Senior SEO Consultant Candidate – A Real Story

Why this story. Being a Senior SEO Consultant and Strategist, I keep getting a lot of CVs from people who are looking for jobs in SEO, PPC, Content Writing etc. Recently I received a CV, in which the candidate ‘claimed’ to be a Senior SEO Consultant and explained that how good he was at On-page, Link Building, Article submission etc. Is this what we expect from a Senior SEO Consultant Candidate?

FYI, I am endorsed for a lot of skills, which are not directly related to SEO.

[Flashback] May 2, 2005 - Started my career in SEO

May 2, 2005 - I joined my first SEO job at a Kolkata based product company. Vikas Kedia of Stanford was the CEO. Shimul, a great friend and very knowledgeable person, and Biplab joined us on the same day. Anirudh (co-founder of Debate.fm) joined us few days later; I think after a week or so. After so many years, I am still in touch with Shimul and Anirudh – we often get together to organize events in Kolkata. I was lucky to get Aji as my mentor there. Needless to mention that I am still in touch with Aji heavily (we work at TechShu together).

Back in 2005 we started with very basic things; the concept of contextual and natural link was coming up then. However, it was Aji who taught us why SEO is more than SEO! Surprisingly, many SEO consultants cannot imagine this even now.

As you grow with time, your responsibilities keep changing. A junior SEO consultant candidate is more into execution; on the other hand, a senior SEO consultant candidate is more in to planning and strategy making. At the same time, it is the job of senior people to get things done. That’s where I am now.

Junior Vs. Senior SEO Consultant Candidate

Most of the junior candidates usually think that it is easy to become the boss. However, as you move to a senior position, you realize that it is much simpler to follow instructions rather than giving instructions. A senior SEO consultant candidate has to come up with strategy, communicate with the clients, work with the team to make them understand what to be done, train the team members if required and finally get the things done on time maintaining the right quality!

And things become tougher when the success of the project depends on the people who are not in your direct control. For example, as a senior SEO consultant you might need to work on various aspects of SEO and Digital Marketing such as Content, Design, Social Media, Development etc. Now, those departments are often distributed under several heads and experts. You can send requisition, but you cannot control the team.

But nothing is impossible; as a junior SEO consultant needs to learn how to execute, a senior SEO consultant candidate should learn how to get things done. Now, you have to learn something which is not directly related to SEO. Here comes the knowledge of management!

As a senior SEO candidate, it is expected that you will be an expert in all the parts of SEO and Digital Marketing. Your profile, your portfolio would be the evidence. But how can one judge that you are a good manager too?

[Coming back to present] A senior SEO consultant candidate should be a good manager

Managing a team is not all about giving instructions and getting things done – it is about how you get it done keeping the team spirit bright, on time and adhering to quality. Some management knowledge would be of real help here.

SEO and Digital Marketing has always been my strength, to be honest. My thorough experience of PPC has helped me get the Googles AdWords Certification as well. However, the thing that I should learn to become a complete senior SEO consultant candidate is the management tricks. To solve this problem, I have recently started following the Open Courseware of MIT, Harvard and other reputed schools. I am also reading a lot of books (special thanks to Aji) to learn how it works at management level. I am sure, that some day, I will make it there too.

Role of a senior SEO consultant candidate – My perception

Here is what I think (written from the perspective of a service based digital marketing or SEO agency).

1. Understand what your client needs – they might tell you that they need SEO, but probably PPC is the best channel for them – so explain it to them. Even to do SEO, you have to understand client’s business properly. You can’t be just SEO anymore and Rand confirms that. 
2. SEO is essential for all – organizations that are looking for Sales, Growth or Branding – SEO is essential for all of them. This should be properly communicated to the client
3. Next is keyword research and competitive analysis. While doing keyword research, it is important to find the intent associated with the keywords. For example, an ecommerce website will only be benefitted if it targets keywords with buying intent, not research intent. 
4. SEO audit, or a through health check of the website is very much essential (assuming the client has a website, if the client is developing a new website to do SEO, as a senior SEO consultant candidate, you must get involved in the development process). There are 75+ parameters that need to be checked. 
5. Gone are the days of bulk content writing and link building. This is the era of creativity (thanks to Google’s updates). With content, you have to come up with a great strategy. Something that will be helpful for the readers. Then links will come automatically and that is what Google expects you to do.
6. Local SEO is another important part; for small, local businesses such as restaurants, spas, salons etc. local SEO can be of great help. And through Google Places optimization, websites might make it to the first page of Google smoothly.
7. Social signals – this is another important part of SEO these days. Social signals such as comments, likes, shares etc. help search engines get clue on how good the content is. Obviously strong social signal goes in your favor. 
8. Responsive Design – I would make it a part of SEO. A lot of people are searching web from mobile devices; this would help you to tap them.
9. Track and measure – as a senior SEO consultant you have to constantly track your activities, measure ROI and understand which activity is giving you the best result. A brief understanding of Google Analytics is compulsory. One strategy might not work for all – unless you test, you cannot identify what will work for who. 
10. Get things done – the strategy that you prepare for the clients should be executed. A lot of SEO consultants are good at strategy level, but unless you execute your plan, it is of no use. So you have to build a team and train them on how to do things. How to map their activities to the client’s goal. 
11. Finally, a senior SEO consultant candidate should be in constant touch with the clients, educate them, help them understand the process of SEO. This will help the organization in the longer run. 
12. Follow SEO communities and experts to upgrade your knowledge constantly.

