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12.23.08 Embedding SEO Into Your Company  By Aaron Wall There is a big difference between working on your own sites, and working on sites that belong to others. When you work on your own sites, you can execute changes quickly, and you don't need to convince anyone else of the merits of your actions. However, within an organization, SEO requires significant buy-in on a number of levels. Failure to get that buy in can severely compromise the effectiveness of the SEO, which might - rather unfairly - see the SEO out of a job. In this article, we'll take a look at the problems the SEO who is either in-house, or working on a clients site, faces, and a few ideas on how to deal with them. Embedding SEO Into The Culture In-house SEO is just as much about politics as it is about execution. There will be various stakeholders, many of whom man not be be familiar with SEO. There will be people who will be openly hostile to someone else insisting they change the way they work. No matter what, you're going to ruffle a few feathers. The first step to achieving good SEO outcomes within an organizational structure is to get management buy-in. Given that management have probably already hired you, this should be a relatively straightforward step. Management will want to see facts, figures and strategies that support the business case. Prepare presentations that demonstrate your proposed strategy, how it supports the business case, how long it will take to achieve, and what your measure of success will be. Once these factors are agreed to, you'll have the backup you'll need to undertake the hard part. Convincing The Minions Various people need to buy into SEO in order for it to work. Some companies locate their web team within IT, whilst others place them within marketing. Sometimes, the two business units share ownership of the strategy. The important thing to determine is who has the control, especially over aspects such as site structure, content production, and overall strategy.
Think of internal employees as customers. Also check out my article Overcoming Common SEO Objections. Look to establish rapport with, and train, the various people who occupy these important roles. 1. The Manager You must have buy-in from the person with the most control over the business unit responsible for web strategy. They will be able to provide the support and backup you'll need. Managers tend to respond well to anything that helps them achieve departmental goals. These goals have probably been set by upper management. Look for areas synergy exists. For example, marketing managers often have traffic goals, and similar visitor metric milestones. Show them how SEO will help meet those objectives. This is why it is important to frame SEO in business terms, as opposed to just a technical process. Without management buy in, and aligned business goals, you're unlikely to get support for the technical changes you need to do. Continue reading this article. About the Author: Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, a dynamic website offering marketing tips and coverage of the search space, free SEO videos, and free SEO tools. He is a regular conference speaker, partner in Clientside SEM, and publishes dozens of independent websites. |
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