As hard as it is to assess ANY job candidate’s knowledge, it’s even harder with SEO candidates because there’s so much gray area in the industry. This blog series presents questions you can pose to help you determine a candidate’s level of knowledge.
How would you define a successful SEO campaign?
Every SEO defines success differently–and their definition may be different from yours. This question helps you make sure that you and the candidate are on the same page in determining what you will call a successful SEO campaign.
Here’s how I would answer:
A successful SEO campaign is one that helps the business grow. We can look at metrics all day long, but ultimately, those metrics are only as good as the business they help generate.
For the most part, I only use rankings as a barometer. Yeah, we want rankings because that’s exposure, but you get that exposure only by doing so many other things right, such as getting good click-thru rates, having good conversion rates, improving site usability, and increasing engagement on social media.
All of these things matter in SEO, but none of them matter if the business isn’t growing. So the bottom line is revenue and profit. If those two things are increasing without generating even a single top search engine ranking, then the SEO campaign can be considered a success.
(But you still want rankings.)