Have you ever felt like your team had a million great ideas but faced challenges getting the support they needed to get things done?
This is a common hurdle in enterprise SEO, where the scale of initiatives and approvals required can threaten the success of even the best ideas.
In this column, you’ll find tips that will help you bridge the gap between SEO and the rest of your business to drive a growth strategy based on my own experience of having to overcome internal objections.
Early in my career, I’ve been plagued by this underappreciated feeling of SEO. We have a lot of potential but lack enough support to gain traction.
There are always old SEO ideologies at play that simplify what SEO is all about.
I still felt the same way when I took my first SEO leadership role.
Despite our success, I can’t figure out why we can’t get the support we need.
This all changes with one piece of advice I continue to pursue as a leader: “Stop talking about SEO.”
Trust me, when I first heard about it, I was amazed.
What do you mean, stop talking? this is what we do.
But they are right.If we can’t connect SEO to a specific business Target – Macro Interests – Our plans will never reach their potential.
They were right and it changed my perspective on how to lead and represent an SEO team.
With the change in mindset, my SEO career has also progressed much faster than I thought.
Here are 7 ways our team has followed this guideline, so our organic search program is now seeing even greater growth.
1. Improve your understanding of the business
It’s easy to keep a low profile and be highly focused on what you’re doing – what directly affects you.
However, without a proper understanding of how your company operates, creates and monetizes, you will never be able to realize your full growth potential.
Continuously improve your knowledge of the company and change as the company changes.
This can be scary if you switch industries.
For example, moving from traditional e-commerce to a lead generation or ad subscription business requires a mindset shift and an interest in understanding the ins and outs of what it actually means.
A generation Started in the steel industry I’m in the automotive industry now, and there’s a very real learning curve to transitioning in such a vertical.
Don’t be afraid to build some time with business partners to learn about their field and how they contribute to the business, and how to measure success.
2. Learn more about what the business thinks is important
Once you understand the business, it is imperative to understand what executive leadership and cross-functional teams deem necessary.
This means understanding the overall business OKRs until Team-level KPIs. Find out how these starts to prepare you for success.
KPIs may vary and may be different from the traditional KPIs you are used to, such as visits and revenue.
If you are leading a content-based organization, you may find that you need Implementation indicators Show the true value of your product, such as market share, scroll depth, video views or lifetime value.
3. Simplify. simplify. Simplify again.
You can have the best idea ever, but if you meet senior leadership with 30 slides showing all the SEO tactics you want to use, good luck.
Put information into a cohesive story that answers the who, what, why, and how—and most importantly, why.
Why are we doing this?
All the important information you gather about how to do it lives happily in the index, and if something goes wrong, you still have everything you need.
The more you interact with your leadership, the clearer their expectations will be and which materials will resonate with them.
Never be afraid to reach out and ask for feedback to help inform your next pitch or presentation.
4. Don’t be afraid to predict
Getting support for SEO work is always challenging if you never show forecasts.
As SEO experts, we are often hesitant to make predictions.
But you know what? We shouldn’t.
No one in your organization understands SEO better than your team. So if anyone wants to make predictions, it should be you!
SEO is not a mysterious black box we don’t understand.
While there are factors and SERP capabilities beyond our control, we have so many tools, data, and other resources that it shouldn’t be difficult to put together a rough forecast.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel as there are a lot of articles about SEO predict.
This gives you top management buy-in and a valid argument for your partners in marketing, product, engineering and more to take over your job in a world of perpetually competing priorities.
5. Don’t be defensive
There are often questions about SEO, especially when it adds complexity or delays other types of work.
Before you take defensive action, take a step back and look at it from the perspective of someone who isn’t living and breathing search.
Take the time to build relationships with your partners and look for opportunities to educate and give them some background.
It may seem time-consuming, but over time, an in-house partner who knows the basics will become your most loyal SEO advocate!
It’s no different than joining a new company, learning about their business plans, and being an advocate for those plans.
We have seen great success with this strategy, which can be achieved by establishing some Best Practice Documentation Start with the basics and continue to add to this library. These are also great when new team members come on board.
Our partners know to contact us with any questions and have an open conversation around SEO and how we can compromise or achieve exactly what we want.
6. Know how and when to prioritize
Not every SEO program is created equal, and your work isn’t always the highest business priority in every sprint.
As an SEO leader, you need to recognize when to die and when it’s wiser to compromise.
We are all working towards the same outcome, refusing to prioritize and compromise, your relationship and trust starts to deteriorate.
No matter who you work with, you can share a prioritized list with your KPIs so you can quickly help prioritize them with other work.
7. Socialize and share success
No enterprise SEO team is an island.
A little louder for those in the back: No SEO team is successful alone.
SEO at the enterprise level is becoming increasingly complex, with factors such as content, core web vitality, user experience, brand reputation, conversions, lead quality, information architecture all at work.
We cannot specialize in all of this.
Our company has a great product, engineering, user experience and analytics team who are equally responsible for driving success.
We work as a team and focus on our respective fields, which creates compound success and makes everyone proud of the products we build for consumers.
This is a great model for any product-led organization.
final thoughts
Enterprise support doesn’t happen overnight. However, by starting to take the first steps in the directions outlined above, you are on your way!
Stay focused and don’t get discouraged, as longevity is critical to the viability of your organic program.
Understanding your business should be the first step and can help inform the next buying step.
These tips are useful whether you’re an individual contributor communicating with managers, or a budding leader communicating with executive leadership.
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Featured Image: fizkes/Shutterstock
