Being an Effective SEO

Being an Effective SEO within your Organization Tony Adam November 11th, 2008 About Tony Adam - How I got here? • SEO Manager @ Yahoo! • My Background: – Technology Consulting, Sales, BizDev, etc. – SEO Evangelism – Program/Project Management • Where you’ll find me: http://tonyadam.com/blog http://twitter.com/tonyadam -2- Yahoo! Confidential How do you start being effective?! • Get an understanding for the People you work with and interact with. • Find out who the business stakeholders are in your organization. • Know what projects are in progress and if there is any opportunity to create SEO Projects. -3- Yahoo! Confidential Take a moment… It is extremely important to understand the “Company Culture” -4- Yahoo! Confidential How do you learn the “Company Culture” • Are you in an organization that moves quickly? Slowly? • What are the personality types? How do you interact with them? • Who can you approach to move your agenda? • Be patient and grow thick skin. -5- Yahoo! Confidential Build Relationships and Partnerships • Create relationships with the right people. – At Yahoo!, we call these people our “SEO BFF’s.” • Partner horizontally with anyone and everyone. – I’ve found working with Standards teams are your best in. • Make Friends – Hang out with people – Have “Dates” – Drive By’s! -6- Yahoo! Confidential Be Everywhere and Get Integrated • Integrate into Processes: – Planning & Strategy (get on the release calendar) – Design & Development (Review Meetings, Guidelines, etc.) – QA (Ensure things are built correctly) – Go to Market (Blogging, Social Media, PR, etc.) • Leads & Review Meetings are VERY important! -7- Yahoo! Confidential Set and Manage Expectations • What do you plan on achieving and can it be quantified? • When are you planning on getting it done by? • Be clear about the expectations. • Pick your battles wisely. -8- Yahoo! Confidential Creating SEO Guidelines • Build SEO Guidelines into Product Development: – Content & Copy – User Experience & Design – Engineering/Development – General Guidelines… • Review Product Specs -9- Yahoo! Confidential Broaden Your Audience…Reach Everyone • Train the entire organization on SEO • Push out SEO Knowledge through: – Internal Blogs – Internal Wiki – Newsletters • Setup Office Hours – “SEO Hours” - 10 - Yahoo! Confidential Be Passionate and Evangelize SEO • Be passionate, bring tons of energy & get people excited about SEO. • Get SEO into every conversation possible. • Find people that will be your “Mini SEO Evangelists” within your Organization • Talk about Success Stories - 11 - Yahoo! Confidential The Quick and Dirty Key Takeaways • Understand the Company Culture • Build Relationships and Partnerships • Get Integrated into Processes and Manage Expectations • Create SEO Guidelines • Train and push knowledge to everyone possible • Show your passionate and get people excited - 12 Yahoo! Confidential THANK YOU! Tony Adam SEO Manager at Yahoo! tadam@yahoo-inc.com Where to find me: http://tonyadam.com/blog/ http://twitter.com/tonyadam tony@tonyadam.com - 13 Yahoo! Confidential