I started my SEO career in 2008 and quickly climbed the ranks to manage a team. But the truth is, I wasn’t ready because poor time management and a lack of people skills led to disaster.

You’d think I learned my lesson, right?

Wrong!

Fast-forward to 2013 at Verve Search. I had transitioned from technical SEO to Digital PR and was tasked with building a new department. I naively said yes.

While I recruited and scaled an award-winning team from 3 to 58, I struggled with people management. I was KPI-driven and focused more on being the best Digital PR than supporting my team. One of my team members even called me out in a meeting for being a poor manager, and they were right.

This time, lesson learned.

Failing twice as an SEO leader taught me what it truly takes to succeed. Now, as the founder of Withfrontier, I’ve honed my skills in recruitment and team building, helping place top SEO leaders globally.

1. Focus on leadership skills, not just experience

Many SEOs believe that experience automatically qualifies them for leadership roles. However, leading a department requires more than SEO expertise. In an article for Moz on retention strategies, Jon Martins, the Operations Director at Hallam, said that not every SEO is suitable for leadership positions and that sometimes there are alternative responsibilities they might be suited for.

He is correct.

Leadership is about running an entire service line—a business within a business. To stand out as a candidate, you must demonstrate leadership experience, such as managing teams, guiding strategy, or owning business outcomes, not just time spent in SEO.

Lawrence Hitches, General Manager at Studio Hawk in Melbourne, puts it well: “The disparity in experience levels can be stark—someone with four years in SEO might have never touched on-page SEO, while another with just a year’s experience could have managed a major migration for a big brand.”

2. Build commercial acumen to lead effectively

Some SEOs collect expensive, shiny new tools and never use them to their full capacity. Every marketing team will have specialists who prioritize creativity and results more than overburning on accounts. Could you keep an eye on this to ensure that the PL balances?

Being a great SEO isn’t enough if you lack commercial awareness. As a department head, you’ll need to run your team as a business unit within the larger organization. Success requires understanding profitability, growing accounts, and leading new business efforts.

Key skills to build commercial acumen include:

• Monitoring team capacity and profitability

• Upselling services and growing client accounts

• Understanding a client’s business model, products, and goals to align strategy

• Leading new business processes and signing off on service packages

3. Develop analytical skills to prove ROI

A strong SEO leader must go beyond SEO execution and be able to prove the ROI of their department’s efforts. Advanced data analysis is crucial for demonstrating the value of your work, identifying skill gaps, and managing team capacity effectively.