(Feel free to comment below if you think I have missed anything)

Therefore, friends, who claim themselves to be Senior SEO consultant candidate, think before adding this title before your name. Years of experience does not make you senior; it’s your knowledge that makes you senior. 

Rural Innovation Awards by Sahaj, SREI Venture Initiative

Sahaj e-Village has been working to make information and knowledge reach all corners of the country. To recognize the innovators who are working hard to develop the rural India, Sahaj has come up with Rural Innovation Awards programme.



This is a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs, students, SMEs or anybody working in Technology for Development field. As mentioned on Sahaj's website, a lot of great innovations never won any award, nor did the innovators get any recognition. Invention of wheel, pencil, compass etc. were great achievement - these groundbreaking innovations never won any award. But innovators of today's India can get recognition - Sahaj Rural Innovation Awards is a platform for them.

Winners will get cash prizes. According to me, money is secondary here - the inspiration, visibility such events offer is much more than cash prize. Money matters; but innovators who dream something big and working hard to change the rural India, need immense support from society. And Sahaj's event is all about that.

My best wishes for Sahaj; look forward to know about some great stories of innovation from all across the country!

Good Luck Tamil Nadu

India based multi-city startup accelerator, GSF has partnered with Chennai Angels and BharatMatrimony.com to begin its fourth investment cycle in Chennai from April 2013. The GSF Accelerator programme was started by Rajesh Sawhney, Former Reliance Entertainment President & Founder of GSF Superangels. GSF Superangels provides seed funding to the promising Indian startups.

To boost the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Chennai, GSF will select 4 most promising startups from Tamil Nadu for its nine-week long acceleration programme. Each of the selected startups will receive funding of $28,000 initially, along with mentorship and support from GSF’s angel network. Applications for 2013 batch will be accepted from middle of March. GSF will also recruit 4 Chennai based entrepreneurs in residence who will support the entire process.

Chennai Angels, an angel group from South India will provide mentorship and capital to the startups selected by GSF. India focused matrimony portal BharatMatrimony.com will provide co-location space and similar services.

By expanding to Chennai, GSF takes a step forward to secure strong presence in the major tech hubs of the country – Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai. “Chennai has grown rapidly in the last couple of years as a leading technology hub in India and with GSF’s presence, Chennai’s integration with the global startup ecosystem will accelerate in the coming years”, said Rajesh Sawhney, Founder of GSF Superangels.

“With the mentorship and strength of the local angels and GSF networks we believe that entrepreneurs will be provided with stronger tools to succeed well beyond our regional and national borders in a more accelerated and successful manner,” said Sameer Mehta of Chennai Angels. Founder and CEO of BharatMatrimony.com, Murugavel Janakirama commented, “Happy to associate with GSF which I strongly believe would add momentum to the start up ecosystem in Chennai.”

With a network of 17 entrepreneurs in residence from all over the world and 20 founders and investors, GSF’s primary focus is on tech, mobile and cloud space. But they are flexible; they can shift focus to other areas if there is something very exciting. Applicants will be evaluated on the basis of three factors – founders, market opportunity and innovation.

In 2012, GSF Superangels funded three companies – Autowale, Biosense and Chottu.in. They are keen to fund five companies among all those who showcased in GSF 2012. Let’s see who all crack it this year; and good luck Tamil Nadu!

2012, this year...

This year was the weakest year for Web Wings since its inception; it will have only 6 posts in the archive of 2012 once this article is published. And the discredit entirely goes to me.

It’s not that I was inactive throughout the year or I did not write anything. I wrote, I kept on thinking on various things day and night; it was one of the busiest year for me. Probably that was the reason I did not get much time for blogging here.

