SEO is no longer the job of the SEO team. This is a philosophy that we have spoken about numerous times at Stickyeyes and at the Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference 2014, this was definitely the hot topic.
“SEO’s influence touches everything from PR to social”, claimed David Harling, Head of Organic Performance at MoneySuperMarket.com and Matt Roberts, co-founder of Linkdex. The message was quite simple; that SEO is at the heart of their digital strategies and that the efforts from everyone within the organisation, from every department, contribute to the overall SEO gain.
MoneySupermarket.com, a hugely successful brand in the competitive consumer finance sector, claims that research had highlighted SEO is its most profitable digital channel. It was the channel that drove the strongest lifetime values and was the most trusted in the eyes of consumers.
What was particularly enlightening was the pillars of SEO success. These were listed as:
- Team interactions creating a compelling strategy.
- Team interactions delivering technical SEO expertise.
- Team interactions producing the right content.
- Team interactions amplifying the content.
There is one word that is consistent throughout those pillars; team.
This typifies the modern approach to SEO. Search marketing cannot exist amongst disparate teams, working to their own individual goals and throwing up objections that get in the way of the common goal. Instead, the common goal is SEO and SEO is what brings different departments together. PR, social, content, development, IT, ecommerce, marketing and every other department is invested in the success of a modern SEO strategy.
Of course, pulling together these departments is not without its challenges, which were fully acknowledged by both Matt and David.
Key challenges included a corporate culture that was too focused on acquisition, as well as recruitment challenges. Pulling individual departments from their respective disciplines and focusing on a new, sometimes volatile end goal, certainly carries risks, but the rewards are clear.
And those rewards will come from having a team of talented people that are committed to technical excellence, creating remarkable content, ensuring that content reaches the right audiences and fostering positive brand sentiment.
This is the new SEO team; this is your orchestra - SEO is simply conducting it.
Want to find out more about our approach to SEO? Feel free to get in touch.
