Enjoy the presentation I facilitated at Conductor C3, 2012 on the topic In-House Search Team and Outside Agency, How To Make It Work

1. IN-HOUSE SEARCH TEAM AND OUTSIDE AGENCY, HOW TO MAKE IT WORK
Adam Dince
VP, Director of Search & Content Strategy, MRM
#C3ny
#C3ny | September 19-20 | New York City

2. Introduction – Meet Your Host, Adam Dince
+ VP, Director of Search and Content Strategy @ MRM, New York
+ Over 13 years in the digital space
+ Fortune 100-1000 clients
+ With expertise in:
• Search account client services
• Enterprise SEO strategy
• Information architecture optimization
• Search informed content strategies
• Data visualization
• Cross-channel optimization
• Organic search branding
• Blog development
W: http://www.adamdince.com • Schema implementations
T: @adamdince • Server optimization
E: adam.dince@mrmworldwide.com
• Social SEO
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3. Today’s Agenda
+ “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if
there is any reaction, both are transformed.” - Carl Jung
+ Today, we’re going to review must have’s to ensure that your in-house SEO and outside
agency transform your SEO initiatives into SEO successes
1 Fundamentals
2 Operationalization
3 Communication
4 Education
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4. A customer is the most important visitor on our premises, he is
not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an
interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an
outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him
a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an
opportunity to do so.
Mahatma Gandhi
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5. Fundamentals
The basic principles that should be considered
when developing a cohesive client/agency
relationship
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6. Organizational Structure
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7. Fundamentals for Brands
+ Hire the right agency!
• It’s important for brands to hire agencies with subject
matter experts with a proven record
o Search subject matter expertise is just the beginning. Your agency
should also have expertise in creative, technology, information
architecture, and analytics, because as we all know—SEO is no longer
about just optimizing content for targeted keywords. It’s a holistic
approach to Web development
• It’s important to hire an agency that fits within your
corporate culture
o Since a solid client/agency partnership involves spending time together,
it’s important that you like each other personally and share similar
values
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8. Fundamentals for Brands
+ Position your SEO engagement well
within the enterprise
• It’s important to set up your agency for
success
o Have the right team in place within your organization
to support an enterprise wide organic search program
o Before launching an SEO initiative, it’s vital to get top
brass to support your efforts
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9. Fundamentals for Brands
+ Know what you’re getting
• Agree to a proposed strategy from your search
agency
o Before you sign a major contract with an agency, make sure
you understand what they propose to do and that key
performance indicators (KPIs) have been agreed upon
o Make sure the agency provides an articulate and
comprehensive SOW that outlines each deliverable , the
purpose that each deliverable serve, and dependencies they
require
o Make sure the agency is clear about what deliverables or
tactics are not included in the SOW that may be necessary
for success
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10. Fundamentals for Brands
+ Set the right internal expectations about the
engagement
• SEO is a strategic approach to Web and digital asset development
that generates highly accessible and relevant content, resulting in
brand awareness, reach, engagement, conversion and socialization
from search engine results pages. In order to be successful, a few
fundamental points must be understood by your stakeholders:
o This does not happen overnight
o Results CANNOT be guaranteed
o SEO is not paid search—so you can’t increase your visibility by simply throwing
money at it
o SEO engagements must have agile mobility as algorithms and guidelines change
on a regular basis
o Avoid sacrificing long-term benefits for short-term/quick wins
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11. Fundamentals for Agencies
+ Select the right team
• The goal isn’t simply to win business—but to
deliver and over deliver
o Be honest with your current staff’s SEO abilities and
hire as necessary
o Ensure you staff your account with enough people to
deliver on the work in scope
o Again, chemistry is important and organizing the right
client team can help foster a long lasting relationship
o Let’s be honest---not all talented SEOs make effective
client facing contributions
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12. Fundamentals for Agencies
+ Minimize turnover, people matter
• If agency turnover is abnormally high, you may
cause trust issues and the ability to deliver
o It takes time to find good talent
o Understand your staffs motivators
o Reward appropriately
o Career path
o Give your team autonomy
o Share your team’s successes
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13. Fundamentals for Agencies
+ Focus on adding value, not up selling
• Often times, internal agency pressures to grow
account revenue can put a strain on a solid
agency/client relationship if not approached
correctly
• Since SEO performance is measurable, account
