Building a successful SEO team isn’t just about finding the right people-it’s about knowing how to hire, manage, and motivate them to do their best work. In this episode of our podcast, we talk about the entire process: from the skills to look for when hiring to how to keep your team engaged and motivated over the long haul.
Managing an SEO team comes with its challenges, especially when you need to balance technical expertise with creative problem-solving. If you're just starting to build your team or you're looking for ways to improve your current setup, we cover the essential steps and strategies that can make a real difference.
Tune in for a practical, no-nonsense guide to creating a team that not only works well together but thrives in the fast-moving world of SEO.
Key Takeaways:
The episode focuses on a more approachable and relatable take on SEO, particularly aimed at freelancers and those starting SEO agencies, making the industry more accessible.
Fervil shares how building a team was crucial for his growth. Initially, he tried to manage everything solo but realized that having a team, especially a partner, was essential to avoid burnout and scale effectively.
Fervil advises that freelancers should hire when they have enough work and income to support a team. Hiring should align with the business's capacity, so it's important to first understand what tasks need help and when the time is right to scale.
When hiring an SEO VA, Fervil emphasizes that while technical skills are important, soft skills like reliability, trustworthiness, and adaptability are what really matter in the long run.
Fervil shares how his first hire went from a project-based arrangement to a full-time role as his business grew, highlighting the importance of evolving work structures as your business needs change.
Fervil stresses that while technical skills are important, being teachable and open to feedback is essential for success in SEO. Team members should be willing to learn and adapt, especially in a field that evolves quickly.
Although Fervil’s current focus isn’t hands-on training due to time constraints, he plans to create more structured training and resources in the future. His goal is to build an SEO learning platform to help beginners and support his growing team.
Fervil’s agency uses a department-based structure to manage SEO tasks (like content, technical SEO, and link building). Dividing responsibilities helps the team work more efficiently and maintain a high standard across different aspects of SEO.
If their agency deals with conflicts by promoting open communication and setting up guidelines early on. If disagreements arise, they encourage team members to address issues transparently, ensuring a collaborative work environment.
Fervil highlights the value of 1-on-1 meetings for aligning team members with the agency’s goals and understanding their personal aspirations. This helps guide their growth and ensures that the team is moving in the same direction.
Fervil emphasizes that growing a business involves more than just starting out. As you scale, you need to handle different verticals like PPC, content, SEO, and client management. It’s crucial to clearly define what you want before scaling and to understand that managing a team and distributing tasks becomes more complex as the business grows.
Fervil talks about how one “rotten apple” in the team can disrupt the entire group, highlighting the need for clear communication and well-defined team hierarchies. He stresses that as businesses expand, effective cross-communication within teams and between leaders becomes vital to keep everything running smoothly.