This Week In Search Marketing Staffing – 8/25/08

Yahoo! is planning on some big growth in India.  Business Standard reported last week that Yahoo! will hire 400 employees
over the next year, the majority of which will work for its Centre for
Excellence in Bangalore.  The Centre, which supports Yahoo!’s emerging
markets in India, Singapore, South East Asia, Eastern Eurpore, and
Latin America, is targeting architects, user experience designers, and
programme managers to fill the new openings.  To combat the large
percentage of young talent that typically leaves to pursue higher
education, Yahoo! is also developing a curriculum with BITS-Pilani for
an MS programme. These moves will help establish a greater presence for
Yahoo! in India, which is currently dominated by Google.

Last week, SEOmoz’s Sarah Bird, Esq, provided us with another update on Jason Gambert’s attempts to trademark SEO.  In her post, Trademark SEO Update: Jason Gambert Loses Two Motions and Must Ask Permission Before Filling Any More Motions, Sarah breaks down the details of Mr. Gambert’s continued attempts to trademark the term SEO.  Just as the title suggests, Mr. Gambert recently filed two motions against SEOmoz’s opposition proceedings, both of which were denied.  Following the rejection of both of these motions, the TTAB (Trademark Trial and Appeal Board) banned Mr. Gambert from filing any more motions without receiving verbal permission from the interlocutory attorney assigned to the case.  In the next step of this case, Sarah will get to meet and question Mr. Gambert under oath.  Although I am being entertained by Mr. Gambert’s continued misunderstanding of US Trademark law, I’m still a little uneasy that this case is still open.

Having a pro-SEO culture in your company can really support SEO’s success. Jessica Bowman published an article this week on Search Engine Land to support just that, How to Adopt a Pro-SEO Culture at your Company. When everyone supports SEO and knows how they effect the success of the campaign, many SEObstacles are minimized and projects are able to move much faster. Jessica details a number of tips to moving your company towards a Pro-SEO culture:

1. Train Everyone on SEO
2. Learn the Life Development Cycle
3. Setup SEO Champions to be Responsible within each Team
4. Create an SEO Knowledge Center
5. Setup SEO Office Hours

By making SEO an office wide goal, as opposed to confining it to a department, a company can improve the success of its campaign tremendously.  If you are struggling to get your company inline, check out Jessica’s article to pick up some tips and start to making an impact.

That is it for this week, check back next week for another update.