Jeremy Any advice on hiring an SEOVirtual Assistant (VA) We have 3 other VAs for past 4 years but have never hired an SEOVA. I have 9+ yrs Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experience. 22 👍🏽2239 💬🗨📰👈
Bagani Depends on what "SEO Va" means to you. A lot of company underpays and hires for an SEOVirtual Assistant (VA) but hoping and looking for an SEO Expert. As someone that was a web developer, turned SEOVA and now having years of experience as an SEO manager, my skills as SEO VA back the is puny to now. Mungkin jika Anda bekerja terutama dengan WordPress, seseorang dengan WordPress dan web master exp adalah nilai tambah. Riset dan pelaporan kata kunci adalah dasar-dasarnya. But any VA should be trainable to do SEO work (keyword research, onpage, publishing, link building) if you can train or have someone to train.
Justin » Bagani Exactly this, people expect to be hiring a SEO expert. Keep in mind they are just a VA. Well you get a couple expert SEO VA's here and there but expect to be holding their hands in the first couple of weeks. 👍🏽2 Chaoui I consider myself as an SEOVA. I would say find someone who is nterested in SEO and fast learner and train them to do whatever necessary tasks you want them to do regularly. It's an investment, but surely gonna pay off in the long run. 👍🏽1 Jeremy ✍️ » Bagani Absolutely. I'm building out the training over the next 6weeks and realize there will be a lot of work in the beginning to ensure they are up and running. I used to do Search Engine Optimization (SEO) back when senuke was popular lol. Anyways thanks for the feedback
Shadab What's the job description?
Jeremy ✍️ » Shadab It won't be published for a few more weeks. I want to make sure more things are setup and planned before sending out there. One of reasons for this post asking people 🙂
Rienzi Hey, Jeremy. Are you looking for one online & remoltely? If so, here are some thoughts: 1. Routine work at the beginning and then either train them or give them next level task to gauge their skill-set. I Started this way 13 years ago. 2. There's a sweet spot between the right rate and the right-minded people. I'd work with someone who has clear goals of becoming better at it- not just a General Virtual Assistant (VA) who happens to know Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and a bunch of other stuff in their 3 years of experience. 3. Hire a Filipino – A bit biased, yes. But mainly because we are work-oriented (mostly) rather than money-oriented. I remember Steven Kang has a Filipino writer who's actually a Doctor by profession. Hope this helps.
Jeremy ✍️ » Rienzi Thank you. Yes we have two great teammates from the Philippines and I'm very happy with their work ethic. Kathy » Rienzi I've been trying to find a VA in the Philippines. Know anyone? I want someone with experience or training in marketing. I can teach the SEO. Jeremy ✍️ » Kathy Have you checked out onlinejobs.ph? Kathy » Jeremy I tried that 3 times. I hired 2 the first time and they both turned out to be disasters. One hardly ever showed up. Turned out she was living in the country and internet was bad. The other was my dream employee, but we never really got started before he was hit with a family emergency. Or so he said. He never came back, so I suspect he had a better offer. The next 2 rounds, I just couldn't find anyone. Then I tried FREEUP. They find "qualified" people for you. One guy looked great. His result charts were amazing. I thought for sure I found a good one, but in our interview I asked him to share his biggest SEO win. He said he got a landscaper client to rank #1 in the entire U.S. for "new lawns and snow shoveling." And if anyone doesn't know why that's a problem, then they shouldn't be in this group. And that's part of the reason I want someone with marketing experience. You have to know who your market is and what they care about if you're going to be a good SEO. The good news is I got a really great test question for my next job applicants: "Why or why not is ranking a landscaper #1 in the entire U.S. for "new lawns and snow shoveling" a good thing? 🙂 🤭3 Rienzi » Kathy Just keep digging, they say. I have a client for 2 years now that found me in olj. Jeremy ✍️ » Kathy I found a good way to start the recruiting process is to have a "hidden" word in the job description and ask them to use that as the first word in their reply if interested. Even though it could remove a good candidate, it quickly removes people who aren't detail oriented. Then I give them a test for example upload these 3 testimonial plugins to your own domain (or one of my mine I rarely use if they don't have one), then run several speed tests on those 3 test pages and give me the results. It weeds out the people not willing to do it and aren't that interested in the position. Also tests them on things like basic experience, being detail oriented, etc. I also pay more at the start than the normal person so they are more motivated then give a raise after 3-6mo depending on different factors. Hope that helps. Rienzi » Jeremy I usually ask for a video recording of themselves. Weeds out templates & those who don't understand the assignment. Kathy » Jeremy Cool ideas. Kathy Rienzi, it seems that everyone in the Philippines wants to start, or have already started an agency. I tried that at first, but the quality of the work was horrible, and the project manager worse. He was spinning too many plates and couldn't keep a good eye on any of them. Actually I got caught into that twice and the same thing happened. What's worse is they try to hide it and lead me to believe they are doing the work. So they may pass your test and interview great, but it's not them doing the work! I'm going to do what Jeremy suggests and get them to take my test on video or live. And I'll be upfront now and say right away that I want a team member, not an agency, but can you give me any insight into what's going on here? I understand from your position, an agency gives you the best opportunity to make the most money so I don't fault you or anyone for wanting to do this. But my standards are so high that I can't pass that off to another agency in the Philippines and expect the same result. What do I need to do to find high-level workers that want to be part of my staff and not part of an agency there? do they get better benefits? What is it? Thanks. Rienzi » Kathy Find unicorns. You only need to be right once so why not do it 100 times – is what I tell myself. I don't think 2 cases would some up your experience. I know lot of pinoys have been with their clients for years. Of course, if you can sweeten the deal that be good. Do you have an onboarding process that will test skills and level of commitment? – those who just want to add me to their collections of clients will definitely not like this. I'm not on that a point where I successfully trained a Search Engine Marketing (SEM) project manager but I'm working on a guy that has lots of potentials. Point is, if you can't buy one go make one. "cannot pass off to another agency in the Phil and expect same result" – Only because you haven't worked with me.😀💪🦄🦄🦄🦄 Trevor » Leckie This ^
Jubair You can hire the same guy providing SEO services as an SEOVA When I was only providing white label SEO services, some of our clients asking for different different tasks and sometimes I did their works, sometimes I setup someone from our team. Then I feel like I can easily add another service in my agency that's VAs services then started providing VAs to the agency owners. We do SEO project management, writing stuff, outreach, anything related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Warren Hi Jeremy – Initially I would work with the VA to agree a list of tasks they will cover, and ensure these tasks cover the research side, so not "decision making" to minimise risk, as unless your hiring a "expert" at an "expert rate" then choosing the right tasks can really make or break a VA relationship. Also, when hiring a VA it's really important to have a proper onboarding process, company guidelines, and SOPs for everything. How to access documents, where to get logins, how you like things delivered, and the way you like them delivered. A Virtual Assistant (VA) might not know everything, so in the long run you will need to allow some training time to get to know your process, as they are an extension of your team. One other thing to note is the management style or learning style can drastically change depending on the country you hire from, so having a workflow and management structure will minimise communication issues. I've got a list of 30 SEO tasks you can outsource, so this might help get things started https://dreamdigital.co.uk/blog/30-SEO-tasks-you-can-outsource/ Good luck!! DREAMDIGITAL.CO.UK 30 SEO Tasks That You Can Outsource Today!
Jeremy ✍️ » Warren That great advice. Thank you for that and the SEO tasks page. Do you know a company I can buy good SEO SOPs from? Warren Hi Jeremy I'm going to be creating some outsourcing guides, so will ping you a message when ready. 🙂 👍🏽1 Jeremy ✍️ » Warren Thank you. I bet a lot of people would love SOPs they could tweak to make their own. Thanks!! Warren Thanks for the feedback Jeremy – we currently use our SOPs to train VAs in the Philippines, and then offer VAs to companies on a co-managed basis. But I would definitely be interested to know the demand for SOPs as a product. 🙂 Jeremy ✍️ » Warren Nice. Guessing it would be profitable to sell them especially if you have them setup internally. Guess may have to tweak them a little for the public. I'd be interested in buying them from you as-is if you are interested and ok giving me a basic breakdown of what you have setup. If interested we could jump on a call or whatever is best for you.
Talha Make sure the requirements are clear because we sometime expect to find a pretty good knowledgeable person by just writing "Knows ON-Page SEO So, for saving time: Try to write down every single task that you want your Virtual Assistant (VA) to do and then you are good to go… Best of luck 😢👍🏽2
