Qualities to Look for in a Great SEO

Lately I've been thinking about what makes superior search engine optimizer. I ski myself, "If I needed to hire an SEO for our firm, what qualities or characteristics would I look for?" Here is my list of personality traits or skills that I would look for.

* Good Problem Solver
A good SEO knows how to correctly formulate a problem and figure out creative ways to solve it.

* Systematic Thinker
A good SEO knows how to approach Internet marketing systematically. S/he can see all the relevant elements of a plan and see what the relative importance of those elements are in the global strategy.

* An Analytic Thinker
I find philosophy students make good SEOs because they have good analytic skills. They know how to take a system apart and break it down to its basic constituents. They can then look at each of these elements and test them systematically.

* An Excellent Researcher
A good SEO has superior research ability. S/he knows how to locate key research and, more importantly, to interpret that research to achieve results. In short, what separates good SEOs from great SEOs is their ability to find information others can't find.

There are other more concrete skill sets that a good SEO will possess, but these, I think, are the most important. The others can be taught, but the four mentioned above are hard to teach. They represent more a way of thinking and problem solving rather than a tangible skill like knowledge of HTML or how to build ads in a PPC campaign.

If I were interviewing for an SEO specialist position, I would much rather have someone strong in the four aforementioned qualities and a little weaker in the more concrete qualities, than the other way round.

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Eric Bryant, Director
Gnosis Arts
22 Ray Court
Bedminster, NJ 07921
908.787.3475
www.gnosisarts.com