What skills I need for a valuable SEO job

[BobGW]

Hello,

I want to get a valuable SEO job, something part time - 20 hours a week about, a top notch position - not an entry level $15/hour position. I'm in Boise Idaho.

Will you look at my credentials and let me know what additional skills I need to get a good position?:

I've been doing SEO since the mid 90s

A lot of experience with on-site optimization.

One to two years experience with quality content marketing and link building. I regular help write content that is fantastic and use buzzstream and Citation labs to push the content hard.

Two years experience writing content that is high quality.

six years doing ecommerce seo

moderate facebook and twitter experience. I've helped create many facebook pages, and I have moderate experience as to how to best post and optimize on facebook. I've been doing twitter for about a year and have recently learned how to use it to push content or to gain traffic. I know just enough google plus for authorship and building out an account.

Lots of experience with keyword research using keyword discovery and Google's tools.

A lot of web design experience, mainly html, css, a little javascript and a little php

I know my way around Adwords, and I've done about 10 large campaigns. My PCC experience is lacking I know

good writing and grammar skills for writing and developing content.

Graphical experience with photoshop, fireworks, Adobe Illustrator, of course also excel and word.

6 years of ecommerce customer service experience

A couple years of using Open Site Explorer including competitive analysis and link building

I may have left some things out. But that's most of it. What areas do I need to master more to get a great SEO job?

[EGOL]

I helped a guy with an auto glass website in a city not far from Scranton.

Almost immediately after the site went up they were getting most of their business from the website.  The SEO was easy because the competitors were few and naive.

[BobGW]

Good points. You're probably right that outsourcing or tutorials might cause confusion. I guess I'm left wondering if the ROI is there for an SEO to do a local campaign for this auto glass company. Maybe there's more traffic there than I'm thinking, but I'm not sure it would be worth it. One thing that we could do is get them to add content and do on-site SEO. That might be worth it.

I also don't have a big hand in social media. However, I have friends who get good returns with it, so I'm going to be looking at it as a possible way to improve what I do. Possibly.

Thanks EGOL! I learned a lot.

[EGOL]

I think that your first few paragraphs were a good response.  You identified this as a "local attack" and have a reasonable idea of how to do it.

We would need to talk about this.....

We either need to teach him how to do his own local SEO or find some super good cheap outsourcing. There's plenty of tutorials on the subject but he will need coaching if he's going to do it properly himself

As a company we might not want to send clients to cheap outsourcing or tutorials.  We might want to do that work properly ourselves rather than take the chance of the client or the outsource screwing up the job.

In the second half, you mentioned twitter and facebook.  I get a little uncomfortable there for two reasons... 1) will client be able to do this / does he want to do this / will he do it right; and more importantly, 2) is this something that will drive enough business to produce ROI or will it be a fire drill for the client and a place for people to complain rather than just call the office to seek resolution.

But, that is just me personally.  I don't find much value in social but maybe I don't know how to use it.

Two things that I would respect in a job applicant is a little caution about.... 1) is client able to do this well enough for us to put our name on his work... and 2) is this part of the job going to produce ROI.   I would want to look at some auto glass companies who are doing FB and twitter and see if we think it is worth the time.  If we find someone who is doing it well then we have something to learn.

[BobGW]

I hope you don't mind me taking a shot at this:

He's 100% local and in a town with 100,000 to 150,000 people with no real nearby big cities. So it's all about citations, consistent citations, with links built when adding citations as a plus. It's about real valid reviews from real customers. For each customer that is especially pleased, suggest that, if they want, they can go online and write a review of the auto glass shop. We need to be 100% white hat here. There's on-site SEO too, but the main thing that comes up in my mind is that he probably has a small budget. We either need to teach him how to do his own local SEO or find some super good cheap outsourcing. There's plenty of tutorials on the subject but he will need coaching if he's going to do it properly himself

We need to keep this really low budget. It's kind of a small town.

Sign up for Google Places/Google plus and fill it out completely. Follow a bunch of local companies. Optimize it for the keywords discussed below as best as possible.

Sign up for Google Analytics (connected to GWT) and analyze queries, landing pages, traffic every week as you do the below:

On-site SEO still applies - NAP matching all citations in all 4 pages of the footer. He really needs more content too, I can't imagine that he has enough content with those four pages. If it's in his budget, add some articles written by the owner (or whoever at the company can write and is a great authority) in a subject matter that fits with the site. Have him spend some good time making the articles fantastic. Spend a lot of time adding comprehensive, good articles around things like the options of getting a windshield replaced. Spend a little money on the images, and if possible, borrow a camera and make a video. Heck, make two videos, one for the home page and one for the first article to write. Add a detailed FAQ. Brainstorm what content they are both an authority in and is very useful to users searching for the shop. Do quick (cheap) competitive analysis - top content tab in OSE - as well as articles the competition is using to come up with the best articles, but they have to be written as an authority, and they have to be kickass better than what's already out there if they're on the same topic.

