Onward Search

This Week in Search Marketing Staffing - 6/2/08

Posted on June 2, 2008 16:01 by Reilly O'Donnell
This week Jessica Bowman wrote another great article for Search Engine Land about Why You Need to Know SEO Basics, Even If You Outsource.  When outsourcing you need to make sure your account is being handled properly with your companies best interests in mind.  This is why Jessica stresses the importance and value of being able to effectively communicate and question the results and actions taken by the person handling your search marketing.  By gaining a strong grasp of SEO basics it will help you to not only communicate with the agency you are working with, but also be able to translate what they are saying to the members of your company.  Jessica suggest a number of options for building your SEO foundation including, bringing in an SEO consultant for training, going through courses at the SEMPO Institute, and reading books on SEO.

In the article Demand Revs Up for Search Marketers, the Dallas Morning News reports on the continuing growth of the search marketing industry.  In Dallas, the Dallas/Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association has doubled since October, and it’s president, Rob Garner, reports “the search engine marketing field is experiencing strong growth in employment opportunities.”  The article also looked to Onward’s VP of Staffing, Josh Gampel, who explained that many search engine marketers prefer to work on project based assignments as consultants because, “They're getting money, cool assignments, they want to have the challenge of getting something going and then move on."

Marketing Pilgrim’s SEM Scholarship Contest produced two articles I want to mention.

The first, The State of the SEO Industry Address, by Taylor Pratt, is a good summary of where the industry is and how it is being viewed.  Taylor uses his post to remind readers of what the industry stands for, adapting to the ever changing search engine algorithms in order to improve usability and increase conversions.  With all the posts about the death of SEO, Taylor calls for an end to the unnecessary attacks on each other to gain links and a move towards more discussions and debates.  He ends his piece with a call for more unity within the industry, and for the focus to return to understanding and dominating the search engines.

The second piece, by Melissa Fach, SEO, SEM, SMO - There Are Now All Essentially One Job and We Have More Responsibilities, is a good look at how these three separate legs of search marketing need to be combined to achieve the best results.  In addition to combining SEO, SEM, and SMO, Melissa makes a point of making ethics #1.  Ethics is the key to maintaining a good relationship with your clients, and in the long run will be the reason why they have a successful campaign.

That's it for this week in search marketing staffing, check back next week for another update.
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Comments

June 3. 2008 10:20

Thanks for the mention, Reilly, and I'm glad you enjoyed the article. I've been really frustrated lately seeing our industry get tarnished over and over again, and wanted to take a stand. I appreciate your support!

pratt

June 5. 2008 16:50

I read Jessica Bowman's article as well and it makes some great points. I've worked with clients that didn't invest in understanding the basics, or at least hiring an in-house staffer that did, and it greatly reduces their ability to make educated, business savvy choices about their online marketing efforts. It also helps you, as an externally contracted vendor, argue for or against particular SEO/PPC initiatives and make a case for your recommendations.

Great post!

Andrew Johns

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