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AshNallawalla-Winning-In-House-SEO-Battles.pdf

Ash Nallawalla
March 16, 2024
16

 AshNallawalla-Winning-In-House-SEO-Battles.pdf

Silos in corporations sometimes work against the best interests of SEO. How to prevent such disputes.

Ash Nallawalla

March 16, 2024
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  1. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Winning In-House SEO Battles When Friendly Fire

    Strikes Ash Nallawalla Fractional SEO, CRM911 Digital Author of “Accidental SEO Manager” AI images by Microsoft Image Creator
  2. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla • SEO consultant at CRM911.com • Moderator

    at Webmasterworld forums • Mostly in enterprise SEO roles, notably Carsales.com.au, Suncorp Insurance Group, NAB, ANZ Bank, UBank, Optus and Yellow Pages; also Macromedia/Adobe, Royal Australian Air Force etc • International SEO • Ham radio operator • Book author (Amazon) 2
  3. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla With Friends Like These… • Medium-to-large enterprises

    usually operate in silos and each silo tries to meet the assigned targets. • Sometimes, that might thwart SEO efforts to meet the same assigned targets. • Why does this happen? • Has it happened to you? 4
  4. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Why Do Silos Clash? 5 SEO Team

    Silo Causes of tensions Goals not linked Roles not understood Shared KPIs/OKRs Often there is no overlap Communicate! Always a great idea
  5. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Our Frenemies • The Doubters • Recruiters

    • Finance • Marketing • Legal • Product Owners • User Experience • IT/Engineering • Content Teams • Analytics • And more… 6
  6. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Doubters • Some execs are sceptical about

    SEO and will resist allocating a budget for it. This is usually in the startup phase, but it can happen for later SEO requests. • A startup founder builds the website personally, or asks a family member to do so. • Solution: None, if there is no SEO hired to help. Explain the SEO benefits clearly. 7
  7. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Recruiters • Recruiters are (IMHO) the biggest

    threat to SEO. • They can eliminate the best candidate for a vacancy for a non-SEO reason, e.g. age, or other illegal but unprovable bias. • My solution was to let me (the SEO Manager) to see all the applications (100s) and interview five or six, and arrive at a short list of three. Then I included a recruiter in the final interview. Be sure to follow all corporate protocols. 8
  8. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Finance • Finance does not get involved

    with the daily SEO tasks, but can unexpectedly cut budget, e.g. reduce headcount, reduce tool subscriptions, etc. • Regular communication about the importance of SEO will help. 9
  9. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Marketing • (In Australia, SEO is usually

    not a part of Marketing) • In one company, Marketing was very possessive of all content on the website and even wanted to approve meta tags. E.g. We cannot use the word “cheap” because we are a premium brand and it goes against our brand tone and voice. • The agreed solution in such cases was to use such language in the Title tag or Meta Description. 10
  10. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Legal • Legal might object to certain

    language on the page, e.g. superlatives that cannot be substantiated, e.g. “Best.” • Solution: If a neutral person, a reviewer, for example, declares our product the best in class, it might sway Legal into allowing such a descriptor. Industry awards are another example. 11
  11. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Product Owners • The larger the company,

    the greater is the possibility that the product owners are not in your building or city. • The owners might disagree with suggested changes to the page content. • Explain the SEO benefit of the proposed changes. Use corporate metrics, such as KPIs, OKRs to show how the product owners will benefit. 12
  12. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla User Experience • UX can reject SEO

    input, e.g. navigation, accessibility and use vague claims – “our customers prefer this.” • Present SEO case and escalate if necessary. • Request input into user surveys. 13
  13. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla IT/Engineering • Conflicts with SEO can occur:

    – Firewalls that block SEO crawlers or even search engines! – Security policies – blocked sites, locked down PCs, inability to add browsers or add extensions, blocked network protocols, e.g. traceroute, ping etc • Solution is communication: – Explain need – Ask for exceptions to policy • If all fails, get an unofficial laptop that is outside the network and has its own network connection. 14
  14. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Content Teams • If the content writing

    team is not integrated with the SEO team, they might be sensitive to SEO input. • If the CMS team is separate, factor them into the workflow. • Agree on a content brief template and a workflow that goes through the SEO team, e.g. – Primary query – Additional search terms (provide a Keyword Register) – Linking suggestions (internal and external) 15
  15. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Analytics • Audit tracking tags regularly. Many

    were placed out of curiosity and nobody is using that information now. • Often nobody remembers who asked for the tracking. • Suggest the unclaimed tags be removed. 16
  16. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Ideal Solution • Promote the SEO manager

    to the C-suite. • Title such as “Chief Web Officer”, “Chief Webmaster” or “Website Success Officer. 17
  17. #pubcon https://accidentalseomanager.com @ashnallawalla Thank You! • Please connect via LinkedIn

    and mention Pubcon. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashnallawalla/ • Read my book/s. 18