When you start to work with a new person or division to implement SEO, it can take a lot of time before they reach out to you on their own. You watch one opportunity after another go out the window as you continue selling SEO within your organization.
The first hurdle in implementing search engine optimization within an organization is getting search at the top of people’s mind, and keeping it there. This must happen before people will reach out to incorporate search engine optimization into the things they do. Once you have this, you know you’re on the right path; the key is to identify when this hurdle has been crossed.
We crossed the first hurdle and you could barely see it: For about three months, I had been trying get a certain division to optimize their copy to show up in search engines. We had meeting after meeting to discuss opportunities for optimizing new content added to their website. My contact got the concept, just never involved me when she had something to write. As the months drug on, I watched one opportunity after another come and go. As I saw new things go out, I’d find an opportunity to chat about we could do with the copy.
One day she walked into a meeting talking to me about her busy day and this new piece of copy she was writing, it was a lot of work with a quick turnaround. She finished the story by saying she had thought about calling me to optimize the copy, but there wasn’t time. To which I nicely smiled and said, “That’s ok, we’ll get it next time.”
The hidden SEO victory: After a moment it hit me, I always bring up the opportunities for search when I hear something had been written, she didn’t identify them on her own. There was a hidden SEO victory here: She consciously thought about me when she was writing something that was perfect for our SEO initiative. She crossed the first hurdle for implementing search engine marketing. This was a huge success!
The SEO in-house take-away: As the in-house SEO you’re often left out of things you want to be in, you face one obstacle after another, and some efforts feel like a lost cause. Just keep moving forward with your eyes and ears open, because where you least expect it, you’ll discover those hidden victories. Look for them.
Don't forget: Tout these hidden SEO victories to your manager, because you are making progress - even if it doesn’t look that way on the surface.
Hang in there. As an in-house SEO your journey is made of baby steps - the larger the company, the smaller the step. Just keep moving in the right direction, one small step after another, and before you know it they'll see both you and SEO as key assets.
