Limited SEO Involvement. In the "Technical SEO Account Manager" role, there’s minimal hands-on SEO work. Most of the core SEO tasks are delegated to junior team members, leaving the role to be heavily administrative - i.e. budget management, report compilation, and client calls. This detachment from core SEO activities can be disappointing for those expecting a more involved SEO position.
Poor Management Structure. Direct line managers often lack SEO expertise, as all SEO team members are overseen by a decentralised Operations Team rather than people who have worked in SEO themselves. This means that performance reviews, held by these Operations Managers, rely primarily on feedback from other SEO team members, fostering a culture of gossip rather than constructive oversight. Personal performance metrics are sales-focused, with limited emphasis on campaign outcomes (possibly due to lack of SEO & campaign knowledge from the Operations Managers themselves), meaning that positive campaign results might not align with the metrics against which colleague performance is evaluated. For instance, I once had a successful migration project for a client, where visibility increased by 60%+, but had this account flagged in my next review because it didn’t drive increased spend at renewal, even though client satisfaction was at an all time high and all our campaign metrics were exceeded.
Outdated SEO Practices. Senior SEO staff seem isolated from wider industry trends. Many have limited experience outside the company, which does provide some benefits, however this significantly impacts their awareness of modern tools and techniques. For example, many basic tasks are still required to be completed manually, not only does this take extensive amounts of time and reduces productivity, but also shows the business is now lacking integration with tools commonly used elsewhere in the industry.
Lack of Effective Workforce Management Tool. The reliance on an Excel-based "Tech Schedule" to manage workload is ineffective and prone to constant, untracked changes. Anyone can adjust the schedule without notification to the assigned task holder, leading to confusion, duplicate work, and even accidental deletion of tasks. This outdated method is a significant obstacle to smooth operations and productivity, whilst further showing how the company is stuck in the past when it comes to toolsets and best practices.
Heavy Workloads. Overwork and workplace stress is common amongst the Tech SEO Team, with the team often juggling double-digit client accounts and many colleagues extending work into evenings and weekends to account for the greater than typical workload. This issue seems to be widely noted across other employee reviews here on Glassdoor, and many colleagues expressed these concerns informally when I was at the company. With work-life balance and mental health both being incredibly important in this always-on era, I feel like I cannot stress this enough to prospective candidates.
