**by Aaron Bradley**
By bringing search marketing in-house, a company has already made the
determination that their SEO efforts are better managed internally
than externally. Whatever the specific thought processes behind that
decision, there are many realms where in-house SEO may offer an
advantage over outsourcing of those same activities. In this sense,
in-house SEO may be thought of as a competitive edge. And like any
competitive advantage, it should be leveraged to maximize the benefits
of that advantage.
This is not to say there may not be specific advantages to engaging
independent contractors or using an agency, but that by thinking
through and exploiting the inherent strengths of in-house SEO, you can
improve the return on your in-house investment. Put another way, what
can you do – or do better – that a company relying on external SEO
support cannot?
SEO as an incentive
Regardless of the setting one of the biggest challenges for SEO, and
in particular organic SEO, is getting all the players on board. Most
SEO initiatives require both non-SEO talent and buy-in for tactical
execution. Your strategy to create search-friendly URLs may be
brilliant, but is not going to amount to much unless your developers
also think it is a good idea, and put it on their production schedule.
What's in it for them?
Presumably, your company will benefit from increased search traffic
or they would not have invested in SEO in the first place. Success in
search means better profitability for the company. So by helping you,
your colleagues will also be helping themselves. Bonuses may rely on
company goals that search traffic can help meet. In the case of a
start-up, employees have even more of a vested interest in the success
or failure of efforts that are not directly under their control.
The benefits of SEO are not going to be much of an incentive for this
sort of self-interested collegiality unless you very clearly
demonstrate these benefits. With each success, loop back with those
who helped make that success possible and provide statistical,
bottom-line metrics that quantify that success. "Thanks for your
help with this project" is nice, but not quite as effective as,
"thanks for your help with this project, which resulted in increased
revenues of $50,000 from search engine traffic in September."
Just a desk away
Hopefully, even without the promise of direct financial reward, your
workplace fosters a spirit of camaraderie and teamwork. Building on
that collegial spirit by developing close working relationships across
the company is one of the most important advantages an in-house SEO
program has over externally-managed search marketing, especially if
that external relationship is literal, where contractors are not
physically found in the office.
Again, SEO requires collective effort, and the more in which you
involve your colleagues and provide feedback to them, the more
motivated and effective collaborators they will become. Furthermore,
by providing ongoing information, training and advice on SEO best
practices, you can help bring the excitement, promise and payoff of
search marketing efforts to the entire company. All things being
equal, management will probably grant you more time to spend educating
your colleagues than they would to a contractor or agency; if
they're enlightened, in-house SEO education is probably one of the
reasons they hired you in the first place!
Search marketing aside, an in-house search program can, in itself,
help build bridges that foster greater communication and teamwork in a
company. There are few activities that cross over so many departmental
boundaries, and one of those very specific advantages of in-house SEO
is helping to globally connect the dots within an organization. More
times than I can remember, a meeting or email has ended up with me
introducing Jane to John's initiative. Your media buyer may not even
know where your developers sit; your server administrator may not even
know you have an affiliate marketing team. You talk to them all (or
you should), and one of the most important non-search services an
in-house SEO can provide is putting the right stakeholders together.
Building your team, your way
If you are fortunate enough to have an SEO team, or if by reaping the
fruits of your labor, you are able to start building one with the
cash-flow you have generated, giving you the ability assemble a team
that precisely addresses the needs of your company's search
marketing needs. You will be able to use hiring criteria that include
specialist knowledge of what your company does or sells, filling gaps
in your team's abilities, or even personality. One way or another,
you do not have to rely on the talent pool of a third-party provider.
Depending on the size of your company, you also may have a talent
pool right at hand. By recruiting internally, you should have a much
better idea of a potential SEO's abilities and work habits than
those of an external applicant. Whatever your organization's view on
internal career moves, it will be much, much messier for a contractor
or agency to bring an insider onto a company's outsourced SEO team.
