How to drive seo accountability across your organization

Sustainable & Scalable In-house SEO

© SEMinhouse.com, LLC 2010 | 1


Search Engine Optimization

Accountabilities & Efficiencies



About

Former in-house SEO.

Advocate for in-house SEO.

In 2008 started SEOinhouse.com.

• The agency I wanted as an in-house SEO, but couldn’t find.

• Someone who understood the in-house challenges and dynamics.

• Someone who could infiltrate the rest of the organization on my behalf to get them to do SEO as part of their job.



SEO Efficiency & Accountability

What will make people accountable:

1. Set up lines of defense.2. Incorporate SEO into everyday activities.3. Push back when SEO isn’t included in deliverables sent to you.

What will make you efficient:

4. Numbers 1-3 above.5. Leverage knowledge of the In-house Life Cycle.6. Integrate SEO into the systems development life cycle.7. Integrate SEO into everyone’s job.




You Need a Healthy Organization for

Good SEO

One that can embrace change.



SEOSEO MktgMktg

PublicRelation

PublicRelation

LegalLegal

SalesSales

Product Mgmt

Product Mgmt

UsabilityUsability

Programming

Programming

BuyersBuyers

SEO Crosses Many Disciplines



A good SEO gets the perception of “sticking” their nose in everyone’s business.



SEO needs to be part of every team.








In-house SEO Life Cycle



In-house SEO Program Life Cycle

Court

ship

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oon

Reality Synergy

© 2008 SEOinhouse.com All Rights Reserved.

Fewcompanies leverage

these phases


these phases

Most companies operate here


We get you here,in the shortest amount of time


















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*BLEEP*Happened??!?!!?!






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ship

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Reality Synergy



these phases


these phases








Court

ship

Honeym

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Reality Synergy



these phases


these phases








Court

ship

Honeym

oon

Reality Synergy



these phases


these phases








Court

ship

Honeym

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Reality Synergy



these phases


these phases








Court

ship

Honeym

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Reality Synergy



these phases


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In-house SEO Life Cycle:How to Reach Synergy with the Rest of the Company Quickly

Send a message to [email protected]




SEO & The Rest of the CompanyHow to Integrate the Two



SEO AND IT



SEO involvement is intense at the beginning and declines as the project progresses.

SEO Project Involvement Pyramid



Typical Development Life Cycle w/SEO

When SEO is 1st brought into projects: or or

Where SEO needs to be incorporated into the Development Life Cycle

Extremely ExpensiveOpportunity Costs & Rework

InexpensiveSEO requirements met within scope & budget

How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle



The SEO Life Cycle



How to Incorporate SEO into the Development Life Cycle

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 6

Step 6



SEO success is not theresult of one person’s work.

SEO needs to be part of every Job and Job Description.



Define Lines of Defense



Typical Development Life Cycle Contains:

Phase Roles Involved Common DeliverablesInception (idea created)

Upper ManagementBusiness Sponsor

Scope DocumentProject CharterPRD (product release document)

Requirements Gathering

Business SponsorProduct ManagerProject ManagerUser Experience DesignersSr. Programmers

Requirements documentsPRD (product release document)Wireframes may get started

Design Business Sponsor (review/approve only)Product ManagerUser Experience DesignersProject ManagersSr. Programmers

Finalized WireframesFinalized Visual DesignsPage SpecificationsFinalized Use Cases

Development Product Managers (minimal)Project managersAll Programmers

QA Test ScriptsLogged Bugs/Defects

Launch Development TeamQA TeamSystem Administrators

Changes Live Thumbs up – Everything is GoodLogged Bugs/Defects

SEOSEO SEOSEO



Before a deliverable is accepted, verify it contains SEO requirements and SEO has seen it.



Everyone Needs to Make SEO a Success

Role Responsibility

Execs Ultimately responsible if projects have SEO FailuresHold people accountable for working with SEO properlyDon’t approve things if SEO wasn’t involved (ask SEO to find out)

Product Manager Involve SEO in prioritization decisionsInvolve SEO in SEO requirements for every changeEnsure SEO is involved in all projectsEnsure SEO requirements are in documentationGet SEO input BEFORE things go to the business

Project Manager Get SEO input in the project plan tasksInvolve SEO in the right places of the projectEnsure SEO is involved in all projects

Usability Create search engine friendly user experiencesCreate information architecture optimal for SEO

Programmers Create search engine friendly technologiesSpeak up when it appears SEO hasn’t been involved

QA Testers Test every release for SEO best practicesEnsure SEO QAs each release



Distribute SEO Duties and Create Accountability

Create SEO Champions / Ambassadors throughout the entire organization.

Nurture these relationships.

Make it an official role.

Make it a coveted role with visibility and fun.



IT’s usually best when seo is hip-to-hip with the product manager and product manager of the website.

SEO

Product Mgmt

Project Mgmt

User Exp.



They SAY it’s informal.

There are some formalities, figure out what they are doing.– Change management system/log– Requirements log– Wireframes/page designs

They do have strategic and prioritization discussions.

Put on your detective hat and find it.

Small Biz

SpecificsSmall Biz

Specifics



COPYWRITERS



Anyone Who Influences Copy

Management needs to support, encourage and enforce the change in writing standards.

Be prepared with data – search volume data.

People need trained, repeatedly.– Copywriters– Brand managers– Anyone who influences copy

Training isn’t always “training”, mentoring is needed most.



Training Mentoring



Before content is accepted, verify it is optimized and SEO has seen it.



LINK BUILDERS(PEOPLE WHO CAN GET LINKS)



Anyone with the Opportunity to Get Links

Who should think about link building:– Sales– Contract signers– Buyers– Public relations– Social media– Link builders (if you have them)

How do you hold people accountable? – Regular audits for missed opportunities/lessons learned.– Constantly ask if there are link opportunities with every business relationship.– Management needs to hold people accountable for repeatedly missed

opportunities.

