SEO Manager Role & Skills (Explained by SEO Managers)

2 years ago 121
ARTICLE AD BOX

SEO is 1 of the astir multidisciplinary selling fields. It’s intertwined with galore different aspects: selling channels, product, and development. SEO managers are present to marque it each enactment similar a well-oiled instrumentality that aligns with the selling strategy and concern objectives.

But what does an SEO manager bash connected a regular basis? What are the astir important skills you request to go one? And however overmuch tin you expect to earn? We’ve got the answers.

I reached retired to immoderate of my Twitter and LinkedIn connections with SEO manager roles successful their respective bios. Huge acknowledgment to the pursuing SEOs who helped maine enactment this nonfiction together:

Let’s dive in.

What does an SEO manager bash connected a daily basis?

If you’re looking for a divers job, you deed the jackpot. When I collated the answers from the nonfiction contributors, I got a large database of tasks and activities. I recovered determination is an overarching sentiment that nary time looks the aforesaid erstwhile you’re an SEO manager.

The regular docket depends connected whether you’re an in-house worker moving for 1 institution lone oregon successful an bureau managing aggregate clients. For example, you tin mostly expect much tactical enactment in-house portion the bureau broadside has much meetings and strategy planning.

I divided the regular tasks into 4 categories to marque consciousness of it all. And we’re kicking it off with…

Management

Well, duh. SEO managers negociate things and people. In smaller companies, SEO managers are often successful complaint of the full SEO section and straight study to a CMO. In bigger selling teams, determination tin beryllium a caput of SEO successful between.

Management tin beryllium seen arsenic a vague term. So here’s an illustration database of managerial tasks that you tin expect successful this role:

  • Participating successful meetings with clients and squad members
  • Coordinating the team’s tasks, answering questions, and addressing problems
  • Taking attraction of squad education, training, and motivation
  • Working with stakeholders
  • Creating transportation decks for new, imaginable clients (if you’re successful an agency)

Strategy

An SEO strategy is a conflict program that guides each SEO-related efforts toward higher visibility successful hunt engines. As portion of the strategy, managers program assorted SEO campaigns and guarantee that they’re executed properly. SEO managers besides marque definite that each of these efforts are an integrated portion of the broader selling plan.

Tactics

Tactics are however you execute your strategy to beryllium successful. These are each the SEO techniques, hacks, efforts, activities, and each the different words you tin find successful the discourse of taking action.

It comes down to the information that you tin execute thousands of antithetic things arsenic an SEO. But mostly speaking, if an SEO manager gets progressive successful tactical tasks, those are usually the much precocious things that they tin apt bash amended than others successful their teams. Or they’re reviewing the enactment of others, e.g., contented plans, outlines, drafts, oregon projected method changes.

The scope of tactical enactment for SEO managers depends connected the resources disposable for the planned SEO work. If the manager has a tiny team, they’ll apt prosecute successful hands-on SEO enactment much often than idiosyncratic looking aft 10 SEO specialists.

Reporting

When I accidental reporting, astir of america volition apt archetypal subordinate it with the bully aged SEO study decks (or Google Data Studio dashboards if you’re fancier):

Slide containing summary and cardinal  information  of nexus  gathering  progress, arsenic  good   arsenic  database  of pages that had changes successful  referring domains

You usually make these erstwhile a period to study what has changed, improved, oregon got worse. That’s acold from being a regular task. But if you enactment successful an bureau with galore clients, the process of creating the archetypal study whitethorn arsenic good beryllium a predominant activity.

Then there’s advertisement hoc reporting. It’s not needfully astir reporting to clients oregon stakeholders. Rather, it’s astir reporting wrong your squad oregon checking the advancement for yourself. Two of the contributing SEO managers really mentioned checking reporting tools connected a daily basis.

In presumption of circumstantial reports, rank tracking was mentioned the most:

Followed by checking branded mentions crossed the web:

What are the astir important skills for an SEO manager?

This is the 2nd question I asked our contributors. Of course, coagulated SEO acquisition and skills are a given, truthful brushed skills were mentioned most. I bundled unneurotic immoderate of the answers and got the pursuing apical 5 skills an idiosyncratic needs to go a large SEO manager:

Communication skills

A unanimous victor that shouldn’t astonishment anyone. Many of the regular tasks mentioned supra revolve astir communication.

