Given at Pubcon in Las Vegas, NV on 11 October 2016 in the In-House SEO Team Building session, this presentation covers the art of aligning your team building efforts with your SEO strategy.

1. SEOStrategies
ResourceAlignment

2. A-Team

3. Keith L. Goode

4. BrettTabke

5. Back to In-House

6. EnterpriseStrategies

7. Enterprise SEO Strategies
Ad-hoc
Maturity Model
Beyond

8. What does an ad-hoc SEO Strategy look like?

9. Reactionary
Traffic Losses
Rank Changes
Lost Conversions
Penalties
Algorithm Changes
Photo credit:Taro the Shiba Inu https://flic.kr/p/bk9coA

10. SEO is likely …
Run in a silo
A post-event effort
Addresses problems after
they’ve happened
Photo credit:John Mayer https://flic.kr/p/agXNvA

11. Bad Approach
revenue
time
opportunity
frustration

12. Rate of Change

13. 14
15
16
AI

14. George Harrison
“And if you don’t know where
you’re going,
any road will take you there”
Photo credit:GullhermeTavares https://flic.kr/p/4G1NZR

15. EnterpriseSEO

16. Enterprise SEO
02
Goal: Increase Traffic and Revenue
Strategy: Expand Reach – Build better content, increase target keywords
Intermediate Strategy
03Goal: Increase New Client Acquisition
Strategy: Introduce Brand to new users earlier in the buying cycle
Mature Strategy
01
Goal: Improve Rankings for Core Keywords
Strategy: Fix tech issues, Optimize Content, Build Links
Basic Strategy

17.  Usability
Is your site fast, responsive,
engaging, shareable,
crawlable, and indexable?
01
 Relevance
You establish relevance with
great content that inspires,
educates, informs, and
entertains.
02
 Authority
Earned links, company online
reputation, article references,
citations, co-citations, etc.
03

18. Search Experience
1. Architecture Issues
2. Indexing Issues
3. Audience and Market Size evaluation (Topic
development)
4. Audience segmentation (Topic management)
5. Content Mapping
6. Content Optimization
7. Links (External, Internal & Social)
Usability
Relevance
Authority

19. The Challenge
What’s Beyond?
• Users come to my site
first for what they
need
• Users stay on my site
• Users convert
Challenge: How do I
become a replacement
for Google?
4
Basic to Mature
• Users start at the
SERPs
• Users stay on my site
• Users convert
Challenge: Dependent
on external entities,
algorithms and
experiences
1-3

20. Enterprise SEO
04
03
02
01
Goal: Be the starting point and end point for a user’s search and purchase cycle
Strategy: Build a search experience relevant to any device or location that serves the user’s need. OR build a
brand new way to search.
Google Replacement Strategy
Goal: Increase Traffic and Revenue
Strategy: Expand Reach – Build better content, increase target keywords
Intermediate Strategy
Goal: Increase New Client Acquisition
Strategy: Introduce Brand to new users earlier in the buying cycle
Mature Strategy
Goal: Improve Rankings for Core Keywords
Strategy: Fix tech issues, Optimize Content, Build Links
Basic Strategy

21. Google Replacement
Examples:
Photo credit: Eli Duke https://flic.kr/p/5FhBnn

22. Google Replacement
Examples:
Photo credit: Me

23. Google Replacement
Example:
Photo credit:Vladimir Pustovit https://flic.kr/p/qbac9i

24. Google Replacement

25. Vision Activities
Activities
Tactics
Strategy
Goals
Vision

26. SEOStrategy

27. Pros
Cons
01 FTE Pros
• Subject matter expertise
• A greater sense of team
• Additional time to do work doesn’t cost
more (if salaried)
• Personal investment in success and brand
02 FTE Cons
• 30+% additional in benefits & insurance
(USA)
• Discipline and coaching efforts
• Career direction advisement
• PTO and Sick time

28. Industry Survey
Mostly Individual Contributors or
SEO Managers

29. Industry Survey
Companies are hiring!!!

30. Salaries in SEO
SEO Specialist
Sr. SEO Specialist
*Based on US data from Indeed (http://www.indeed.com/salaries)
SEO Manager
Marketing Director

31. Now add 20% - 33% per employee for …
Health insurance contributions
Matching 401(k)
Bonuses
Equipment
Etc., etc., etc.

32. Industry Survey
#1 comment in Other was that
companies are paying for
continuing education and
allowing it to be OTJ.

33. What are some challenges to hiring in-
house team members?

34. Industry Survey
#1 and #2 issues have been
either a lack of SEO knowledge
or experience

35. What are the qualities that in-house
teams are looking for in candidates?

36. Industry Survey
1. Business intelligence /
analytics
2. Marketing copy / writing
3. Using industry point
solutions and/or platforms
4. Product or project
management
5. Coding

37. Industry Survey
1. Willingness to learn new
skills
2. Ability to learn new skills
3. Ability to be self-directed
and self-motivated
4. Effective interpersonal
skills
5. Effective writing skills

38. Supplementing in-house team members
with agencies, consultants and contractors

39. Pros
Cons
01 Agency Pros
• Established experience in SEO
• Generally have a well-tested approach
• Diverse set of skills built in
02 Agency Cons
• Retainers can be expensive
• Locked in to contracts
• No subject matter expertise in your
company, products or services
• Time to work on project limited to contract

40. Monthly Retainer
Average US retainer is between $500 and $5000 USD per month
Source: Moz “SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models,” January 3rd, 2012

41. Per-Project Cost
Average US project-based contract is between $1001 and $7500 USD*
*Search EngineWatch says up to $30,000 USD here.
Source: Moz “SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models,” January 3rd, 2012

42. Hourly Rate
Average US hourly rate is between $76 and $200 USD per hour
Source: Moz “SEO Pricing: 600+ Agencies Share Costs of Services & Pricing Models,” January 3rd, 2012

43. Assumptions
Shared Workload
Short-Term Assignments
Migrations
Problem Mitigation
Grunt Work

44. Synergies
Long-Term On-Going Advisement
Aid in Planning and Strategy
Additional Perspectives
Social Proof
Photo credit:TheWhite House https://flic.kr/p/7ok1oi

45. Blended ApproachIn-House Team
Specialists, BI, Manager, Director
Take care of the day-to-day
analysis, stakeholder meetings, on-
going review, training, reporting
Contractors
Temp-to-Hire, Short-Term Help
Short-term projects, grunt work,
way-station for potential FTE.
Agency
Including Agencies and Consultants
Long-term advisement, strategy
and planning, quarter/annual site
reviews, competitive analysis

46. Takeaways
won’t fix a lack of a strategy
“What is my vision?”
Search Experience Framework
costs and benefits