Google was not joking when it posted a job opening for a full-time "Program Manager, Search Engine Optimization" on Wednesday. The search engine giant is looking to hire someone that would help the company improve its search rankings and drive more traffic to its services.
"As a Program Manager for Technical SEO, you will work with cross-functional teams across Marketing, Sales, Product Development, Engineering and more to help drive organic traffic and business growth. You will take part in website development and optimization, help shape blog and social strategy, improve website code hygiene and define web architecture for international websites," Google wrote in the job listing.
While it may seem irrelevant for a company that is already considered the finest in SEO, speculation arose that the position was created to hush doubts of Google's business practices. As previously reported by HNGN, Google's search rankings have been the subject of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation, as well as an ongoing antitrust investigation by European Union regulators. Both groups were investigating the notion of the company skewing search results in its own favor.
It can also indicate that Google is changing priorities because the job listing implies that the person who gets the job will be responsible for making sure that Google's services will be visible even in its rivals' sites. Despite owning 67 percent of the search engine market in North America, the search engine giant wants to stay ahead of the competition.
"Google is keen to aggressively push into the cloud computing market that Amazon is finding success in," Yousaf Sekander, SEO head at digital marketing firm Rocket Mill, told BBC News. "Clearly, Google wants to be more visible in the search results both for itself and other popular search engines in this lucrative sector."
