Rewriting the Playbook: CreditNinja's Path to AI- First Growth

About CreditNinja

TL;DR Stats

SearchTides first came on board in April 2019. Six years later, the relationship has only deepened. Shipman doesn’t describe them as a vendor, but as an extension of his team.

“I don’t see you guys as a vendor. You’re in our Slack, I have your personal numbers. If anything comes up, we can have honest discussions. This is a true partnership”, says Patrick.

That tight integration has allowed both sides to move faster. The CreditNinja team knows that when SearchTides proposes something new, it comes from shared trust, not from an outsider trying to sell them something. “We’ve had the same faces on our account for years,” Shipman adds. “That consistency says a lot about how SearchTides operates as an organization. And it makes it easy for us to operate as one team.”

About the SEO Department

SearchTides has been an SEO agency since 2013.  Lead by Derek Iwasiuk, a talented strategic SEO.  We focus on difficult to perform enterprise activities at scale.  Our team prides itself in providing customized solutions tailored to each client’s needs.  There are no cookie cutter strategies here.  

Our On-Site Team consists of seven individuals ranging from Senior Managers to Senior Specialists, Account and Project Managers. Our Off-Site Team consists of over 30 people and delivers thousands of backlinks each month.  We are industry agnostic and growing.

Key Roles and Initiatives

• Integrate the Chief SEO Officer’s strategy by leveraging your team, tools, and resources to deliver upon the Chief SEO’s strategic vision and clients’ needs.
• Advocate for our clients’ success like it is your own business
• Mentor the on-site team
• Own QA and delivery for all SEO deliverables
• Support ongoing business development and the onboarding of new clients

Full Responsibilities

Must-haves:

• You are a resource for the team 
• The leader and mentor of the On-Site Team
• You are responsible for upholding the quality standards and deliverables of the On-Site Team
• Creating a work environment that encourages continuous learning and creative problem solving 
• Oversee training and career development for your team
• Communicating with other department leaders to ensure there’s strong collaboration

Leading the day to day execution within the SEO department including:

This role reports directly to the Head of Operations and works closely with the Chief SEO Officer (CSO), serving as second in command of the company’s SEO strategy and execution.

• Reporting to CSO and Head of Operations on the status of client accounts, such as:
• Overall campaign health
• Specific KPI related campaign progress
• Any proactive measures that should be taken
• Work with On-Site Team to ensure all client reporting and meeting content is at our standards and delivering the highest level of value to our clients
• Implementing vision for new types of link building, on page strategies, website architecture, and other internal R&D projects
• Working hand in hand with Project Manager to ensure all tasks are appropriately prioritized
• Oversee and own the success of our clients’ campaigns

• Revenue & Profitability:
• Client retention and satisfaction
• Track and manage our department expenses, revenue and profit margin
• Strategize on ways to grow department revenue
• People Management & Development: 
• Ensure there’s up to date training for new SEO team members, and cross training for other department team members
• Ensure the team structure is working well, and evolve it as needed over time
• Ensure all team members are learning, growing, receiving ongoing feedback, and working toward achieving their goals
• Ensure all team members are focused on client satisfaction and client results
• Set agenda and run recurring SEO department meetings 
• Helping to source, interview and hire the right team members

Responsible for client results, client happiness, and maintaining our high quality standards across all work that we complete

• Ensure Chief SEO’s strategies are understood by clients and implemented effectively internally and externally 
• Attend client meetings and ensure strategic alignment and client satisfaction
• Ensure the team has the right tools and technology to achieve great results and be innovative
• Refine QA processes as needed
• Meet with PMs/Account people (whoever owns the client relationships) to understand their POV on our client results and satisfaction

Implementing new strategies and initiatives, and rolling them out across the department

• Staying in communication with our SEO client stakeholders to understand their common business challenges, their hurdles to achieving SEO success, what success means to them, and how our teams can make their lives easier and make them look good to their bosses
• Staying on top of the latest trends within the search industry to ensure our agency deliverables are keeping up, so we’re consistently demonstrating to prospective and current clients that we’re keeping up with the latest and greatest in SEO
• Communicating with other department leaders to ensure there’s strong collaboration, shared learnings, joint problem solving, and that we’re optimizing our ability to cross sell services

Sales & New Business

• Assist with RFPs/RFIs
• Help ensure SEO go to market and sales strategy and case studies are helping sales with winning new business
• Help develop, manage and iterate on our SEO offering, leveraging feedback and pitches with new business prospects as well as collaboration with Sales to ensure our SEO offering is strong and competitive.