Everyone who has worked in a team environment has experienced the group of people that seems to jive so well and simply get things done. While there are certain skills that must be had in any team no matter the industry—like project management for instance—in SEO there are four who can take a team further quicker than if one were missing. Let me lead the explanation of these essential personalities by mentioning, while each person may be better or more skilled in their specific genre of SEO, the best team is one where each member has a fair grasp of all four approaches.
Technical SEO
First are our technical junkies. Understanding the technical implications in search engine optimization are essential. While every SEO should have a sound knowledge in HTML and CSS, having a specialist who can walk a client through the quickest implementation of structural changes to a website, no matter the CMS or server, can really benefit a campaign.
It is also often the technical eye that catches elements both structural and on-page that can have a dramatic effect on a campaign’s progress.
These are the specialists who have a strong grasp of server languages (PHP and ASP), all common content management systems, shopping cart platforms and how search engines interact with a web page.
Typical degrees that breed a technical SEO are:
- Information Systems
- Computer Science
- Digital Media
Creative SEO
Second are the outside-of-the-box personalities. These gems are great at envisioning how a campaign can not only serve organic marketing purposes, but can cohesively work with public relations, social media, B2B and other marketing fronts for a business to get the best bang for its buck. This foresight is also amazing for branding purposes.
The best SEO is backed by an amazing content marketing strategy. Whether that content consists of link-bait (contests, infographics, etc.), tools or plain old copy, a creatively strong SEO will assist in devising a campaign to create a genuine voice and attract a major audience.
Typical degrees a creative SEO will have include:
- Journalism
- Public Relations
- Web Design
Link Acquisition SEO
Link building is nearly an every day function for any SEO, but there are certainly those individuals who just seem to have a knack for it. Typically, they know their way around a spreadsheet, have discovered the best and quickest ways of aggregating data, know how to exploit needs and build quality relationships. Last but not least, they work hard.
Link building is not easy. It takes a lot of work, a lot of patience and a pinch of genius. While you have your creative SEO drumming up the best content strategy, the link-building specialist is going above and beyond in direct outreach—utilizing business partnerships, fans and followers, geographic implications and competitive analysis to acquire top-of-the-line links.
The link-acquisition SEO most commonly comes from:
- Marketing
- Business Management
Analytical SEO
Finally, the analysis addict. Turning web analytics into actionable information is key to any SEO campaign.
A statistics and data-driven SEO is one who understands how to interpret information. They are keen on processing cause-and-effect theories quickly and have no problem manipulating data sets in the analytics suite or on a spreadsheet.
This specialty is helpful when looking to prove the benefit of a campaign. Consistently tracking and evaluating a campaign’s reach keeps an SEO team shining to its clients when things are going well and responsive when things need to improve.
Typical degrees analytical SEOs have include:
- Statistics (of course)
- Computer Science
- Marketing
Nice article… pretty much spot on. Although, in my head, I see these archetypes as overlapping as in a Venn Diagram and not discrete skillsets.
2 glitches:
- the URL says “3-seo-personalities”
- wanted to reference you via Twitter and the social networking buttons refer to the profile page and not the social network profiles (@pvandyke refers to a Peter Van Dyke in LA)
enjoyed the article – my analytical SEO brain noticed the bugs
Cheers!
Thanks for the glitch notes. Updated URL and redirected old. As for the Twitter reference you can find me at @PrestonVanDyke.
I love this! So often I think ‘marketing freelancers’ get caught up in the ‘technical’ side, and often forget the others. Technical is important, but it’s these other elements that make a campaign effective and return a positive ROI.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not perfect! I was more on the technical side when I started (not SEO, video actually), but I HAD to learn the creative & analytical sides of my field to make it. I’d be out of business now if I just stuck with technical!
Creative it getting more and more important. A year ago that Miss Creative SEO wouldn’t really have a job.. today she is in demand!
The Techinical and the Cretive resonate with my own practice. This post also gives me a sense of what I still need to develop. Very cool.
Susan, Will & Dustin, I agree.
SEO used to be viewed as a completely exterior approach that didn’t interact with other marketing avenues throughout the business. And for the most part that perspective was true.
But as the search engine algorithms evolve the idea that SEO is not a key part of all other marketing fronts online is no more.
The creative personality in SEO is one who can be leaned on to envision that integration and execute it well.
This is awesome! It reminds me of The Color Code personality test. Maybe we should create a test that shows us what our “color” is so we can play to our strengths and improve upon our weak areas:)
Ha ha. Love the idea Boyd. Let’s do it.
Loved the article Preston. I think it’s easy to get bogged down on the technical aspects of SEO. Mainly because it is a “learned” process, unlike the creative side that requires a touch of “magic”.