Finally, I got some time today (thanks to bad health). Thought I should feed my blog today. As I write this article, waves of thoughts keep coming in my mind and they are random. When I think, the topics do not come to my mind in the right order or in a sequence and I think it happens with everybody. So I would write a lot of things, as they come in my mind.

This year, for the first time, I realized that I was growing old. There was a time when I could walk hours without any problem, I could work late in night and get up in the morning without any lethargy, I could climb stairs easily. However, I am having difficulties doing all these things of late.

This year, for the first time, I realized how the Indian culture and tradition, the trends that prevail in typical north Kolkata families, sense of responsibilities have become an integral part of me. As I see my son and my niece growing older, I keep on thinking how to give them the best cultural atmosphere, how to show them the true Indian lifestyle, how to impart good habits in them and how to let them experience the benefits of living in a joint family. This has helped me become more mature.

This year, for the first time, I have started thinking about my own behavior and activities. What is right and what is wrong, what will lead me to the ultimate goal in my life, whether I should do this or that – I started asking this kind of questions to myself.

This year, for the first time, we celebrated birthday of my son and niece. That’s a new thing in my life!

This year, I started working with Sramana Mitra as an ambassador for 1M/1M. I had a session at Startup Saturday for the first time; I won 1M/1M premium membership too. We organized Pitch Fest for Entrepreneurs in Kolkata on Nov 1 – something that happened first time in Kolkata.

This year, I started working with Aji at TechShu from March. It is a great experience indeed.

This year, I suffered from stiff neck many times, and finally have been diagnosed with spondylosis.

This year, we celebrated 70^th birth anniversary of Guruji, Pandit Manas Chakraborty who left us for heavenly abode on 12.12.12.

This year, for the first time, I started taking care of the core official activities of Paramparik.

This year, for the first time, I said NO to a lot of offers and to a lot of people. I rejected the ideas and proposals which were not going to help me anyway.

This year, for the first time, I tried to define the goals of my life. Instead of encouraging hundreds of temptations that come to my way, I tried to figure out what is the one thing that I want to achieve in life – something that would make me happy and make my life meaningful. I would not say that I am done with it, but the process has started and will continue in 2013.

All the good things that I did this year will continue in 2013. I have identified certain gaps in myself; I would try my best to fill them up.

To sympathize with the Delhi gang-rape victim, I am not celebrating Christmas this year. Wish all of us would find the solutions to our problems next year and we would be able to build a better nation. 

Dot Dot Dot

Last Startup Saturday session (July 14, 2012) was all about the dots – both the speakers Mr. Pradipta Chatterjee from Icon Consultancy and Aji Issac Mathew from TechShu revealed many dots. It’s up to you which dots will you pick and how will you connect them to grow your business. Topic was "How to take your Business to the next level".

Before delving more in to the topic, I have to make an important announcement.

Startups from King's College London to pitch @Sramana on 19th, July. To attend or pitch, register here: http://bit.ly/S7jj5q

Let’s come back to the topic. Here are some random dots that I collected from both the speakers.

Random Dots from Mr. Pradipta Chatterjee

From: Icon Consultancy

• When 3 or 4 friends start a company, there is an undeclared and unwritten commitment among them – everybody follow the commitments and they know that others are loyal to the system. As the company grows and new members com in, incorporating the same level of commitment becomes a challenge.
• There are different forms of compensation – it’s not all about MONEY all the time.
• Geographic location plays an important role when it comes to recruitment.
• You cannot ignore local culture and mindset while creating HR policies.
• You have to understand the psychology of young people when you recruit fresh grads – generation gap plays an important role in organizations too.

Random Dots from Aji

From: TechShu

• Congratulate yourself if you have survived for 2 years
• Don’t run a business for livelihood – for that you could buy 10 cows and sell milk. Run a business to add value, to make it really big.
• Do whatever you can to sustain – don’t buy clothes, sell jewelries, take the pension fund from your dad, don’t have pizza, don’t watch movie (added by me), do consultancy for others – if you TRUST YOURSELF accumulate fund in whatever ways you can to support your startup.
• Understand yourself – know what you exactly want – working somewhere is not at all bad – all creative people are not entrepreneurs – they can work, take the company to the next level and get immensely rewarded.
• Make yourself attractive – why people would like to work for you – what extra are you offering? Think Think Think!
• Ask how much value you are adding to your customers, to your team members. 

And finally Aji said that it took 3 years to create such smiling faces which is no less than Brand Equity. Aji also created few amazing slides, will try to share them later.