From Tickets to Impact - Product and Development Collaboration To Drive SEO Performance

Pubcon 2025 SEO and Dev Collaboration Session - Zach Chahalis

Transcript

1. From Tickets to Impact Product and Development Collaboration To Drive SEO Performance Zach Chahalis @ZachChahalis /ZacharyChahalis
2. Zach Chahalis Vice President of SEO for Over 14 Years in SEO working with brands like: Socials: @ZachChahalis (X) and /ZacharyChahalis (LI)
3. And For Those That Don’t Know Me – I Like Cheesy Analogies. So Buckle Up
4. So Your Website Has Launched – Now What?
5. Just Because Your Site Is Launched, Doesn’t Mean The Work Is Done Your Site Will Not Gain Visibility By Collecting Dust SearchPilot Study On SEO Deprecation
6. And You’ve Likely Inherited Some Tech Debt
7. Let’s Map Out How To Keep Improving And Have A Solid SEO-Development Relationship
8. Develop a Short- and Long-Term Prioritized Roadmap
9. Iterate On That Roadmap Each Quarter By Selecting Your Key Headliners and Features
10. Determine Your Sprint Schedule By Quarter
11. Write Development Tickets Your Team Will Love
12. Define The Issue And The Business Impact Developers Want To Work On Things That Matter
13. Provide As Much Detail As You Can And Recommend Solutions
14. Be Clear On What Passes and Fails
15. Not All Requests Are Equal OR
16. Be Open To Compromise
17. Limit Requirement Changes During A Sprint
18. Develop Effective QA Processes
19. Collaborate On Automated QA Processes
20. Common Pitfalls
21. Monitor Your Redirects Tools To Make Your Lives Easier -> HopScout is a dynamic Google Sheet built to monitor and check redirect status/chains Access it here - https://bit.ly/hopscout Redirect Map Template and Screaming Frog Checker Access it here - https://bit.ly/sf-redirect-checker
22. Fostering A Relationship Of Trust and Accountability
23. Be Open To Feedback
24. Establish Cross- Functional Ownership of SEO
25. Show Your Developers The Value Of Their Work
26. Ensure That The Work And Results Are Visible
27. Top Takeaways SEO Doesn’t Stop at Launch Visibility is earned over time—iterative collaboration is essential post- launch. Roadmaps Drive Progress Develop and revisit your roadmap quarterly. Prioritize features that balance SEO goals and dev feasibility. Write Dev-Friendly Tickets Clearly define issues, business impact, proposed solutions, and pass/fail criteria—developers want to build things that matter. Prioritize Thoughtfully Not every request is urgent. Stack rank stories and minimize mid-sprint pivots to avoid disruption. SEO Performance is a Shared Responsibility Combine automated and human QA to ensure stability and scalability. Don’t wait to catch issues after launch. Build Trust Through Transparency Share performance impact, celebrate dev contributions, and foster cross- functional ownership of SEO success. Be Open to Feedback and Compromise SEO is a team sport—listen, adapt, and work toward shared outcomes, not perfect implementations.
28. Get The Slides – https://bit.ly/pubcon-2025-dev-seo Twitter/X: ZachChahalis LinkedIn: /zacharychahalis