The phases of an in-house SEO life cycle

Courtship Phase. Does your company want to find the best candidate to start up the in-house SEO program? For companies in this phase, you are seeking for the best SEO candidate for the job. In this phase many companies realize they could not afford Michael Jordan, but can hire a great SEO leader. Once your SEO is hired, put all of the right introductions when they start.

Honeymoon Phase. The SEO is in place and everybody talk about SEO. Recommendations come from every direction, and getting priorities is like a breeze. This phase may last about 3-6 months, depending on the corporation. The main advice here is to make the most of your honeymoon, read up to maximize potential of this phase and to minimize the impact of next phases.

Reality Phase. This occurs when it starts to get challenging internally. The shape of the upside bell curve could vary significantly for this phase. It could be deep and wide, or shallow and narrow.

After talking with other SEOs, this seems to be the most challenging for the more traditional companies, where the site is not the main income channel and management is competing for prioritization of their projects. Dotcoms seem to barely experience this phase, if at all, likely since search engine traffic is a part of the business model and SEO is of interest to all.

To make this Phase as short as possible, focus on educating the team and then pre-sell ideas so that resistance is caught and addressed, before you pitch ideas. Most importantly, during this phase you need to nurture the relationships you build in the Honeymoon Phase by transforming your connections into friends and help each other succeed.

If you find yourself in the Reality Phase with no end in sight, focus on the individual side of SEO, get people to help SEO. A great start to get you on the right track is to implement over-coffees and other tips from Duane Forrester, LLC. If the challenge seems to be getting management’s attention, let the numbers do the selling. Laura Forbes with Christian Science Monitor has an attractive approach for growing visibility for SEO-she gets SEO to enhance KPIs management is monitoring; when these numbers start to slide, she knows it is time to make the sell for SEO.

Synergy Phase. You have reached this phase when SEO and other departments function with synergy. You’re operating like a well-oiled engine with a process that keeps SEO in the loop, with ideas going back-and-forth among SEO and other departments. When you reach this phase, it’s simple to caught up with the busy work and let your relations become a lower priority. Remember the relationships are what you got here and their absence could send you back.

1 Comment to The phases of an in-house SEO life cycle

Blogging to the Bank 2011 Reviews
February 11, 2011

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