Furthermore, you may want to bring people onto your team that are not
even experienced in SEO. An agency is never going to send you someone
to train on the job (and a company is even more unlikely to allow
that), but that may precisely be what your team needs. An individual
with the right background, skills and mindset may have the potential
to be an excellent SEO with your training and guidance. Good SEO help
is, as they say, hard to find, and you may have better success
cultivating SEOs than trying to find them.
I built a very talented team over the course of time by using these
methods. In the end, the majority of my teammates came from elsewhere
in the company, and the majority of them had very little or no
experience in search marketing. Yet, in a very short period of time,
they were producing stellar results, and all (as far as I can
determine) have remained in search marketing.
Testing the waters
Whether or not you have a team or you are the in-house team, you
probably have more latitude to conduct tests than would be granted to
an external contractor. Longer-term tests, particularly important for
organic search optimization – can be undertaken without the risk
that you will lose or no longer be able to afford the experimenter.
You may also be able to test bolder hypotheses, as there will not be
the same pressure to produce conclusions that are immediately
actionable and profitable. Being granted the freedom to fail is one of
the greatest ways to encourage innovation, and hopefully your
organization understands and embraces this concept.
At the end of the day, who benefits from the knowledge derived from
an elaborate and potentially expensive test? When those tests are
conducted in-house, your company and your company alone. For an
agency, the lessons learned may be applied to aid any number of
clients. I'm neither suggesting that agencies will share a
client's test results, nor use them to the present or future benefit
of competitors, but simply that these are lessons learned in part on
your dime.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of the potential advantages
offered by an in-house SEO program, but only examples. And there may
be specific benefits for in-house SEO related to the particular niche
your organization occupies. However big or small your company, and
whatever industry it falls under, it will possess some advantages in
search over similar companies without in-house SEO support. To make
the most of those advantages, ensure you identify and exploit them.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Aaron Bradley <http://searchengineland.com/author/aaron-bradley/>
Aaron Bradley is SEO Manager for online jewelry store Ice.com
<http://www.ice.com>
, and writes on search issues at his blog SEO Skeptic
<http://www.seoskeptic.com>
. He has been an in-house SEO since 2005, following ten years as a
website designer.
<font size="-1">
Upcoming Search Marketing Expo events you won't want to miss:<ul><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/west/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BWest%2B2010">SMX
West - Santa Clara, CA</a> - March 2-4, 2010</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/advanced/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BAdvanced%2B2010">SMX
Advanced - Seattle, WA</a> - June 8-9, 2010</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/munich?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BMunich%2B2010">SMX
Munich</a> - March 23-25, 2010</li><li><a
href="http://www.searchmarketingexpo.com.au/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BSydney%2B2010">SMX
Sydney</a> - April 22-23, 2010</li></ul>Attend a <a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=SMN%2Bgeneral">Search
Marketing Now</a> Webcast - it's free! Upcoming webcasts:<ul><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/webcasts/wc091022">Maximizing
Conversions: The Power of Call Tracking and Analytics</a> - October 22,
2009</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/webcasts/wc091028">Managing Search
Marketing Success at the C-level: What Your CMO Should Know</a> - October
28, 2009</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/webcasts/wc091103">Ask iProspect: PPC
Strategy & Tactics from the Experts</a> - November 3,
2009</li></ul>Interested in advertising or sponsoring Search Marketing Expo
or Search Marketing Now webcasts? <a
href="http://thirddoormedia.com/contact/sales.shtml?utm_source=searchcap&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=General%2BSales">Contact
us</a>.
<div><a href="http://www.superbhosting.net/"><img
src="http://www.searchmarketingnow.com/_images/superb.gif"
border="0"></a></div>
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to a Search Engine
Land, Search Marketing Now or Search Marketing Expo newsletter. To update
your subscriptions or unsubscribe, use your newsletter preferences page at
http://third.thirddoormedia.com/lists/?p=preferences&id=2&uid=f9779113b77d03598707df46ae032f9b.
Or send your written request to: 279 Newtown Tpke., Redding, CT
06896</font>
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
0 comments:
Post a Comment