SEO In-house Blog

Checklist to Integrate SEO into the Organization (A few of the Things We do With Our Clients)

As in-house SEOs, we know that successfully integrating SEO into your organization requires methodical preparation and planning so that the right processes are in place and the right people know how to apply them. We also know that this isn't always as easy and smooth as we would like it to be. Doing it right the first time will help people embrace SEO and limit the energy needed to fix problems after the problems start.

Anyone who has built an in-house SEO program from the ground up can appreciate the novelty of the Honeymoon Phase of the In-house SEO Life Cycle. It’s a great time where everyone wants to learn about SEO and be involved.

It doesn't take long for the winds to change and the seas to becoming stormy. People might resist others telling them how to do their job or creating change in the way they do things. This is when things become the most difficult and require careful planning and a delicate touch.  

Things will get better…. eventually. But they could get better faster. 

To help make that transition smooth, quick, and as painless as possible, we created these 3 Must-Have Checklists (PDF Download) for integrating SEO into the organization. These are some of the things we do when consulting with in-house SEO teams. They will help you plan your attack, from building the business case to distributing the SEO workload.

Each of these lists should be adapted to meet your organization’s specific political, organizational, or technical SEO challenges, or where you are in the process of SEO integration, but provide a helpful starting point and point of reference throughout the process.  

With these checklists, it will now be easier get from the honeymoon to the “Synergy Phase” … all with minimal time in the stormy seas. 

Get the Checklists Now

 

Buying Links Stinks… But Survey Shows 50% of You Do it Anyway

We get it.  There is a time and place for everything, including bought links.  We all know people buy links.  A recent survey of 200 SEOs (conducted by SEOptimise) showed 50% of respondents buy links, and 20% would consider buying links depending on the scenario.  Only 26% said “no – we keep clear of any link buying activitiy.”

This is not surprising, and is consistent with what we’ve seen with in-house SEOs.  Anecdotally, link buying seems be in alignment with the aggressiveness of company culture, how many risks an organization is willing to take to, and the competitiveness of the market.

A paid link normally has one purpose and its value only lasts as long as search engines’s paid link algorithms don’t detect it.  It’s like buying a sick horse. 

If You Are Buying Links – Read, Think, and Act on This:

If you are buying links, you better be cooking up other link building plans for when the sick horse dies and traffic tanks. It happens, and we often get pulled in to help triage the situation. What do we do?  We define a holistic link building strategy that isn’t just about SEO, but is about building the brand as a whole – this is the new link building.

The best type of link building creates opportunities to build a brand through brand awareness, diversity of your link profile, and engagement (not to mention all that great traffic, which is the desired end result anyhow).  Even if Google’s algorithm changes and the link, for whatever reason is no longer valued for ranking, only one portion of the overall value is compromised.  It’s like diversifying your retirement portfolio.

Spend your money more creatively and in ways that accomplish multiple goals in addition to building your site’s authority or relevance.  Spend your money on time and really really cool prizes.  A couple ideas?

• Organize a competition among your peers.
• Organize a competition for your customers.
• Sponsor a charity event.
• Host a charity event.
• Provide university scholarships.

Link building as the SEO industry has known it is on it’s way out.  It’s not dead yet, but will have a slow, drawn out death over the next few years (and in some spaces quicker than this). Good old fashioned quality article writing and infographics will live on, but with a holistic perspective rather than the typical SEO-only perspective we too-often see.   

It’s amazing what we’ve seen happen when clients start diverting money away from paid links to more multi-dimensional link building.   Given the right strategy, content starts writing itself and people will start talking about (and linking to) your brand. The best of class SEO programs are partnering with other departments to pony up budget and resources, footing part the bill from social media and PR budgets.  Now that’s getting a lot more bang for your link building buck.

Need more link building ideas?  Consider a 4-day SEO intensive, where you walk away with a 12-month SEO roadmap.

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Systematized SEO Converts 150% more leads. Thus we introduce The SEO Launch Pad

The 2011 MarketingSherpa study on search marketing found that companies who routinely use SEO processes with guidelines convert 150% more leads than those who do not.  

With this in mind, we are launching The SEO Launch Pad, 4-days of intensive SEO hands-on training, audit and keyword research… that you do during the program, on your computer, for your site. But it doesn’t end there…

The SEO Launch Pad = part training, part audit, and part consulting all rolled into one. It is designed to launch your SEO program and round out your skills with tools, processes and a systematic approach to doing SEO.  Do not compare this to SEO trainings that you have seen in the past (in comparison, they are a total snore!).

 

The SEO Launch Pad was developed with in-house SEOs in mind.  Its intensive training that uncovers the lessons to be learned from YOUR sites and YOUR data.  We use real tools, real processes, and real SEO work for dramatic results that will leave you with a deeper knowledge of SEO, and specifically how it pertains to your site, so that you carry away a long list of action items.

We’re holding The Launch Pad in Austin Texas, October 24-27, 2011.  It is limited to 12 in-house SEOs to keep it intimate and discreet. This gives everyone plenty of one-on-one time with in-house SEO expert Jessica Bowman who has a decade of experience training hundreds of in-house SEOs and creating systems and processes to build best-of-class in-house SEO programs.

What makes the SEO Launch Pad different?

• We use a concise and systematic rapid-learning methodology that packs a lot of punch over 4 intense days.
• Our exercises use YOUR site and YOUR data so that you are creating an actionable list of priorities at the same time as learning how to act on our findings. (Laptop required)
• Our classes are small and intimate.  We limit the class sizes to no more than 12 people and have the same confidentiality policies as the In-house SEO Exchange – what is said in the room, stays in the room.
• You’ll leave with a library and toolkit of resources, and know how to apply them specifically for your site.
• You have pre-work, homework assignments, and follow-up calls. When we say it’s intense, we mean it.
• Our program doesn’t begin or end on the dates of the course.  We start with a one-on-one intake discussion with you that allows us to understand where your challenges are and adapt examples from your site and data.  There are also follow-up exercises and follow-up Q&A calls with the group.
• You get a private follow-up call with Jessica for you and the rest of your company’s team to answer the questions that came up as you presented your findings and recommendations.

Learn more about the SEO Launch Pad Training  - it will launch your in-house SEO program on a course for higher rankings and greater success in SEO.