When opportunities are missed, people need to know and learn from the opportunity loss. Few companies do this.



Link Building is Tough

One of the most difficult tactics to pull off.– Time consuming.– Least favorite activity.– Lowest conversion rate.– Usually falls on the back burner.

It is 50%+ of what will make you rank. – This means: if you don’t do it, don’t complain about your rankings.

Makes sense for most companies to outsource, even when you are doing SEO in-house.




Who is accountable for what?



EVERYONE

needs to be accountable for specific SEO tasks.



No single team or person will make SEO a success.

It takes everyone working together.



Everyone needs to incorporate SEO into their

everyday business activities and become a line of defense.

When this happens, efficiencies are self-enforced.



Create SEO Ambassadors to Help



What Ambassadors Do

Learn SEO for their team/role.

Represent SEO and look out for SEO.

Make sure SEO requirements are included.

QA for SEO in each release. – In addition to SEO QA’ing.

Pull in the SEO team when things are complex.

Train others on SEO.

Work with their team to integrate SEO into existing processes, documentation, deliverables and workflows.

Check in with SEO the way a junior programmer checks in with a senior programmer.– SEO isn’t learned in a few months.




How do you hold people accountable?



Holding People Accountable

Push back saying, “it is a waste of time to review or analyze”.– A phrase everyone should use when they receive deliverables without

SEO input.

Incorporate SEO into the organizational rules that define what is acceptable.– Enforces accountability as the way that you do business.



Integrate SEO into Existing Processes

Project Approval Process

Design Process

Writing Process

Prioritization Process

Requirements Documentation Process

QA Process

Prioritization and release planning meetings.

An in-house SEO will spend 80% of their time selling and planning SEO, and only 20% doing SEO.



Involve SEO in Project Planning



Put SEO Guidelines/Standards into EXISTING company guidelines/standards

All development projects abide by company standards and guidelines.

Goal: Get SEO Best practices and standards included into these existing documents

NOTE: Many sets of standards exist within a company



Get SEO requirements into Deliverables

Do not put text in imageDo not put text in image

Make h1 on homepage, no header tag on interior pagesMake h1 on homepage, no

header tag on interior pages

No header tag on homepage, h1 on interior ages

No header tag on homepage, h1 on interior ages

H2 tag, include keywords always in this text

H2 tag, include keywords always in this textNo header

tagsNo header

tags

No header tagsNo header tags

For rotating banner text, use html text over the image and when user has CSS turned off, stack the

images/text on top of eachother so that search engines can read it all

For rotating banner text, use html text over the image and when user has CSS turned off, stack the

images/text on top of eachother so that search engines can read it all

Use <em> not CSS class nameUse <em> not CSS class name



Write and Contribute to Documentation



You want Ambassadors to become proficient enough to do this for you…

Long-Term Plan: SEO team merely reviews and

provides oversight and input on the complex issues so that SEO can focus on the big picture and not the nitty-

gritty details.

Long-Term Plan: SEO team merely reviews and

provides oversight and input on the complex issues so that SEO can focus on the big picture and not the nitty-

gritty details.



Everyone needs to hold Each Other Accountable

Role Responsibility

Execs Ultimately responsible if projects have SEO FailuresHold people accountable for working with SEO properlyDon’t approve things if SEO wasn’t involved (ask SEO to find out)

Product Manager Involve SEO in prioritization decisionsInvolve SEO in SEO requirements for every changeEnsure SEO is involved in all projectsEnsure SEO requirements are in documentationGet SEO input BEFORE things go to the business

Project Manager Get SEO input in the project plan tasksInvolve SEO in the right places of the projectEnsure SEO is involved in all projects

Usability Create search engine friendly user experiencesCreate information architecture optimal for SEO

Programmers Create search engine friendly technologiesSpeak up when it appears SEO hasn’t been involved

QA Testers Test every release for SEO best practicesEnsure SEO QAs each release



Incorporate SEO in Deliverables

Phase Roles Involved Common DeliverablesInception (idea created)

Upper ManagementBusiness Sponsor

Scope DocumentProject CharterPRD (product release document)

Requirements Gathering

Business SponsorProduct ManagerProject ManagerUser Experience DesignersSr. Programmers

Requirements documentsPRD (product release document)Wireframes may get started

Design Business Sponsor (review/approve only)Product ManagerUser Experience DesignersProject ManagersSr. Programmers

WireframesVisual DesignsPage SpecificationsUse Cases

Development Product Managers (minimal)Project ManagersAll Programmers

QA Test ScriptsLogged Bugs/Defects

Launch Development TeamQA TeamSystem Administrators

Changes Live Thumbs up – Everything is GoodLogged Bugs/Defects

SEOSEO SEOSEO




Key Take-Aways



Key Take-Aways

1. SEO needs to be integrated into the way that you do business.– Documentation– Meetings– Systems– Processes– Standards and Rules

2. Assign each role/team a line of defense for SEO to hold each other accountable. – SEO needs to be part of every job.

3. Create SEO Ambassadors and mentor them on SEO for their function.– Long-term Goal: Ambassadors will do the heavy lifting on behalf of SEO.

4. Push back when deliverables arrive without SEO requirements or input.– One conversation with SEO doesn’t cut it.

5. Leverage the In-house SEO Life Cycle’s “honeymoon phase” to implement these changes in the organization.




Thank youJessica Bowman

[email protected]

Top Services:

- SEO Training- SEO Audits- Link Building- Social Media- SEO Process - Development

Top Services:

- SEO Training- SEO Audits- Link Building- Social Media- SEO Process - Development

How to drive seo accountability across your organization

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