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One of the coolest Tampa SEO jobs around!
We are working with Thompson Cigar in their search for a world-class SEO Manager based in Tampa, Florida.
This is an amazing business — and an outstanding SEO job.
HARRY’S COMMENTS: Thompson Cigar was founded in Key West, Florida and is the oldest mail order cigar company in America. The firm has always been committed to delivering a wide selection of world-class products covering all tastes and price ranges, and its private label cigars are truly first-rate.
Having spent the 1990s as a cigar aficionado, I’m well acquainted with this company. Thompson’s call center is staffed with highly trained reps capable of providing cigar lovers with a deep knowledge of the product and the circumstances under which each cigar is best enjoyed. They’re like wine stewards – but for cigars.
Not to blow smoke, but these folks know their stuff!
Thompson Cigar operates the largest inventory storage humidor in America along with a fully functional online retail website plus an auction site. ThompsonCigar.com supports the companies mail-order catalog, which was established in 1915 (way back when Woodrow Wilson was President). According to Wikipedia, the firm has over 600,000 active customers on monthly unique visits of 175K-300K. According to Quantcast, Thompson Cigar caters to a 69%, more affluent, male demographic.”
Cigars have made a strong comeback in America.
According to the US Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, cigar consumption in the United States increased 122% between 2000 and 2014. In particular, sales of large cigars increased 233%. The increased popularity of cigars has stoked a strong cigar lounge culture in the United States, and market researches believe that cigar lounge industry revenue will increase to $3.0 billion over the next five years. The normalization of relations with Cuba should provide lift to the cigar trade as a whole. Overall, the growth trend for the cigar industry is bullish.
About the Role
As Thompson Cigar’s SEO Manager, you will be responsible for the search engine optimization and continued growth of thompsoncigar.com across all devices, as well as the development and testing of new ideas, theories and methods. Your job will be to develop, deploy, measure and optimize key strategies and tactics that will drive natural search traffic and conversion.
More than anything, the company seeks an established SEO pro who understands how to manage organic search in an online retail environment. This job is all about selling products online – not just about driving traffic.
What good is traffic that doesn’t convert?
In this position, you’ll find yourself working with Thompson’s first-rate technology team. You won’t need programming experience, but you will need to understand basic programming concepts to work with the development team on any project impacting SEO. In particular, a working knowledge of CSS, HTML and JavaScript would be extremely beneficial. The team will expect you to be proactive and hands-on, meaning you will actually be doing the work – often autonomously.
Beyond the technological aspects of this position, we’ll expect you to understand basic content marketing strategies. Thompson is working with an outside vendor to overhaul its organic search strategy, so you may expect the company to hand you a leading edge SEO strategy document to execute during your first 18 months on the job.
Because Thompson sells cigars online, the firm is prohibited from participating in paid search. In most online retail environments, SEOs can leverage knowledge from paid search to improve organic search initiatives, but that’s not happening here. SEO is a MAJOR deal at Thompson, which is why we need someone who understands the technical aspects of organic search + social media and content marketing.
You won’t necessarily be immersed in content creation — but you will be to “go-to guy / gal” for setting social media strategy as it pertains to SEO. This means you’ll be involved in social audits and leading strategy meetings with Thompson’s social team. Additionally, you might be expected to engage with outside influencers plus provide guidance to the social team on keyword selection as it relates to promo calendaring and editorial issues; duplicate content; snippet optimization; mobile issues; link building strategies; and more.
Candidates, as usual I’ve pulled together nearly 80 pages of research on this company, industry, and role — which includes my extensive notes from our 60 minute kickoff call with Thompson’s hiring committee. I’d love to share that information with you — and you’d be ill-advised to apply without it. For more info, please text [your name] + “Thompson SEO” to (404) 281-2025
View Harry Joiner’s profile
Essential Functions:
- Plan, prioritize, and successfully execute on ROI positive SEO initiatives (keyword targeting, content creation, internal/external linking, semantic markup, etc.) to maximize impact on traffic and revenue
- Monitor and analyze SEO status of the site to develop succinct reporting on channel growth and KPIs for other teams and C-level stakeholders
- Perform hands-on optimization work including content creation (both written and graphic), page optimization (title tags, meta descriptions, etc.), and keyword research
- Conduct market research and competitive analysis to assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with regard to SEO
- Conduct keyword research, duplicate content studies, content optimization, internal link structure optimization, and strategies.
- Continually monitor new developments in SEO landscape and evaluate their impact on the site
- Audit on-page and off-page search engine ranking factors following algorithm and site functionality changes
- Perform ongoing analysis of the site to monitor and make recommendations on technical factors affecting SEO (canonicalization, redirects, server errors, meta tags, URL structure, schema markup, etc.)
- Serve as a lead for education and implementation of existing and future SEO strategies (rich snippets, semantic markup, video markup, content optimization, etc.)
- Serve as the in-house expert in best practices for “White Hat” SEO and link building to provide guidance to other teams and ensure adherence to search engine guidelines
- Assist in the translation of business requirements into detailed design documents for SEO projects
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent industry experience
- Three or more years of experience in search engine optimization
- Solid experience with 3rd party SEO tools and analytics, such as MOZ, Google Search Console, and Google Analytics tool sets
- Knowledge of SEO best practices as applied to e-retail
- Experience working with an ecommerce technology group translating SEO requirements
- Demonstrated track record of natural search success
- Thorough knowledge of search engine ranking factors
- Experience managing SEO vendor relationships
- Experience managing content writers, outreach specialists, bloggers, and social media marketers
- Demonstrated ability to work independently and with teams to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously with a sense of urgency
- Possession of strong written, verbal, and analytical skills
- Thorough knowledge of HTML, CSS
Applications for this position are being coordinated by Allan Seibert. To apply, CLICK HERE. Candidates, please be sure to email Allan for a packet of market research and company / competitive intel that will differentiate you in your candidacy. Due to the intensely competitive nature of this search, thorough preparation for these interviews with this proprietary material is strongly recommended.
