My slide deck from #BENCHMARKCONF2018 on how to build a world class SEO team.

1. Building a world class
SEO team
Benchmark Search Conference 2018
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2. A little bit
about me
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3. SEO - A multidisciplinary team
SEO
‘team’
Content / editorial
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4. SEO team focus
Broadly, a SEO team needs to focus on three core areas.
Technical SEO
Back-end engineering resource
3
Content team
Editorial team or specific SEO
content writers.
2
Link building / Digital PR
Building the online relationships and
links to set you apart.
1
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5. Google’s core message to SEOs
Straight from the webmaster guidelines:-
● Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines.
● Don't deceive your users.
● Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings.
● Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your
website stand out from others in your field.
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6. Goolge’s algorithm evolution
2011
Panda
The ‘content’ one.
2012
Penguin
The ‘links’ one.
2013
Hummingbird
The ‘semantic’ one.
2014
Pigeon
The ‘local’ one.
2015
Mobilegeddon
The ‘mobile’ one.
2018
Broad core update
The ‘quality’ one.
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Looking at major Google algorithm updates over the last seven years we can see a
clear trend of delivering on what is set out in the guidelines.

7. SEO is business change
High
SEOimpact
High
Business impact
Design / UX
& Content
Mobile first
HTTPs
All of which means SEO needs to be at the core of a brands digital strategy.
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8. 2018 SEO skill set
The demands on your SEO team are diversifying.
Offsite / link building Project management
Content strategy Communication
Technical SEO Stakeholder management
Base skills
A strong foundation
Extended skills
Enabling change
Broader consulting skills are
required
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9. Working with SEO agencies
Many brands opt to work with agencies on their SEO strategies, which comes with a
number of advantages, including:-
● Access to latest technologies
● Fluid talent pool
● Ability to scale up / down
● Global reach
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10. Client rosters can be very impressive, but for the best SEO results, it will often come
down to the quality of the individuals on the account.
● Request to meet the Head of SEO (Will they be on the account?)
● Agree the SEO team at pitch stage (Can you meet beforehand?)
● High staff turnover is a warning sign (What is the agency turnover?)
Tip 1: Focus on the individuals
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11. Tip 2: Align the agency with your SEO goals
Alignment will focus your agency on the metrics that matter, and simplify reporting
on performance. Some strong SEO metrics to consider are:-
● Improve SEO visibility for a core keyword group
● Grow non-brand organic traffic
● Improved indexation % of category pages
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12. Tip 3: Embed agencies within your team
Treat your agency as an extension of your team. This will reduce bottlenecks and
speed up delivery.
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SEO boards within Trello
SEO channel in Slack

13. Google’s SEO brand bias?
Consumers are drawn to recognised brands.
vs
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14. Leveraging your brand for SEO
Some of the key areas to align brand activity with SEO are:-
● Public relations (PR)
Upskill you PR team on the value of links to grow authority to further boost SEO performance.
● Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Managing external reputation across services such as Glass Door, TrustPilot and Google My Business strengthens
external brand signals and supports SEO.
● Brand values
What sets the business apart from the competition? Is this being communicated effectively throughout the website?
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15. Big brands are not immune
Whilst big brands do have an advantage, no brand is “too big for Google”.
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Nearly 50% of visibility
lost.

16. Invest in power SEO tools
With the SEO tools available, there has never been a better time to ‘up your SEO
game’.
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17. Keep an eye on your competitors
Keyword gap feature
Analyse keywords and intersection types to discover
growth opportunities
A great tool for finding
content gaps
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18. Keep an eye on your competitors
Filter for your competitors top
pages, where you don’t rank
Cherry pick the best
opportunities
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19. Get a head start on your content
SEO template feature
Crunch the top sites for your keyword to understand
what’s needed to rank in the SERP.
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Target backlinks
Suggested article length

20. Keep an eye on your competitors
SEO writing assistant
Create content briefs for your editorial team and
even install a Chrome plugin to ensure SEO best
practice.
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Download as a Word Doc
Chrome extension

21. Invest in your data
Brands can glean superior SEO business intelligence from combining data sets to
gather unique insights.
Google Search
Console
Server Logs
Google
Analytics
Crawl frequency of
top pages
Granular information on
how often Googlebot is
crawling specific SEO
pages.
Low CTR pages
Discover which pages in
G/A are receiving lower
than expected CTR From
the SERPs
Low traffic pages
Discover which pages are
being crawled regularly by
Googlebot but are receiving
low levels of SEO traffic.
Orphaned pages
Discover pages that are
crawled by Googlebot but
do not appear in GSC or
G/A
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22. Key takeaways
1. Embed SEO at the core of your business
Integrate agencies within your team
2. Avoid chasing the algorithm
Build the best possible website for your users
3. Invest in tools to track performance and spot opportunities
Innovate to win
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23. Q&AThank you