Multichannel Search Strategies: Creating a SEO Dynasty
What Still Hasn't
Been Fixed
Although strides have been made in managing scalable SEO programs, there's more to come. Even cutting-edge programs haven't nailed the following issues:
Content management systems are clueless when it comes to SEO. A review of Gartner Group's analysis of content management system (CMS) vendors — the key components in the web content process — reveals almost no discussion of their SEO capabilities. Why? CMS' are sold to IT managers; IT doesn't care about SEO. Therefore, CMS' don't care about differentiating SEO. There's no technical reason why CMS' can't provide well-optimized pages. Fixing this requires holding IT accountable for SEO, a foreign concept in most organizations.
Link building defies scalability. Link building is critical to SEO programs, but there's no scalable way to do it other than the research and measurement of link equity. The importance of this issue and the lack of an automated solution is why marketers must invest so heavily on technology in other areas. Therefore, employees' time is spent on this process and the rest of the SEO infrastructure runs at a low cost.
SEO talent scarcity. Two years ago, finding and being able to afford SEO talent was problematic. Even in the midst of the recession, SEO talent is still scarce and expensive. The supply has increased, but the growth in SEO has outstripped the demand. What many retailers concede is that their goal cannot be the mass hiring of expensive, fickle and scarce SEO experts. Rather, retailers are building systems so the talent necessary to operate SEO programs can be culled from less specialized labor.
In-house or not? Should your SEO dynasty be run in-house or outsourced. If SEO accounts for more than 40 percent of the traffic coming to your site, it's a core channel and it should not be outsourced. If SEO accounts for less than 20 percent of your site's traffic, it should be outsourced. And if you're somewhere in between, the decision becomes more complex. The answer usually depends on whether you need external expertise to grow the channel quickly before it's eventually brought in-house.
So, there's more work to do, but the rewards of a SEO dynasty are so lucrative that the work will be worth it. Remember, the concept of creating a SEO dynasty is the goal. Brands and marketers that have a competitive advantage in SEO will lay a foundation for web traffic and overall brand awareness that will be hard to beat. ROI
Craig Macdonald is senior vice president and chief marketing officer at search marketing solutions provider Covario. Craig can be reached at cmacdonald@covario.com.
