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In one of the coolest SEO jobs around, we are working with RetailMeNot in their search for a Director of SEO based in Austin, TX. RetailMeNot, Inc operates the world’s largest digital coupon marketplace. The company enables consumers across the globe seeking to save money to find hundreds of thousands of digital coupons from retailers.
RetailMeNot experienced more than 500 million visits to its websites in the last 12 months. The RetailMeNot portfolio includes RetailMeNot.com, the largest digital coupon marketplace in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk, the largest digital coupon marketplace in the United Kingdom; Deals.com in Germany; Actiepagina.nl, a leading digital coupon site in the Netherlands; Bons-de-Reduction.com and Ma-Reduc.com, leading digital coupon sites in France; Poulpeo.com, a leading digital coupon site with cash back in France; and Deals2Buy.com, a leading discount offer site in North America. RetailMeNot went public in July 2013 and is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol “SALE.”
RetailMeNot needs someone who lives and breathes SEO, who is energized by the “always on” nature of SEO, and is ready to apply that energy on behalf of a group of dynamic, highly competitive websites with massive traffic opportunities.
In addition to technical SEO skill, you believe in the importance of a user-centric approach to SEO and have educated yourself on information architecture, usability and user experience, whether formally or informally. You will directly manage a small team with a variety of backgrounds and SEO experience, as well as work with cross-functional team members in a number of other departments.
What makes this a cool gig?
- 450 million site visits
- SEO is a very high priority function that is supported within the company, starting at the CEO level
- Work that impacts SEO performance has dedicated support from the product and engineering teams, as well as the operations teams
- The SEO team is empowered with proprietary data and tools to take actions on a daily basis that will improve SEO performance
- SEO team members have resources to attend conferences and develop their skills
- The challenges and opportunities RMN faces in the digital coupon space are at the leading edge of SEO with mobile as a key component and intense competition from large brands to anonymous spammers
HARRY’S COMMENTS: RetailMeNot is the digital coupon marketplace into which Austin Ventures, Google Ventures, Adams Street Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, IVP and JPMorgan poured more than $300 million. The firm’s portfolio of coupon aggregator websites were visited 500+ million times in 2013, and its iPhone app reached #2 in the App Store and remained in the top 20 overall in December. And get this: RetailMeNot is the only shopping app in the top 50, ahead of Amazon and Walgreens.
With so much traffic, it’s easy to understand why RetailMeNot’s is looking to add an SEO rock star who has been a major contributor in an company where organic search has been a vital part of the firm’s strategic thrust. Although not required, it would be helpful if the candidate had start up experience where they had encountered many different challenges in a lean environment. Ideally, the Director of SEO should be able to perform as an individual contributor in addition to knowing how to mentor, manage, and coach a team in a fast-moving, cross functional environment.
As you consider this job, ask yourself …
- Do I understand how to stay calm in an intense environment?
- Do I have a steady leadership personality?
- Do I enjoy organic search for what it is? Or, do I see my involvement with SEO as just one step in my career?
- Am I data oriented, and can I look at the data, … slice it, … dice it, … and gain insight into my business and use the data to drive specific results?
- When I look at an SQR, am I driven to take action?
Reporting to the SVP of Marketing, the ideal candidate will have substantial experience working on a major enterprise level direct to consumer ecommerce site. We’re looking for someone with a teachable point of view on the past, present, and future of search marketing, so don’t be surprised if any one of the following topics come up during your interviews with the company …
- Multinational SEO and how search user journeys can be optimized for conversion
- How to best optimize images for SEO across multiple websites
- Infinite scroll: its impact on SEO and how to fix it
- Using black hat SEO techniques in a white hat way
- Unconventional white hat link building tips for SEOs
- How to evaluate site performance and identify valuable keywords for mobile SEO
- How do desktop and mobile SEO differ, and how can you improve rankings?
- How to create non-news driven content for SEO and content marketing
- SEO: how can you identify the best keywords?
- Tips and tricks for dealing with on-site SEO on massive websites
- Alternatives and workarounds for missing (not provided) data
- What SEOs need to know to prevent site redesign disasters
- What are ‘nofollow’ tags and when should they be used in SEO?
- The basics of using Alt Text for SEO
- And more.
This position is perfect for a street smart candidate who can solve complex problems with simple solutions. Ultimately, it’s people like that who find success at RetailMeNot, where it’s all about getting things done and achieving results.
Responsibilities:
- Lead SEO team to achieve traffic goals
- Guide implementation of SEO best practices in new product and engineering initiatives
- Lead development of product requirements for SEO-focused product or data initiatives
- Direct skill development of SEO team
- Provide strategic input from SEO point of view on marketing and content initiatives
- Identify opportunities for improved SEO performance and collaborate with other teams to pursue those opportunities
- Report on SEO performance as relevant to various stakeholders, from functional leads and team members to executives
- Conduct site audits and SEO QA of releases
- Provide technical SEO consultation and education to various internal stakeholders
Experiences/Requirements:
- 8-10 years experience as a professional SEO, preferably with a substantial portion in house at a significant web property or startup
- Demonstrated experience leading teams to deliver organic traffic growth for world-class web properties, especially in e-commerce, travel or other online aggregator
- Solid understanding of and experience with agile web development process and technologies
- Experience with and solid understanding of Javascript, CSS, PHP, HTML and other technologies affecting page speed and usability
- Demonstrated understanding and experience with analyzing crawl and server response codes
- Demonstrated analytical skill and significant experience with web analytics and SEO tools
- Demonstrated ability to use large SEO data sets to create actionable plans
- Demonstrated ability to use Excel and database tools; experience with Tableau for data visualization and analysis a plus
- Demonstrated experience with site structure changes at scale (tens or hundreds of thousands of pages)
- Demonstrated experience creating product requirement documents
- Understanding of concepts of information architecture and usability
- Experience with backlink analysis and management
- Experience with domain or URL migrations
- Experience developing or using homegrown SEO admin tools
- Strong written and oral communication
- Experience in e-commerce, online personal finance or affiliate marketing a plus
- Minimum bachelor’s degree
UPDATE: THIS SEARCH IS CLOSED.
PS – If you’re thinking about changing jobs this year (though us or anyone else), you might want to check out this post on why even TOP candidates get rejected.
