International SEO — Sebastien Edgar // Square, Inc

Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead at Square, discusses how to build and manage an enterprise SEO team. Hiring an SEO team is the right solution for any company looking to build and scale its SEO efforts. It can remove the expense of hiring an SEO agency and give you full control over your SEO, but there are instances where agencies can be leveraged by companies looking to build in-house SEO teams. Today, Sebastian talks about how to build an SEO team.
About the speaker

Sebastien Edgar

Square, Inc

is a little camera shy

Sebastian is Global SEO Lead at Square

Show Notes

  • 03:37
    How to assess your resources and assets before building an SEO team
    Factors to take into consideration include the companys size and where SEO sits in the company. The key is not being overly tactical as that can lead to missed team growth opportunities.
  • 08:55
    Internal vs external resources at the enterprise level
    It all depends on the company, but a blend of the two normally happens at this level. But, building an in-house team first, then adding external partners is the ideal way.
  • 14:49
    Leveraging agencies to build your SEO team
    When youre building an SEO team and youre not sure of whats needed, an agency can help with the recruiting. That way, in-house SEOs can focus on stakeholder management.
  • 18:21
    Skills and specializations within an SEO team
    Larger technical sites require SEO engineers. While marketing-specific sites may not require such a technical person, whats most important is figuring out what skills are needed beyond SEO.
  • 25:43
    Developing persons with a strong technical background vs a strong SEO background
    Its easier today for persons with a technical background, without SEO knowledge, to learn SEO. This is a result of the documentation and resources available on SEO knowledge.
  • 30:24
    The importance of good communication skills in SEOs
    In addition to being naturally ambitious and willing to always improve, SEOs must be communicators. No matter how skilled an SEO is, without the ability to communicate effectively, initiatives will fail.
  • 32:07
    The ideal SEO team structure
    While your internal team can be based in one location, you can hire an agency in another geographical location. This type of decentralized workforce gets more done as it takes advantage of multiple time zones.
  • 37:00
    The advantages of hiring in lower
    Hiring outside of the US can lower your costs and actually enable you to get more work done in a day. So, many tech companies are going to South America, Europe, etc, to take advantage of this.

Quotes

  • "When you're assessing your assets and resources, if you're way too tactical, you'll miss out on some potential future team growth opportunities." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "Is working in-house better than working externally? There isn't one thing that's better. That purely depends on you. You would have to make the decision for you." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "If you spend your entire career in-house, probably you should go into consulting. It's a fantastic experience. Likewise, if you spend your entire career consulting, probably go in-house." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "If you want to build your SEO team and you don't know what's needed, your priority should be, let's build this team inhouse, but let me leverage an agency to help me with this recruiting." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "For larger, scalable sites that are more technical, you want to hire people who are almost SEO engineers, like an SEO product manager." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "Maybe you're looking for someone with eight years of work experience, but they only have three years of SEO experience. That isnt problematic, especially if they've worked in digital marketing." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "Whats most important is figuring out the skills that you need beyond SEO. If someone can know a lot about SEO and not know how to use Excel, that might be a bit of a problem." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "It doesn't matter how much a person knows about SEO. If they're unable to communicate that precisely, in the right manner, you are not going to be successful 100%." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "If youre on the West Coast and you hire a team in Australia or the European market, the work never stops. But you're not asking anyone to do any extra hours." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

  • "It's expensive to hire in the US. And if you're a big tech company, you can hire for less money, but still provide a premium to people outside of the US. So, it becomes a win-win." -Sebastian Edgar, Global SEO Lead, Square

About the speaker

Sebastien Edgar

Square, Inc

is a little camera shy

Sebastian is Global SEO Lead at Square

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