Adam Whittles
Head of SEO at Auto Trader
Making the jump from agency to in-house can be daunting. Which organisations will give the most support or the best opportunities? Adam talks about a scale you can use to measure whether a business stacks up when it comes to investing in SEO.
About Adam
Websites and custom-built PCs were Adam’s introduction to technology, and he discovered SEO soon after. He freelanced for several years, then started his agency career in 2012 with Ayima Search Marketing. After stints at two other agencies, Adam moved in-house to become an SEO Program Manager with Apple. Currently, he is the Head of SEO for AutoTrader, one of the UK’s most visible sites.
The SEO Scale: How To Tell If Your Next Company Measures Up
“…When you go in-house, you learn that company’s challenges down to the finest detail. It sharpens your skills in certain ways as you grow and adapt to meet those issues. However, you can get sucked into the company bubble, whereas with agencies you keep being exposed to more situations, people, and clients.”
Q&A with Adam Whittles
What was your first ever job?
Waiting tables at my parents’ B&B in a Kent tourist town.
How did you get into SEO?
Like many, I kind of “fell” into it. I was building websites for friends, family and small business owners, when I was asked if I could help those websites to rank in Google. At the time it seemed like a good way to earn a stable income, so I started researching and experimenting on my own websites. There were a lot of blogs and online forums that really helped me to learn the basics and through experimenting on my own websites, I was able to see what did and didn’t work.
What is your favourite SEO task to do?
Personally speaking, I love solving problems, so my favourite tasks revolve around solving any unique problems that may come up. Often, this will involve testing an idea to see if that solves the problem. Other times, it may involve researching and learning about an area in SEO that I have less experience in.
What inspired you to choose the topic of your chapter? Why is it important to you?
When I decided to leave Apple for a new in-house role, there were quite a few companies looking for a Head of SEO. I was nervous about leaving such a great company and wanted to make sure my next role was the right one. This is something I think a lot of people in our industry can probably relate to, so I wanted to create a guide that could help others make the right decision for their careers.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
The best piece of advice I ever received was to forget about making things perfect and recognise when it’s good enough. Earlier in my career, I would waste a lot of time trying to make things perfect. This would often go unnoticed and I soon realised that I’d have been more efficient or accomplished more, had I spent less time trying to perfect every little detail. Although, it took someone else to give me that advice before I started to practice it!
What one tip would you give someone who would like to get into SEO as a career?
Getting into SEO isn’t really the hard part. There is a lot of demand for entry-level SEOs and I don’t see that changing any time soon. If you can express genuine passion, intelligence and have some SEO knowledge (gained through reading and/or taking related courses), you have a very good chance of landing an entry-level position. The tricky part is how do you progress your SEO career from there? My tip would be to work on building genuine connections with people. What you’ll quickly find in SEO, is that you can give the best recommendations in the world but without the right “people” to implement them, you won’t see positive results.
What is your favourite SEO / marketing related resource or book? (other than Mastering In-House SEO of course!)
One of my favourite books, which is both marketing and SEO related is ‘I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59’ by Douglas Edwards. He was Google’s first director of marketing, and he reveals a lot about the early days at Google. There’s even some juicy bits on the early workings of the Google algorithm!
How do you relax when you aren’t working?
I’m pretty boring, so I usually relax by watching TV shows or movies. Occasionally I’ll play video games on the Xbox.