SEO strategy encompasses a website not the other way around 

When websites are created that’s the time SEO strategy needs to be implemented and planned out. The reason for this is, SEO involves every aspect of a website’s being, that to do this step at any other time is going to lead to a lot of extra work. It’s just more efficient to handle this strategy upfront, since it’s dealing with everything from content, code, styling, competitor research and even short, medium and long term time scales. 

Templated SEO is Dangerous  

Much of SEO is not able to be scaled with a template, which means many want to try and do exactly that to be able to implement, track results and employee success. However, that very act of measurement can have unforeseen outcomes if you think you’re measuring one thing, but it’s really part of something bigger.   

SEO can scale but how you scale it isn’t with a template. You’ll need to do research and approach each issue as its own problem needing its own solution. Everything from time, effort, how it’s done and the approach to research changes based on the variable being looked at. Thinking everything is an SEO nail needing a hammer is how you ruin your organic traffic.  

Time is an illusion to SEO   

SEO works much like a tree compared to a human when time is brought into play. Meaning you don’t get to force SEO tasks into a timescale and expect positive results. It’s like paying a cheaper price for a product, you get what you pay for.   

In SEO, you tend to get what you focus time and effort on, if you’re pushing employees to focus more on a perceived deadline and not on the SEO issue in all its complication, problems will result and those original SEO issues only get partially solved.   

How companies cause their SEO problems 

Many times SEO problems are a result of simply not knowing, this ignorance around SEO is costly. Google is about to roll out a web core vitals update that will force the hand of many websites to see these issues they didn’t before as it will be why their competitors will outrank them.  

SEO can be overworked by misaligned tasks

 We could get into many variables of what is missed or not properly allocated when talking about SEO. From Google product management to even just basic heading tag optimization, the time and workload needed for any given task can pose problems for SEO teams when not properly understood alongside everyday SEO tasks.


But mainly these subset of issues are best boiled down into these categories:  

Unrealistic Measurement  

Measurement is a fickle concept. When SEO data is needed to be measured, you best do it correctly or you’ll easily create problems where none existed. Understanding what is being measured, how it fits into other bigger SEO issues it at all and how to best track such is vital.  

Not understanding SEO at its Core   

Simply not understanding what SEO is in all its many faceted forms is a prime example of how companies are shooting themselves in the foot. You can’t improve what you don’t even see right?  

Lack of proper communication   

This is big, communication is key everywhere, but from the SEOs and the managers that follow. It’s a balancing act that requires experience and tactfulness to properly convey what’s needed in terms of resources, time, expectations and overall outcome.   

How Can You Improve The Corporate SEO Problem?  

SEO for larger companies becomes an issue due to the scope of the tasks and size of the company. That’s A LOT of hands in the cookie jar then, so even MORE attention to detail is needed to catch when SEO efforts are undone. Even basic variables like time, effort and money play more annoying roles the larger a company or website is.   

Breaking the basic pieces of advice based on the company role might work best:  

As a manager   

Properly understand the tasks in ALL their detail to better address time concerns, and other various distractions that could arise and subtract from time spent on the overall issue at hand.   

As an SEO   

Properly outline and give segmented deliverables in terms of measurement and progress on said task, allowing higher ups to better understand the overall scope of the issue as well as the severity to properly understand time to effort constraints.  

As a C Level   

Realized that SEO is still not ever 20 years old yet. That it’s ALWAYS evolving, changing and optimizing itself. That even Google backtracks at times and competitors aren’t always the best to copy. There’s always more to the 1st glance in competitor research that’s needed to uncover the real reason for the wins.  

As a Company  

Adopt a basic SEO educational mindset for all who touch and interact with the website, no matter what that interaction involves, there’s a good chance SEO touches that as well.  

SEOs are the Newspaper Editors of the Future  

Newspaper editors are a vital part of any newspaper, they edit, assign, rewrite and layout ALL the copy to be used and makes sure it’s legit, correct and readable. An SEOs job is not much different, just take the above and spread it across every single webpage on the site.   

Making this analogy isn’t just convenient,  it can help save your company a ton of money! Trusting the SEO and allowing them to delegate or have weight given to decisions or recommendations is exactly how websites beat competitors. But that understanding and then path needs to be opened up in order to properly utilize SEOs.  

How SEO and DEV can be thought of the same  

SEO and the DEV team have the same needs when it comes to autonomy and scope of website tasks, when pushed through certain company bottlenecks like OKRs. Often SEO for the company is limited as a result, due to more focus on meeting some deadline than improvement. OKRs are important and don’t need to be tossed, just reworked to better fit the mindsets of SEOs and the company’s need to measure progress.   

Why SEO needs the Space to operate like the DEV team  

Sometimes what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. The dev team gets a few special breaks when it comes to operation inside a company. Doing this with the SEO team can have many beneficial effects, removing unneeded stress is one simple one, another is lack of context switching since SEOs deal with so many variables at once, it can be more easily related to dealing with code in all its headache and wonderment.  

Reasons SEO Consultants Are Needed

Needing an SEO consultant can make the existing SEO team feel a little gut punched. But often they’re not the real reason the consultant is even needed. Sometimes it’s just a matter of company growth and lack of general overall knowledge around SEO and the many pitfalls that can occur.  

  • Lack of Strategy – A lack of SEO strategy can be a number one cause that efforts seem disconnected regardless of being just that.
  • Lack of Communication – Without properly communicating the needs and expectations of any given task, assumptions can create misalignment.
  • Time Management – Misunderstandings around task timelines could have the project viewed as behind or unachievable, don’t expect internal linking to get done overnight.
  • Unrealistic Expectations – Expectations need to be aligned before tasks are even started to make sure all parties are fully aware of project scope.
  • Education – Basic education is the prevention of future problems! Teach on page SEO and off page SEO!

SEO isn’t an island it’s the infrastructure  

SEO has been bottlenecked and things they know they need to do aren’t given the level of attention the SEOs want to give, due to the time higher ups think it’s wasteful, resulting in many missing the basics in an all-around healthy SEO strategy.   

Sometimes SEO advocates are needed  

Not feeling like you’re properly telling a story can be frustrating, even more if you’re not being given time, money or manpower to help with any given task. Often SEO consultants are brought in, only to find out that it’s a communication issue more than how the task was approached.   

Basic SEO Education resolves a lot of repetitive work  

The company as a whole can’t help SEO, if they have no clue what it is they even do. Moreover they cannot prevent themselves from being part of the SEO problem, without knowing they are doing anything wrong. This is where that old adage comes from, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  

SEO needs to be Strategy not an afterthought for problem fixes  

In the lifetime of an SEO at any given company, they will have fixed more issues that others have caused that they would have optimized or created in general. A great way to help remedy this problem is to make sure basic SEO knowledge if understood by all interacting with the website.