Here’s what connection skills mean in SEO:

  • Having the quality to convey analyzable SEO concepts utilizing elemental connection that adjacent non-SEOs understand
  • Assigning tasks successful a mode that everyone knows what they should beryllium doing and what the constituent of doing the tasks is
  • Being capable to stock feedback constructively
  • Being empathetic toward squad members
  • Possessing dialog skills and knowing however to “sell” the worth of SEO to stakeholders

Data-driven mindset and captious thinking

I wholly hold with Abby’s thoughts:

Having an affinity oregon astatine slightest an involvement successful information is important for immoderate selling role. 

This is particularly existent successful SEO. You can’t bash overmuch without knowing what information to look at, what it means, and what to marque of it. And that’s besides mostly related to captious thinking.

Based connected my ain acquisition of interviewing galore marketers, these are skills astir should enactment on. To beryllium a large SEO manager, you should cognize your mode astir Google Analytics, Search Console, an all-in-one SEO toolset similar Ahrefs, and past beryllium capable to create large SEO reports using information from these tools.

Curiosity and changeless learning

The basal principles of SEO person stayed the aforesaid implicit the years. But Google keeps everyone engaged with its algorithm updates and changes connected SERPs. Meanwhile, SEO tools support releasing caller features; also, astute SEOs are ever coming up with amended solutions to galore problems we’re facing.

And if this isn’t a bully capable selling constituent for the value of changeless learning and curiosity, we’ve got another: Your ideas volition neglect sometimes. There are nary guarantees successful SEO, and you’ll person ample opportunities to larn from your mistakes. And yes, failures successful your squad are portion of your responsibilities as well.

Time management, prioritization, and delegation skills

Even if you’re not a manager, you astir apt cognize what it’s similar to beryllium swamped with messages, deadlines, and never-ending meetings. That’s your accidental to make businesslike systems and marque consciousness of the chaos.

Not lone bash things get much chaotic arsenic you measurement up, but you’ll besides beryllium partially liable for different people’s chaos. However, you request to marque things enactment for you and not against you by managing clip well, prioritizing important tasks, and delegating enactment to others.

Technical skills

As an SEO practitioner, you whitethorn get distant with knowing conscionable the basics of method SEO if these are not your responsibilities. But immoderate SEO manager should spell beyond the basics, arsenic they’re often the ones approving method SEO changes and communicating with developers.

A basal HTML predisposition should not beryllium taken for granted astatine each SEO levels. In addition, here’s a illustration of much method skills that tin travel in handy:

How overmuch bash SEO managers make?

Finally—the wealth talk. It’s wide that you can’t go an SEO manager close aft you decorativeness your archetypal SEO course. It requires rather a batch of skills and experience, which are indicators of a lucrative job.

In the U.S., the average wage of SEO managers based connected respective occupation and HR databases is astir $75K. However, bully candidates tin expect astatine slightest $100K. (I came to this decision aft discussing with U.S.-based SEOs and reviewing galore occupation postings.) You could spell adjacent higher than that successful the astir fashionable technological hubs.

In the U.K., the average compensation seems to beryllium astir £40K (~$55K). SEO salaries successful the U.K. aren’t that charismatic (yet), truthful I tin lone promote you to inquire for much to alteration that. Of course, you should expect ample discrepancies betwixt London and the remainder of the country.

As this is simply a suitable occupation for 100% distant work, I’ve besides been keeping an oculus connected distant occupation postings. These jobs commencement astatine $40K but tin spell good implicit $100K too. The champion candidates tin get U.S. salaries careless of wherever they are successful the world.

Final thoughts

Being an SEO manager is simply a divers and absorbing job. However, we haven’t mentioned what comes aft that. In galore companies, SEO roles don’t spell beyond this level, but the decorativeness enactment tin beryllium a manager becoming the caput oregon manager of SEO.

Every SEO should broaden their horizons and absorption connected marketing successful general if they privation to ascent the vocation ladder—with being a CMO arsenic the extremity goal. So that’s a bonus accomplishment you should absorption connected (besides the apical 5 mentioned successful the article).

Again, acknowledgment to Abby, Sugan, John, and Axel for sharing their insights and experience.

Got immoderate questions? Ping maine on Twitter.