Managing an SEO team, whether in-house or agency-based, can be a daunting endeavor. However, if you want to be successful and stay ahead of the competition, paying close attention to the SEO team is crucial.
Monitoring and evaluating outcomes are essential components of any SEO strategy. Ensuring that your efforts yield the desired results is also vital.
In this comprehensive guide, we will reveal the secrets to effectively managing, structuring, and tracking the progress of your specialists.
Take action now and learn how to unlock their full potential!
What does effective SEO teamwork mean?
Well, it certainly won’t come as a surprise that there is no one-size-fits-all definition of an SEO team. Everything depends on the specifics of your company, industry, size, business maturity and other factors.
For example, a startup software house with fewer than 30 people will typically require a single specialist that possesses comprehensive knowledge and familiarity with the IT market in their startup structure.
A large advertising agency will need an entire SEO team composed of individuals with diverse skills that complement one another.
Nevertheless, there are a few commonalities that should always be considered, regardless of the team’s size, experience, or industry.
How to structure a marketing team for SEO activities?
As the digital landscape evolves, companies must have a well-organized marketing team focused on SEO efforts.
A successful SEO team possesses a diverse skill set and works closely with content writers, web developers, and designers. In some cases, partnering with a web development company can provide additional expertise, especially when integrating complex SEO strategies into website design and functionality.
Below, you will find a description of 6 key roles that should be present in a marketing team to achieve the best SEO results. It’s ideal if your organization can afford to have separate professionals fill each of these roles.
However, it’s not necessary – if you’re running a smaller business, one person can potentially cover all of these responsibilities.
What’s crucial is that your team addresses all the issues listed below.
SEO Team Lead
A vital component in the success of an SEO team is the presence of a skilled team lead.
Hiring a leader with extensive SEO knowledge can save a significant amount of time and resources. This person should be adept at determining goals for the team and be able to hire the right people to achieve those goals.
They should also have a deep understanding of all aspects of SEO, which will enable them to effectively manage and support all team members.
The primary responsibilities of such a person should include the following:
- Thoroughly preparing the SEO strategy and overarching goals for the team
- Representing the SEO team and facilitating seamless communication and cooperation across various departments
- Identifying high-priority projects and directing the team’s focus toward tasks that yield significant impacts
- Mentoring and assisting team members
- Establishing objectives and key results (OKRs) or key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess and enhance the team’s performance
- Actively participating in the recruitment of new team members and managing current employees using workforce management software
SEO Account Manager
An SEO account manager is instrumental in bridging the gap between clients and technical teams, ensuring the successful execution of SEO strategies.
This role requires a unique blend of technical understanding, project management, people skills, and a strong focus on sales.
Hiring an SEO account manager with these qualities can lead to seamless project delivery and satisfying client results.
The primary responsibilities of an SEO account manager include:
- Possessing a solid understanding of website development, digital marketing fundamentals, search engine algorithms, linking, and social media platforms’ impact on rankings. Social media platforms shape brand awareness and influence search engine rankings with over 5.04 billion users worldwide.
- Managing projects effectively by acting as a liaison between clients and technical teams, maintaining a smooth workflow, and meeting both parties’ expectations
- Analyzing the return on investment (ROI) and cost of sales to evaluate and optimize the SEO strategy’s effectiveness
- Building meaningful and lasting relationships with clients and colleagues, fostering a collaborative and productive work environment
- Staying updated on the latest SEO trends and industry developments, ensuring the team remains competitive and delivers the best possible results to clients
- Ensuring adequate representation of the company and maintaining open lines of communication, honesty, and integrity in all interactions
Technical SEO manager
A technical SEO manager is crucial for strategizing and executing technical SEO projects, ensuring they align with broader company objectives.
This person collaborates with various teams to optimize the technical aspects of the marketing efforts and has a deep understanding of website development and performance.
Hiring a skilled technical SEO manager can improve website performance and search engine rankings.
The primary responsibilities of a technical SEO manager include:
- Preparing and implementing search engine optimization strategies
- Managing both offsite and onsite optimization projects and reporting on their performance
- Coordinating with content, design, social media, and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing teams to optimize marketing efforts
- Conducting keyword research to guide content development, and optimizing website content, landing pages, and paid search copy
- Overseeing page speed optimization, “txt” and “rel canonical” strategies, sitemap implementation, and website code audits
- Possessing a familiarity with the technologies involved in website development, such as HTML, XML, or PHP
- Utilizing technical tools to monitor website performance and making recommendations for improvements
- Collecting data and reporting on traffic, rankings, and other SEO aspects, while staying updated on industry trends
Content SEO manager
A content SEO manager plays a pivotal role in developing and executing effective strategies for search engine optimization, with a focus on optimizing content across various platforms.
This individual leads the team of content experts and ensures the content is tailored to enhance search engine rankings, drive organic traffic, and ultimately contribute to the company’s growth.
