Why is the human touch important for people looking to work in search engine marketing?
When thinking about skills to look for in search hires, a few traits are obvious. Search marketers must be analytically-minded to get the most from metrics and testing, must think flexibly as this industry changes every week, and can’t be afraid of hard work. But one SEM trait that’s often overlooked — and is absolutely critical — is the ability to connect on a human level, and to translate that connection into better business. Let me illustrate the point with a story. One of our client’s products regularly appeared on national TV. As is typical, the TV presence would drive huge spikes in search traffic. While the increased search traffic could translate into scores of conversions, there was also a potential risk. If searchers had trouble finding the client’s Web site in search, they could have abandoned the brand or even defected to the client’s competitors, who were waiting in the search results pages. Aware of this challenge, our team set up a system with the client: the client’s PR