growth should happen organically if objectives are
being met
• Trust in your on-the-ground team to inform you
(the agency stakeholder) of opportunities
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14. Operationalization
The basic principles that should be considered
when developing a cohesive client/agency
relationship
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15. Organizational Structure
Agency
Client Side SEO
Team
Client-Side Program Manager & Agency Side
Executive Sponsor/Brand Lead
&
Client side SEO
& Agency Client Team SEO Lead
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16. Team Staffing Recommendations
+ Agency Side
• Staff based on deliverables and the audience exposed to:
o Your statements of work and/or contracts should contain outlined goals/objective and deliverables
o When creating your list of deliverables, develop a staffing sheet that tracks the hours required by role for each deliverable
o Ensure that you’re including enough time for ad-hoc requests and consultations
Deliverable Search Manager Search Strategist Search Coordinator
On-Page Optimization 25 70 300
Link Building 50 200 2,000
Social Search Optimization 10 20 50
Monthly Reporting 200 60 800
Consulting / Ad-Hoc Requests 200 400 400
Total Hours 485 750 3,550
Total Resources .30 .39 1.84
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17. Team Staffing Recommendations
+ Client-Side
• For an SEO engagement, the client-side will need:
o A program manager (who understands the complexity of scheduling
SEO projects and implementing recommendations)
o An in-house SEO lead (must have a functional understanding of SEO)
o The program manager and in-house SEO to work together to
determine the number of resources needed to properly
operationalize the SEO support efforts
o Specific cross-functional department liaisons for:
– Technical / Web development
– Line(s) of business
– Paid search
– Analytics
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18. Client/Agency Combined Responsibilities
+ Search infused processes
• At the beginning of an engagement, the agency and client must work together to ensure that SEO is involved within each
process:
o Examples: creative briefings, KPI development, CMS selections, analytics tagging, etc…
+ Search infused project plans
• Client should work with agency to ensure that the SEO project plan provided fits properly within already defined processes
o Examples:
– Is there enough time to execute the project successfully?
– Have you padded enough time for proper sign-offs?
– Are the SEO tasks ordered correctly (e.g., on-page optimization can’t happen before a copy deck has been developed)
+ Identifying and understanding organizational structures
• Both sides should exchange organizational charts and understand who key stakeholders are
+ Identifying and understanding 3rd party agency landscape
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19. Communication
Like with any relationship, communication is key
to making an in-house SEO/outside agency
relationship work
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20. Communication
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21. Tips for effective Client/Agency communication
+ Regular meetings
• Weekly status meetings: Keep a running status sheet (WIP) and ensure that this is reviewed on a weekly basis
• Daily status meetings (depending on size of scope): For larger engagements with lots of moving parts, this is vital
• Deliverable review meetings:
o All deliverables submitted by agency should be reviewed with client
o All deliverables created on the client side should be reviewed with the agency
• Performance review meetings:
o At the end of the day, a relationship between an agency and client can only succeed if desired results are achieved +/-
o Agencies, ensure you deliver an implementation review with each report
o Client s, ensure you have status of implementations requests at hand
o Ensure that performance numbers have been thoroughly vetted between in-house SEO team and program manager before broadcasting results to larger enterprise
• On-Site Meetings:
o At a minimum, in-person meetings should happen once a quarter. Ensure you’ve negotiated a travel budget
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22. Education
An educated client is a proactive client. An
educated agency can deliver in a more efficient
way
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23. Educate
+ SEO 101 – Agencies and In-House SEO team should co-
facilitate enterprise SEO 101 as well as line of business
101’s (as applicable)
+ POVs – As we all know, search engines change ranking
algorithms on a regular basis and it’s important that
both the client and agency are aware of the implications
+ Conferences – Clients and agency teams should attend
search conferences together and strategize throughout
the sessions
+ Webinars – There’s so much information and so little
time to consume it all. Agencies should help clients
choose the right Webinars and facilitate a round-table
post-mortem
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24. In Summary
+ Many of the same elements that maintain personal relationships are
applicable to the client/agency as well
+ Relationships take work, and they’re a two-way street
+ It’s not too late to reverse engineer the fundamentals of client/agency
relationships
+ In order for a client/agency relationship to function properly, it must be
operationalized correctly
+ Communication is a must
+ Education can help cement the foundation of the agency/client
relationship
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