The success of any department head relies heavily on their ability to build and lead their team effectively. From my own experience, I recommend that as the leader of a client-side search team, you should follow these steps to make sure you and your team achieve great results.
1. Recruit talented people in your team
Hiring is important, people can make or break a team, they create a culture and they determine whether your projects or campaigns are going to succeed or fail. Strongly recommend that you only use SEO specialist recruitment agencies like Lipton Fleming that can help you hunt talented SEO specialists. Here are few key skills / characteristics that you should look for to hunt talent;
- Candidate must be passionate about SEO
- Technically very strong –
- Have excellent analytics experience.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Very active in SEO with active blog, twitter and also good at learning new things.
- Very well updated on new trends, issues and tools available within the market.
2. Empower the team with advanced tools available in the market.
– Equip your team with advanced tools and technologies so then they can deliver high performance and results.
3. Minimise the manual work of your team
and let them spend their time in more strategic work. – If you recruit highly talented people but they spend most of time in managing their work manually, it will waste their highly valuable time and devalue your output. For Example: if your team spends 3 days in manually writing the reports or running keyword research, you are definitely not using the team correctly.
4. It’s not you who does the SEO but rest of teams
– As a head of the team or part of the SEO team, you should know that it’s not you who fully implement the SEO but various other teams. For Example Editorial, Web design & development, Product owners, graphic designers etc. they all play key role in the success of SEO. So it’s really important that you work closely with these teams and make sure they understand your requirements well.
5. Pose nose in everyone’s job
– As its not you who does the SEO but various other teams, so it’s important for you & your team to get involved in everyone’s job to remain well updated on what is happening within those teams e.g. future plans & products and changes that may make huge impact on your work.
6. Continue Developing your team.
Do send your team to relevant seminars and courses to make sure they remain updated on latest trends, techniques, issues and tools.
7. Know key stakeholders
– Your team must know the key contacts within the organisations especially in larger organisations, its essential for your team to know who they should contact for specific information.
8. Share with other teams
– You must encourage your team to make sure they share best practices, great performances & results with teams, which contribute in SEO. The more you share or educate these teams, more they will be effective for your SEO efforts.
9. Your team have very good understanding of technology your organisation uses
– Make sure your team Individuals have very good understanding of technology that your organisation uses. Technology has great impact on SEO so the team must master this technology and must know how they can use this to enhance the performance of your website in search engines.
10. Appreciate other teams & individuals who contribute
in SEO performance – You or your team must send appreciate emails to individuals or teams for the contribution in the performance of SEO.
In conclusion, leading a client-side search team successfully hinges on more than just having a strategy—it’s about fostering a dynamic and effective team. By carefully recruiting talented individuals, equipping them with the right tools, and minimising manual tasks, you set the stage for high performance. Remember, SEO isn’t a one-person show; it’s a collaborative effort involving various teams and stakeholders. Keep communication lines open, stay updated on industry trends, and ensure your team is continually learning and adapting.