The primary responsibilities of a content SEO manager include the following:
- Creating effective search engine optimization strategies
- Conducting extensive research to identify SEO-friendly keywords, creating content briefs, and guiding the content team
- Optimizing content on landing pages, blogs, and websites, ensuring the proper use of on-page elements
- Directing and coordinating content teams in off-page SEO tasks such as link-building, forum commenting, and other promotional activities
- Collaborating with the social media team to ensure the seamless integration of SEO efforts during marketing campaigns
- Developing an SEO content strategy that takes into account industry-specific knowledge, and leveraging tools for content optimization projects.
SEO analyst
An SEO analyst possesses strong analytical skills and monitors the success of the SEO efforts with the help of various tools.
Their primary objective is to drive organic traffic to the website and enhance its search engine rankings.
The key responsibilities of an SEO analyst include:
- Conducting thorough keyword research and implementing keywords effectively within the content to optimize search engine visibility
- Analyzing the content structure and optimizing it with appropriate keywords to enhance performance
- Applying both on-page and off-page SEO techniques and performing website audits to identify areas of improvement
- Generating quality backlinks for the content to improve search engine rankings
- Driving traffic to the website using effective SEO techniques and analyzing the quality of incoming traffic to ensure it aligns with business goals
- Utilizing guest posting and outreach emails to expand the online audience and improve website visibility can be further enhanced by configuring DMARC to ensure secure email communication and maintain a trustworthy online presence.
- Choosing and managing search engine optimization tools to support the execution of the SEO strategy
- Extracting and analyzing necessary data from different sources, presenting insights through reports and charts
Link building specialist
According to UppercutSEO, a link building specialist is an expert that creates valuable links from other websites to improve search engine ranking. A link building specialist is an expert that creates valuable links from other websites to improve search engine ranking.
Their primary objective is to expand the website’s reach by promoting its content and high-quality pages through numerous partnerships.
The key responsibilities of a link building specialist include:
- Developing and implementing link building strategies to enhance SEO and search engine rankings
- Identifying and acquiring backlink opportunities to increase website traffic
- Collaborating with other SEO and marketing team members to ensure consistency in online marketing efforts
- Interacting with external vendors to build backlinks and execute link building strategies
- Managing third-party service providers to contribute to the success of the SEO and digital marketing campaigns
- Conducting online research, interpreting, and utilizing data and results
- Discovering new link opportunities by conducting competitor backlink analysis
- Engaging with bloggers to generate interest in the brand and secure, reliable backlinks
- Building and maintaining a healthy backlink profile by tracking and monitoring links using backlink monitoring tools.
8 Tips to manage your SEO team effectively
Here are some actionable tips to help get the best out of your SEO team:
1. Define your goals
You need to establish clear, measurable, and ambitious goals to manage your SEO team effectively.
Start by understanding your company’s broader objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs), and make sure that your goals align with your marketing and business strategies.
Then, based on your allocated budget, determine the desired goals and return on investment (ROI) for your SEO initiatives.
For instance, if you invest $10,000 per month in link-building activities, you could aim for a 20% increase in organic website traffic. This could result in an additional 5,000 unique monthly visitors.
This increase could lead to more business-oriented results, such as an increase in new leads or the company’s income.
If you invest that $10,000 on SEO activity and the results show that the increase in revenue is $50,000, the return on investment is 400%.
2. Create an SEO plan
A crucial part of an effective SEO plan is creating a content plan. It outlines not only the titles of the articles but also the type of content you will make, how you will promote it, and the keywords you will target.
Your team can work towards creating valuable, high-quality content that resonates with the target audience and helps improve the website’s search engine ranking.
Moreover, it ensures your team is aligned and working towards the same goals.
To create a content plan, you should conduct thorough keyword research to identify the phrases your audience is searching for. Next, determine the types of content that will resonate with your audience, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, or podcasts.
Once you have identified the types of content, you can create a content calendar with topics, deadlines, responsibilities, and promotion plans.
To keep your team organized and efficient, you can use task management software like Trello, Asana, or ClickUp.
This will help you to organize and monitor content progress with boards for upcoming, in-progress, and finished content.
3. Determine SEO tasks and assign ownership
Once you have a specific plan, it’s crucial to determine specific tasks and delegate them to team members.
This step is essential to manage your team effectively, ensure accountability, track performance, and complete tasks on time.
To delegate tasks effectively, break down the project into smaller tasks and assign them to individual team members, setting realistic deadlines. Assign ownership based on each team member’s strengths and expertise, and ensure each member understands their roles and responsibilities.
Use project management tools such as Aha software, Trello, Infinity, etc. to keep track of assigned tasks and their progress.
These tools enable you to assign tasks to specific team members and track their progress, ensuring that the project is on track and all tasks are completed on time.
4. Schedule weekly SEO meetings
Regular communication is essential for any successful project, and SEO is no exception.
Scheduling regular meetings, whether weekly or daily, is a great way to keep everyone working towards the same goals and on the same page.
To make these meetings as effective as possible, it’s crucial to have an agenda covering various topics. It can include progress updates, upcoming tasks, issues or roadblocks, and new developments in the industry. Additionally, use meeting minutes software to record the conversation so you can access it later.
