Over in the link building search engine watch forum, a member asked a great question about managing a team of link builders and I was very excited to weigh in. But a couple of forum posts just isn’t enough content to cover all the really important keys to successfully managing a team of inviduals like link builders.
Link builders are, by nature, very different than most people. We tend to enjoy working by ourselves, follow random trails of information and suddenly wondering “how did I get to this site/ page?” Eric Ward has a great article called The Portrait of a Perfect Link Builder that really clued me into the fact that link development is something I need to be focused in. He writes:
As companies realize that content publicity and link building must be a core part of online marketing, rather than just the latest SEO fad, those same companies are faced with the challenge that there’s no consensus or body of research to help them pinpoint the person with the perfect skill set to do that job. Not only that, but the perfect skill set itself is open to great debate. Is link building a technical skill requiring programming or experience similar to on-page content/code optimization? Is link building more related to publicity and public relations, which would indicate the need for a different set of qualifications? And what would those qualifications be? Computer science degree? MBA? MSLS? Member of the PRSA? What about an MBA with a specialty in ecommerce? Can any of them do the job?
So, let’s assume that you have interviewed and hired a group of link builders that fit this description. What should you do next? Here are five keys to managing a team of link builders whether they have prior experience in SEO and link acquisition or not.
1. Train them thoroughly. Putting together a comprehensive overview of link building, what it means, and how to measure success will give your link builders a whole picture approach to link building that is truly invaluable. If you only tell them “this is how you submit to directories,” then you are severely limiting yourself. Tell them about content and how it builds links, social media and how it means more than just dropping links. Tell them about link popularity and visibility. Tell them about strategy, not just tasks.
2. Let them explore. Give your team the ability to learn more on their own. Provide resources that allow them to grow not just in link building, but in SEO in general. Give them the power to test their theories, to participate in forums, to explore a new tactic. Show them how to measure their work and gauge success.
3. Collaborate. Regular team meetings with brainstorm sessions, educational presentations, and group discussions will allow ideas to build themselves out and team members to grow as link builders. It also allows your team’s vision of link building to expand.
4. Keep learning yourself. Just like your team needs to grow, so does their management. Subscribe to forums, regular newsletters, and attend webinars. Pass along the information and invite your team to share the stuff they learn with you.
5. Give regular feedback. Establish what you want to measure/ evaluate and set up regular one-on-one meetings with your team to give them their feedback. Yes, this is a lot of time. If you have 20+ team members, establish mentors within your team. Pick 3-4 of your top most well-rounded link building team members and have them take on a couple of newer team members. Let them perform the evaluations and submit their feedback to you as well. This keeps you in the loop and it gives everyone insight into where they need to improve. Some possible points of evaluation that I listed out in the Search Engine Watch forum could include (and are certainly not limited to):
- How many submissions can they accomplish in an hour?
- How many submissions are declined due to not looking at the site guidelines?
- How often are they evaluating the quality of the sites that are being submitted to?
- What type of feedback are they giving the team regarding these sites?
- How often are they finding new sites to submit to?
- Are they finding more efficient ways to accomplish tasks?
- How much are they communicating to other team members about what they are seeing in these sites?
- What is the quality of that feedback?
- How quickly did they ramp up on the task?
- Are they training new team members on processes?
- Are they proactively getting more knowledgeable about their piece(s) on their own?
- Can they work with little supervision?
- Is their work returning positive results in both link popularity and keyword visibility?
When all of these pieces are in place, you will be able to establish regular check points and a team that is empowered to grow without constant hand-holding. A final piece of advice: listen to your team. What are they passionate about? Could their passions possibly lend themselves to a particular piece of link building that is yet to be explored? What do they hate about their job or role? What options can you provide them? Listening and then acting on that information will make your team appreciate you even more and allow you all a bit more space to grow and to work together more cohesively.
