Hiring an SEO Q&A

Hi Stoney, I saw your post on this topic, and so I thought you might be knowledgeable and perhaps have some advice for me on this.

In my business I focus on and provide honest and ethical Keyword Research, Organic SEO, Pay-Per-Click Marketing and Web Analytics services for my clients, and I’ve been able to attract and help and keep many great clients. I’m getting concerned that I don’t have the time available to engage fully and well with new clients (who are coming to me via client referrals) and continue to provide the same great work and customer service to my existing clients, and also continue to “bring them up the curve” to more advanced Internet Marketing methods and increased ROI and revenues for their business.

I work out of my home office in Seattle, and I currently outsource some work to a few people I really respect and trust – for link building, blog development, and advanced Web Analytics work.

But I’m at the point where I’d like to find a local or remote apprentice – someone I can teach who will evolve to be a partner in my business, or start their own business some day. I enjoy and succeed at finding and “closing” clients and providing great customer service to existing clients, so I mostly need someone “behind the scenes” that can do effective ethical Organic and PPC and regular client report generation work. I know what I have to offer the right person is an amazing opportunity, and I want to find the right person and make sure they give me some exclusivity and time commitment. I need someone I can trust with client information and someone who won’t “jump ship” after a few months. I know if they’re willing to be an apprentice to me in my business and learn and be mentored by me for some time that I will take them to a place where they will be very knowledgeable, have lots of clients, do very well and live a well-balanced life.

So on a lark after reading your post I thought you might have some advice for me on how I might efficiently and effectively find such a person. I don’t yet have a blog (or a site I’m proud of) for my business, so doing a post like yours isn’t a near-term option.

Your thoughts?

Denis

Hi Denis,

Well, finding good people for this business is one of the most difficult parts of running an SEO business. We’ve gone through our fair share of employees over the years and when you find a good one you really want to hold on to them. Being in Seattle I think that you’ll have an easier time finding a qualified person since you have a bigger pool than we do here in Reno.

We’ve been moderately successful placing job ads in regionalhelpwanted.com and craigslist. The key to the job ad is to find the TYPE of person you’re looking for. Most people don’t know squat about the job and you won’t get a lot of responses to an ad that mentions SEO (again, this is more true of us in Reno than in Seattle, I would guess). But if you look for a type of person who enjoys research, is good with computers, knows HTML and CSS, etc. etc. you’ll have a bigger pool of resumes to choose from. I’ve never had the luxury of hiring someone local that knows SEO so the type of person really matters.

[If you got your own questions that you’re willing to allow me to share on this blog, feel free to email me at stoney @ polepositionmarketing.com]