At the start of meetings, recap the previous week’s progress, review upcoming deadlines, and discuss industry developments to keep everyone informed. Encourage idea sharing and brainstorming for new strategies, promoting collaborative project planning efforts within your team.
Consider using the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle for continuous improvement in project management: set goals, execute plans, compare results, and adjust for better outcomes in future processes.
5. Encourage internal communication and knowledge sharing
Teams that engage in efficient workplace communication can see a boost of up to 25% in their productivity levels.
Communication is crucial for an SEO team to achieve success, and members should understand how their colleagues contribute to overall marketing efforts.
Promote knowledge sharing using a centralized platform like Google Drive, Confluence, or Slack to store and access critical files. This ensures up-to-date information, prevents miscommunication, and aids in onboarding new team members.
For remote teams, video meetings with a nice headshot are encouraged, as they help team members get to know each other better, promote collaboration, and eliminate communication gaps. You can also use certain phone systems that have conference calls, HD voice and video, and more.
Quick messaging platforms such as Slack and Microsoft Teams are excellent choices as they help people connect quickly and almost instantly.
There are also other less obvious options available for modern teams.
For teams directly involved in website work, a great option is SureFeedback. This is a website and design feedback tool that allows teams to collaborate and provide feedback directly on their website.
With SureFeedback, teams can comment on specific areas of a website, leave feedback, and track changes, making it easier to collaborate on website projects in real time.
6. Measure the results of your SEO team
Measuring results is crucial in determining whether the SEO strategy is effective and delivering the desired outcomes.
Therefore, you should define a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure your team’s progress.
The most important metrics to set and track KPIs include:
- Keyword ranking: A higher keyword ranking increases the likelihood of potential customers finding your website, leading to more traffic, leads, and sales. To monitor performance, you can use Keyword Ranking Tracker by SE Ranking. It allows you to monitor your website’s ranking for specific keywords, identify top-performing keywords, and gain valuable insights into your SEO performance.
- Organic traffic: Organic traffic shows search engines that you’re producing valuable content that addresses people’s needs. It also exposes your brand to a broader range of potential users, which ultimately leads to more traffic, higher SERP rankings, and steady brand growth over time. To check this metric, you can use Google Analytics and SE Ranking. Additionally, utilizing GA4 reporting can provide you with a deeper understanding of user behavior and website performance, allowing you to make data-driven decisions for further optimizing your content and attracting more organic traffic.
- The number of pages generating traffic: While traffic numbers and search engine rankings are essential, a lack of diversity of traffic sources can pose a potential problem. When all of your traffic comes from only a handful of sources, it is harder to assess the true success of your SEO efforts. Therefore, one of your team’s goals should be to increase the number of pages that generate traffic.
- The percentage increase in organic conversions: This metric helps evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing efforts in moving leads toward making the decision to purchase. When your conversion rates increase, search engines rank your website higher and recognize it as providing valuable information to visitors, which leads to more traffic and higher engagement rates.
By regularly measuring and reporting on these KPIs, you can determine whether your SEO efforts are delivering the desired results and adjust your strategy accordingly.
Remember, it can be improved if it can be measured, so it is essential to track your progress and make data driven decisions.
7. Give timely feedback
Giving timely feedback is crucial for the growth and development of your SEO team. This includes both positive and negative feedback.
Positive feedback can boost morale and motivate your team to keep up the excellent work.
Negative feedback can help your team members identify areas where they need to improve and develop their skills further.
Constructive criticism is a vital aspect of feedback, and it should be given in a manner that helps team members grow and improve. Most employees would be more productive if they felt that their efforts were being acknowledged and appreciated through regular feedback.
If an employee needs to work on something, you should be honest and provide constructive feedback to help them overcome their weaknesses.
Don’t shy away from giving negative feedback just because you like the person. Your team members deserve to hear the truth, and providing timely feedback will help them become better and stronger.
8. Provide your SEO team with the latest updates
To ensure that your SEO team is performing optimally, it is essential to keep them up to date with the latest trends and updates in the SEO industry.
SEO is a rapidly evolving field, with new techniques, algorithms, and best practices constantly emerging.
Integrating QR codes into marketing materials with QR code generators like Adobe QR code generator and BrandCrowd QR code generator, you can bridge the offline and online worlds. QR codes can lead users directly to specific landing pages, promotions, or contact information, enhancing the overall user experience. Ensure that the content linked through QR codes is optimized for search engines to maximize the impact of your SEO strategy.
Additionally, create a dedicated channel on your company communication platform where your team can share SEO-related news.
Moreover, ensure your team has access to the latest SEO tools and software to optimize their work.
These tools may include keyword research, link building, and analytics. Providing your team with the latest resources will help them stay ahead of the curve and deliver better results.
Keeping your team up to date with the latest industry trends and developments will improve their performance and increase their motivation and job satisfaction.
Investing in your team’s training and development will help it to work more effectively and deliver better results to your business.
Conclusion
Managing an SEO team effectively can be a challenging but rewarding experience.
By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a well-structured and productive SEO team that can outpace the competition on Google’s search results page.
With the right approach and strategies, your SEO team can deliver excellent results that contribute to the growth and success of the business. Good luck!
