and beneficial to the business.

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