COMMENTS
What's your definition of 'webmaster'?
I think without a lot of the characteristics you described, this would be a pretty unemployable person in the web development field.
Content is always king and having a passion for your niche will always shine through to the end
Great Article…Some webmasters focus on the look and feel of the websites rather than content…Some of them may not focus on converting visitors to leads and customers as there may not be any action calls.….I have faced similar problems before….
So True - found out the hard (and expensive way). As the founder of a recently launched start-up I am now - with the help of HubSpot - becoming an "expert" at SEO.
As a copywriter who specializes in SEO-savvy web copy for numbeous clients, I couldn't agree with you more. I spend a great deal of time re-working sites for clients who entrusted keyword research and copywriting to an SEO firm, only to be disappointed. I consider it my personal duty to not only understand a client's branding, target audience and message, but to give them tangible and functional tools for achieving their goals. Thanks for putting this out there!
This is a great article. I currently Webmaster several web sites for the company I work of as well as a few of our clients. I'm in the middle of trying to get our SEO off the ground and have had little to no help in doing so. Would I like our business to grow as a result of a good SEO campaign? Sure. But will I be able to pull off a truly "successful" campaign without the help from the folks that specialize in marketing? Doubtful, but I guess we'll see!
This is an example of excellent link bait -- good content with a great call to action at the end. Nice job!
Content is always king and having a passion for your niche will always shine through to the end
Thanks everyone for the great comments.
@Andy - To me, a "webmaster"is a person in IT who is reponsible for the "website" and typically worries about the structure and design, uptime, hosting, software, etc. Unfortunately, because of legacy issues I think too many companies see the website as an IT or technical responsibility, not a marketing asset.
We do website design and internet marketing primarily for small businesses. We try to get clients to focus on marketing but for many of our clients it is very difficult. They haven't yet thought about who their target audience is or what they want their website to do for them. A lot of times they just want a website because everyone else has one so they should too. We're working really hard to get some web 2.0 marketing going in our small city and surrounding areas. Thanks for great articles and services hubspot!
It's in my opinion that it really depends on the webmaster. I certainly care if my client does well. Because the better they do, the better I look. Which means more business for me. And sometimes I find myself really liking a client and wanting to see them excel for their sake, not mine.
I've definitely seen the other kind of webmaster though. They don't care what happens. As long as the job gets done and the client doesn't complain. As a young web designer (age 20) I'm doing my best to not turn into one of those.
So I think that Marketing could trust a webmaster with SEO, but they either need to take the initiative and insist that the web designer works WITH them instead of FOR them, or find the right type of webmaster that actually cares.
Ouch. As a Webmaster that was brutal. Though I like to think I'm an exception and your talking about a rule? I think another important detail is that the title Webmaster is OBSOLETE which is more accurate. There is no one person who can be the master of all things web anymore. Things have simply gotten to complicated and busy.
You need a Web Project Manager, Web Developer, Web Programmer, Web Designer, Graphic Designer, SEO Analyst, PPC Campaign Manager, Web Server Administrator, Database Administrator, Web Analyst, Marketing Manager, Social Media Marketer, Videographer, Photographer, Online Identity Manager...
What am I forgetting here? So yeah... there is no such thing as a "Webmaster" in the 21st century.
Hubspot doesn't understand their audience, clearly. They provide a product that helps webmasters be better at SEO and then rips them a new one in their blog.
Hubspot has bad customer service, too. This is just another indication that they're focused on the wrong things. I'm glad I stopped using it.
Interesting post. Webmasters who continue to operate as you describe are undoubtedly an endangered species. Last year my job title at Kadient was webmaster, but once the initial version of the website was in place I was transferred to the marketing group and charged with the task of turning the site into a marketing and sales engine. While I'm still responsible for the site infrastructure, my emphasis is now on lead generation. I’ve had to become intimately familiar with the value we deliver to each of our visitor personas, our core marketing messages, and our lead management process. When it comes to SEO, I knew I needed to augment my own experience and bandwidth with experts who are immersed in SEO, so we called Hubspot. They educated me in their inbound marketing methodology, and as a result we have seen a huge jump in site visitors on our targeted keywords. Interesting that as a result of this transition, my role at Kadient has been elevated from pure 'webmaster' to web marketing manager.
If what you say is true, I guess I need a new title then. As we look forward to a redesign, my focus as webmaster is to make sure what we (marketing and myself) have done correctly with SEO remains intake, while improving other areas of our website. I believe that small companies will continue to house the "oldschool" webmaster, because they can not hire all the staff that Kyle mentions.
I will agree, this effort requires team work, Marketing should drive the campaigns and content for SEO (keywords, ads, etc.) and webmaster should be the one who implements or executes it as a part of website SEO.