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Google,
YouTube Face Potential Opposition
Dick Parsons, Time Warner CEO & Chairman, revealed in a British newspaper
that the company will continue to pursue copyright infringement complaints against
YouTube. This is the first potential pitfall for Google, who acquired YouTube
for $1.65 billion on Monday.
Ask
For And Get Mobile Search
Ask.com has unveiled its mobile search platform, which includes directions, maps,
images, and the ability to "skweeze" web pages down to mobile size.
Google
Hears Music So You Can See It
Those content deals Google inked with Warner Music Group and Sony BMG have been
quickly turned into a free, ad-supported content respository on Google Video...
Teens
Drop Buddies, Pick Up Social Networks
Emoticons are so 2003, according to a report released by Nielsen//NetRatings.
Over the last three years, the top sites among teens 12-17 have switched from
those offering instant messaging buddy icons to those sites offering assistance
with social networking profiles...
Coke
Drops Ball On Assassination PR Spin
That a labor union at a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Columbia was accusing the
company of hiring paramilitary groups to torture and assassinate union leaders
is just an interesting side note; the real story, as circulated by those in this
ecommerce industry, is how Coke turned the tides on its accusers with targeted
keyword public relations.
Yahoo
& Facebook Not Seeing Eye to Eye
Many industry insiders have speculated that Yahoo would waste no time in striking
a deal with Facebook on the heels of Monday's acquisition of YouTube by rival
Google. Negotiations between Yahoo and Facebook, however, appear to be losing
steam.
Yahoo!:
Yesterday’s News?
Google's prowess continues to rise at a feverish pace among Internet consumers
as well as in the realm of advertising. Meanwhile, Yahoo's future in search and
social networking remains in question.
Andrew
Beckman Talks SEM
There are things Search Ad Network will and won't do when it comes to search engine
marketing, but it's what the prospective client should do that will put them ahead
of the competition from the start.
Google
Adds Library, Expands Edu Offerings
Google took another step toward the company's stated goal of indexing the world's
information by adding the entire collection of public domain historical resources
from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
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10.13.06
SEO Job Interview: Ten Tips For Corporate SEO
 By
Mike Banks Valentine
Over the past year I've interviewed for a half dozen SEO jobs at substantial companies
where they've decided to stop out-sourcing and bring the SEO position in-house.
While I have not yet decided to take any of those jobs, I have noticed some things that may prove enlightening to anyone considering making the move to corporate SEO.
1) If contacted by a headhunter or recruiter attempting to "Qualify" you for the SEO position interview, be patient and realize that you'll often be explaining SEO to them as they may only have a passing understanding of SEO beyond the job description provided to them. The may have a short list of our industry buzzwords in front of them.
2) If the company interviewer or human resources director doesn't understand SEO and has that same list of SEO buzzwords in front of them - be patient as well. The reason they are hiring an SEO is because they need your expertise. Just realize it will be about personalities at that point and not about your qualifications. Discuss your SEO successes, point to client web sites and searches to show current positions for that client's keyword phrases.
3) If the company you'll be working for has a home page that is a flash movie which starts playing music immediately, includes the word "Enter" or has a 30 segment image slice, politely decline the interview. You'll never convince them that text is what gets them good search engine ranking. (Art, music, video, television or radio related sites rarely include transcripts of programs, song lyrics or text reviews and text is rare for the visual, audio and video creatives.)
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4) If a "site:company.com" query returns 12 pages on the SERPS, and they all include the same lame catch-phrase without keywords, make sure your job description includes "Content Development." PS: "Content Development" better be in every SEO job description.
5) If a site:company.com query returns 120,000 pages on the SERPS, and they all include the same lame catch-phrase without keywords, make sure your job decsription includes "Keyword Research." PS: "Keyword Research." better be in every SEO job description.
6) If the job description puts the SEO position in the Marketing Department, smile and apply. Marketing is where SEO belongs. Textual content as a sales tool is welcome and extensive use of real words as content is encouraged. The position title may be something odd that fits the company org charts like, "Director of Product Mgmt, Search."
7) If the job description puts the position in the IT department, look out! They'll expect an automated and programmatic solution to SEO. Automated keyword extraction tools, which take keywords from body text and insert them into Title Tags, may be in your future. You'll inevitably spend your time debugging scripts so they don't insert stop words into those tags, rather than actually writing effective tags or training content management staff to do so.
8) If you are asked if you have experience with one particular content management platform, run - unless you are certain their CMS platform allows for manual editing of Title tags, metadata, and embedded links in body text - and that system allows for CSS attributes that can be altered to support SEO concerns. Few companies will abandon legacy CMS systems because you tell them it won't work for SEO or that it will require complex workarounds to hack the proprietary in-house CMS database.
9) If asked, "Do you have experience with SEO in the field of "_____ (fill in the blank)" turn and leave the building, because they don't understand that experience with SEO is the same in every business except for differing industry buzzwords. If, on the other hand, you have a passion for the topic of the company web site, celebrate because you are going to love your job even more.
10) If the company asks if you have experience with any one particular reporting system for web site statistics and log file analytics, answer "Yes" because they all serve the same purpose, provide the same data, and export the same Excel or CSV reports. The only difference is the login username and passwords and internal navigation.
Hundreds of substantial companies are hiring in-house SEO and PPC managers to
do their search engine optimization as the position continues to prove its value
to corporate search rankings. I'm continuing to interview companies until I find
the right corporate SEO position for me. If you get that SEO job and any of my
observations here helped you in the interview, how about a link to my site from
your corporate home page?
About the Author:
Mike Banks Valentine operates SEOptimism, Offering
SEO training of in-house content managers as well as the Small
Business Ecommerce Tutorial and blogs about SEO at RealitySEO.com
where this article appears with live links to SMO stories, buttons, blog posts
and examples. |
