SEO and Project Management

Introduction

For Search Engine Optimization (SEO), gone are the days when SEO was simply optimizing titles, meta tags and placing a few links here and there and reporting was simply rankings. SEO is now a multi-disciplinary exercises in both skills and talent and in blurring the fields of PR and marketing.

SEO Project Management – Who are the Stakeholders?

On WebMasterWorld, Tedster and paynt touched off a long thread asking “Is SEO evolving into full Project Management?” Indeed, SEO now takes on a wide-variety of stakeholders and each participant needs to be educated on the goals and strategy of SEO and how their area of responsibility is one of the several key components of a successful SEO campaign.

The Stakeholders

  • SEO Consultant. Head of SEO Consulting leads and coordinates the entire team, as well as, such set goals and strategies (in cooperation with marketing). The SEO lead contact along with the SEO consulting team conducts:
  • Keyword Research
  • Competitive Analysis
  • Technical Analysis
  • Educating other stakeholders below on goals and processes.
  • Link Builders. Conduct Link strategy, research, request and link buying.
  • Online PR Agency.
    PR agencies are geared towards making buzz – the stuff of targeted linkbaiting. Rand Fiskin covers GE’s “Imagination Cubed” linkbaiting as helping propel GE’s promotional website to top rankings with over 23,000 external links.
  • Marketing Agency.
    • Copywriters. Implementation of keyword research recommendations into web pages, as well as, possibly building new web pages for link bait.
    • Positioning and Branding. Are the keywords your using interfering with the company’s branding positioning? Or is the keyword research strong enough to merit that the branding team has to rethink their positioning?
  • Usability Team.
    SEO is ultimately judged upon the number of conversions (soft or hard ROI) occurs from organic visitors. Yet, such rate of conversions are effected by the web design, product/service offering and how easily (usability) it is for potential customers to find what they are looking for and buy it.
    • Analytics Team.
      Ensure that organic search, PPC search etc are properly audiences are properly segmented and tracks all the way from what keywords were used to way to how many sales were made. Analytics reporting helps measure the progress and success of the SEO.
    • Legal Team.
      In some industries, the smallest title changes and any amount of SEO-focused copywriting can touch of a round of legal review. Have you educated the legal team why you’ve made the changes you have? Have you asked if any of the terms you’re optimizing for good be copyrighted by the competitors?
    • (Last but not least) Web Design & Technical Web Team. They’re the implementers, making sure the all the on-site optimization and usability strategies actually gets made live on the website.

    If I missed anything or you have your own ideas, please let me know and post a comment.

    Additional Notes

    Interestingly, Michael Martinez over at SEOMoz is covering this very topic the same day I started writing this post in “SEO Strategies: Organizing Your Project Team“. I especially like his coinage of the term “Search Engine Placement“, its a more apt description for what SEO and PPC will evolve to become, as the lines between marketing and PR blur and social media changes how we view SERPs (search engine results pages). I’m definitely adapting the term in some of my future postings.


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    5 responses to “SEO and Project Management”

    1. ¥Þ¡¼¥±¥Æ¥£¥ó¥°¥¢¥·¥¹¥ÈFirstBrain…

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    2. […] As mentioned in an earlier posting (SEO Project Management), SEO has grown and broaden far more than what it used to be. SEO Consultants now talk to PR teams, WOM folks, copywriters and think about brand management, usability, analytics, buzz/link building etc. […]

    3. Arun Avatar

      hi,

      I impressed with your “SEO Project Management”, But is very useful for BIG organization, here you forget to mention PPC management I am looking forward to have such type of management Policy in future.

      thanks
      SEO Expert
      http://www.brandmantra.net

    4. neoweb india Avatar

      i WANT TO IMPORTVE MY GOOGLE RANK CAN YOU HELP ME?

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