I’ve been in the fortunate situation lately where Mediaedge:cia Manchester has been recruiting a number of SEO’s lately. On the back of this, we thought it best to formalise the training for each new-starter in order to aid the induction process and provide additional training. This way we can ensure that each SEO is provided with a consistent foundation of SEO – with more complex/subjective areas open for debate of course – and thus build the team’s capabilities on the back of this.
I know the term ‘best practice’ get’s flung about a fair bit online, sometimes in a way that disregards the idea that SEO is more of an art than a science...but really, the idea of providing a foundation for SEO development across the team can be designed.
All-in-all, if we compete in some of the most competitive niches then we need to acknowledge that the training, development and ambition of our SEO teams should be at the forefront of what we do. Hence, in my case, the recent launch of the MEC SEO Academy!
I’ve previously covered-off, what I think about SEO accreditation, but SEO training is another kettle of dogs. So, what does my ideal SEO training scheme look like
Daily SEO Reading
Who’s going to argue with me on this one? SEO seems to span far and wide, and is growing in reach it seems year-on-year. More departments of marketing and business are getting involved than ever before, and as such this requires a daily-fix of what’s happening in the news, and where new opportunities might be blooming for clients. With this in mind, I’d suggest that each and every SEO is actively encouraged to keep abreast of their reading.
SEO Mentor
This is one of my favourite areas of a training scheme – the idea that another member of staff (maybe not necessarily the line-manager) takes responsibility for another SEO’s professional development.
That mentor ensures that the right conversations and exposure to SEO occurs, ideally in a way that everyone in the team is empowered to promote the development of their other team mates. The aim of this is to provide longevity beyond the scheme itself and provide and impetus to keep each team member learning.
Provision of their own website
Nothing like keeping up appearances is there?! With their own website, each new starter can create a social media profile – helping them to integrate in to this excellent SEO community, and of course potentially raise the profile of the agency they work for. If they’re unfamiliar with CMS platforms, managing websites or simply wanting a testing-bed for then there’s nothing better than having your own websites (rather than a clients to test on!). This all comes at minimal cost too – just the price of a domain, hosting and some time to develop the site.
Developing a website in a niche helps them to see the true value of social media too. In doing this, they can learn firsthand the importance of adding value to an online community for true social media marketing.
The training would also bring in a level of conversation and reporting, giving each member of the SEO team a chance to show-off the improving performance of their website in that niche too. This might be where they’ve run some linkbait, built their subscriber-base, or improved behaviour / interaction factors with the site...
Training Content
Oh yeah, and that all important thing – the content of the actual SEO training. Needless to say, this needs to be absolutely top-notch, designed around the SEO basics and current hot topics / new technologies. Naturally, it needs to cover-off the SEO process, as it is carried out by the current team, but it should leave an open door for suggestions to better the process further – immediately valuing the input of the new team member and increasing the chances of buy-in.
The content of the training can be as broad as you like. For instance we’ve covered-off items that stretch into other digital marketing specialisms, in addition to offline-marketing inductions. I can’t provide any suggestions here other than design a programme to professionally develop your staff in ways to meet your business goals.
Document Progress
Each SEO mentor is empowered to encourage the development, but so too are they to help document / evidence this development. This might be some sort of checklist to ensure thye have covered as many technical facets of SEO, presenting complex issues, or even attending SEO events. The SEO mentor could then be charged with helping the trainee document their progress and highlight with clarity their development - making the whole progress something to be proud of.
SEO ‘Watchtower’
On the back of the induction period, let’s say 3 months, the SEO would choose a specialism (if they didn’t have one already). There are plenty of reasons for this, but one of the most convincing is simply to share the eyes and ears on the ground. This way each SEO needn’t be expected to know absolutely every single thing that is happening around them. Thus, providing the opportunity to wheel-out the specialist in that area for clients.
Presenting SEO
It’s one of those things that people love or hate. Delivering a presentation is not typically needed across all levels of SEO, but what is required is the ability to clearly and articulately communicate SEO, search technologies, tools, approaches and its fit into other areas of marketing.
If each member of the SEO team is encouraged to present internally on a regular basis, then it offers the opportunity to train on a deeper level – capitalising on the knowledge gained by each SEO’s area of specialist interest.
Training and Development Outputs
What do you want to achieve from the training? Naturally the best training scheme can only be the best if it achieves what it aims to. Looking for specialists – then how does this scheme funnel those people down different areas of SEO? Wanting to see their interest grow – how does this training scheme prompt (as close as possible to) scientific enquiry for instance? Do you require client-facing SEO’s, then how do you develop them across your team...inter-team training, company-wide training, shadowing client meetings? I haven’t made my desired outputs clear in this case, but it’s often effective to work-out what you require as outputs from staff, and then work backwards to decide on how best you can get there.
And of course, any SEO training must be driven by a passion to share knowledge and the passion itself to compete online amongst the best there is...how can you communicate this in the training scheme?
Benefits of a SEO Training Scheme
Just a few of the benefits include the reassurance that all members of the team have shared the same foundation of training. Training of a relatively subjective art form can of course generate debate too – great for developing people’s inquisitive and analytical mindset around the approach to each SEO process.
And, most importantly, a huge benefit of the MEC SEO Academy is that it has prompted me to write about a great topic on the wonderful SEO Scoop.
Anyway, there are lots you can do regarding SEO training, but what would your perfect training scheme look like?
About Ben McKay
Ben McKay is a SEO Manager at Mediaedge:cia, and a Manchester SEO blogger and writer for greensplash web design. Say hello to Ben on Twitter.