Maybe start a blog around customer's needs and windshield options, write all blog posts as an authority. Quality over quantity.

You have enough keywords to distribute among several pages:

Keyword Discovery indicates that the keywords to go after are

windshild + local

windshield replacement + local

auto glass + local

auto glass repair + local

and perhaps windshield repair + local

The home page title could be

Windshield Replacement, Auto Glass, Peoria, Illinois | Branding.

The remaining keywords could be carefully distributed across the service page and articles when appropriate. Add content to the homepage, about us, and service provided pages. Always let the auto glass shop owner know quality is way more important than quantity.

Normal on-site SEO applies - keywords in h1, content three or four times if possible, in alt tag. The logo alt tag should be "Windshield Peoria, Illinois"

Sign up for a facebook fan page and invite all the appropriate friends. Contact as many people as possible that might like your page. Post twice a week or so on facebook - 80% useful information, videos, quotes, pictures that fans will like (specific to the fans you actually have) and 20% promotions and education about your business. Part of the 20% will be posting links to the fantastic articles.

Sign up for twitter. Follow every business in Peoria, Illinois. Retweet all the best local tweets, tweet out to people and let them know their tweet or information was useful. Be honest. Then later tweet your own sales and promotions in small amounts. See if you can get engagements and build some partners, referrals, and relationships

When the client starts to return profit on the above, do some competitive analysis for him to find some easy backlinks.

Start a low budget PPC campaign and play with exact match keywords to see if you can build a profit there. Use conversion tracking.

Analyze carefully the following 4 google searches:

windshield  peoria

windshield replacement peoria

auto glass peoria

auto glass repair peoria

Other keywords might come out of the woodwork over time. Windshield repair is good but small.

All four searches are heavy on the local, which is not surprising. The goal at first would be to get on the first page - local results. The end goal is to be first for all 4 searches. By the way, I would suggest to the person doing the local SEO to use whitespark and a google spreadsheet for consistency among citations. Keep track of all usernames and passwords, comments, if citation is live, if citation included a link. Of course, for each citation, fill out everything thoroughly, even adding several pictures and your videos. Have different "About your company" texts ready to go, with different number of words. Use Roboform for speed.

Again, everything should be extremely low budget until we see the ROI of these terms. If that is done, then shoot for the long term ranking and traffic results and a profit.

[EGOL]

If I was hiring someone... I would be asking...

"Let's say a client comes in who owns an auto glass business in Peoria, Illinois.   He has a four page website that consists of "homepage"... "location"... "about us"...  "services provided".  Tell me exactly what you are going to do to bring him customers from the web."

I am going to sit there and keep my mouth shut until you either tell me exactly how you are going to make it rain for this guy or until I decide that the interview is over.

(If you were going to be working in my office I might be willing to hire a person who needs a little coaching.  But since you are going to be working out there where teaching you stuff and watching what you are doing is more time consuming and difficult, you need to be a complete package before I hire you.....  I would also want you working a schedule that I determine.  You need to be ready and available at our convenience - that means you are at the computer at 6:00 AM because we are in the eastern timezone and start at 8:00.

[Jonathan1979]

It sounds like you want something awesome, not some random seo position.

Well for this, I would look for some excellent technical skills.  In an interview or from your portfolio (i.e you blog) to show a high degree of discussion on how seo has changed, what you think for the future, and demonstrate a clean white hat top quality link profile for your example sites.  Be able to talk about why you have done things the way you have.

I would also look for someone who has that buzz about them.  I.e. you have some top quality technical articles on your own blog, you are active on SEO sites like Moz, and have a strong social following.

Now you say you only want part time work,... so the requirements may not be quite as harsh as I mentioned.  Essentially, I wouldn't want a CV saying what you can do, I want real examples of what you have done \ are doing.  Run a successful blog?  Excellent!.  I would also want to know about your experience in the employed SEO world (diy affiliate sites \ self employed client sites are different to employed work in a sense that you have more restrictions \ accountability \ procedural rules to follow).

Once you have all that prepared, and a CV tailored to the firm you are applying for (do your research i.e. if the firm does alot of local business seo, focus on local seo experience (Google places, and all the other stuff).  Practice your interview techniques, including problem solving scenerios that might be put to you.  How can you benefit the firm? SEO is always changing... you need to show you are up to date and relevant.

Now before you worry, you seem to have the basis to show all of this with your experience.  You are able to showcase particular expertise in profitable seo areas (ecommerce), you are up to date by being active on Moz etc.  Speak to your strengths, and have projects and the knowledge to back it all up.

[KevinBudzynski]

Bob, sounds like you have some great skills! I see you in the forum on a regular basis, so #1 is passion for seo and it looks like you have it!

One thing I always look for (that is not covered above that i'm sure you have) is great organizational/problem solving/analysis skills (although you did cover competitor analysis). Specifically know your way around excel and be able to implement solutions based on what you find in your analysis. Good luck.