Then, he gives me deadlines as to how long it will reasonably take to find success there. And one KPI might be getting us in the top three position for that keyword. There’ll be a batch of between 15 to 20 keywords, and a KPI might be to get success within that three-month time span. He’s rewarded for that. There are different levels as well, and if any reach number one he’ll get more recognition because of that.
Yeah, so in addition to the incentives for driving traffic and ranking and results and all that, there’s also a lot of tracking mechanisms that we use. We can allocate a small portion of bonuses based on sales and revenue generated from those targeting practices and then assign them.
He’s open to working at home, and that’s at his own expense. But at the end of the day, if everything is used effectively, it can work.
We did have some problems at the start that we had to line up. Well, they weren’t problems, but we had to clarify how it would all work. With this type of system you could imagine there are little details you have to sort out about what type of control they have, and so on. And we nutted that all out at the beginning to make sure we totally agreed on everything and minimise any chance of disagreement.
Well the good thing is he’s getting a base salary. And I haven’t heard of any other company doing this. And it’s working.
We rely on the internet to drive customers, and we work from a warehouse facility so we don’t have a shopfront. It’s important because we have to target every single product in our category. If you’re an online business, this is what you depend on for your eCommerce.
Keep up to date with SEO matters each week with SmartCompany video blogger Jim Stewart as well as our regular features on Google, social media and eCommerce.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
