The Secrets of In-House SEO Teams

Linkdex CRO@gincollette

@gincolle)e

9yearscombined‘in-house’experience

Questions were themed: ✎  SEO representation @ C-Level ✎ Relationships & resource ✎ Prioritize workflow ✎ Monitoring Success ✎ Communication with the business ✎ What goes wrong

PlayingwiththeC-Suite

C-Suite Representation ü  Newer, digital businesses built from the

ground-up have ‘all things digital’ represented well

ü  SEO must be represented at Director level. CMO, Marketing Director or ideally Digital Director

ü  C-Suite must recognize that SEO is an on-going requirement, not a project

“(we’re) building a new site, we asked for a quote with built SEO in, rather than as an after-thought.

That’s real progress”

Cri?calRela?onships

BFF’s ü  Content & Engineering teams ü  Communicate accordingly

“be a communication chameleon”

Communica?on

Communication ü  Be clear about industry challenges ü  Continually educate ü  Experiments are a great way of engaging ü  Transparency

“make yourself as available as possible. Even if the request is random, its an opportunity

for education”

Resource

Who does what? ü  Outsource only commoditized & specialist

tasks ü  Keep multi-skilled team to constantly cross-

skill ü  Ensure right people are involved in the project

MonitoringSuccess

KPIs & Reporting ü  Ensuring that the whole organization sees the

same reports ü  Humanize reporting ü  K.I.S.S.

“wherever possible speak, rather than bamboozle

with complicated reporting”

Priori?za?on

What to-do, today? ü  Autonomy & freedom, in amongst clear team/

individual KPIs ü  Learn patience, things can take a long time

“have a monthly meeting to focus on exactly what has been achieved”

Whatgoeswrong?

What goes wrong? ü  Communication. The business has the same

goals, but lack of SEO understanding can mean that things can happen with SEO team knowledge

ü  Recruiting & retaining the right people

“everything! But that’s ok, because then it gets fixed!”

•  Communica?on,communica?on,communica?on•  In-houseteamneedtooperateinaconsulta?venatureandmakethemselvesavailable

•  Althoughthepercep?onofworkingforabrandorin-houseisthatitcanbeslow,actuallytheteamneedstobeflexibleandbeabletopivotandchangedirec?onasrequired

•  In-houserolesprovidehugecareerbenefitdeepeningbusinessunderstanding

WhatdidIlearn

Thankyou