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 P&L 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.

To excel, you’ll need to:

• Learn data analysis to showcase the ROI of your department’s work

• Monitor team workloads and recruitment needs based on capacity figures

• Use tools like Monday.com and Harvest to track team efficiency

So, how can you level up in this department?

I advise that you take some data analysis courses on LinkedIn learning. They offer a free 30-day trial so you can test before you commit. The Moz Academy is a great resource to learn skills like SEO reporting.

As Louise Parker from Propellernet advises, “Understanding profitability and planning your team’s time is key. Remember, these are people—not just blocks of time in a spreadsheet.”