3 Keys To Gaining Company-Wide SEO Support
Whether you work at an online marketing agency or run an in-house SEO department, youve likely encountered the dreaded work wall. That wall may have been a lack of resources or budget, or it may have involved that one person or department who just wasnt interested in helping you get done what you needed to get done.
Its a common scenario. We are all trying to do our jobs, and when someone elses job interferes with ours, we may be hesitant to help out. The challenge for SEOs is we rely on these other departments to help us be successful.
In fact, as Erin Everhart pointed out in a recent post here on Search Engine Land, as SEOs, one of our responsibilities now is educating other teams on how to integrate SEO into their own departments, so we are not constantly working to get other people involved.
So, how do we break down the walls and get our cross-department counterparts to do just that? There is no one answer, but by using the three tactics outlined below, you will certainly have a better chance.
If you search how to speak to colleagues you will be met with all sorts of advice some good, some bad, and some that is just plain common sense. But what most of them will tell you is that no one, regardless of their position or department, appreciates being talked down to. Even more so, no one appreciates someone else telling them how to do their job.
When working with other departments and specifically other team members, its important to understand what their current level of SEO knowledge is.
For example, when we sign a new client, we always start with a discovery call that looks at all elements of the business, including technical capabilities. We want to understand the processes for change, the site structure, and what the IT team currently knows about SEO.
That way, when we are reviewing the technical audit with the team or discussing site changes, we know exactly how much or how little we need to explain. We avoid insulting anyones intelligenceand (in most cases) save ourselves time and work by creating the right messaging and instructions the first time.
Identifying how much a person knows can be tricky but by asking the right questions and talking to people in the know, you can get a pretty good idea.
Read more:
3 Keys To Gaining Company-Wide SEO Support