I'm now less than a week from starting my new job as the SEO Director of a search marketing agency, and it got me thinking about what I've learnt from my time as part of an (initially very small) in-house SEO team. There have been a lot of pros & cons to my time here, and in true blog style, I thought I'd try to summarise these in a snappy little list.
Not having complete control: When you work inside a large company, you are at the mercy of the actions of other people. Months of hard work can go down the pan just because someone else doesn't understand what you're doing or trying to do. Sometimes, they can be based in a different department or even a different country.
Corporate/IT bureaucracy: Getting something done in a large company (say perhaps, the world's largest B2B publisher) can be painful at times. We've been trying to get an internal blog set up since September of last year - to date, no luck. Similar issues have affected attempts at everything from domain management to URL rewriting.
Education, education, education: This is a follow up to #1 really, but when you have a company of over 1,000 people, and a search marketing team of 3, you often spend the whole time explaining why SEO matters, or even what SEO is. And, as often as not, you may get laughed out of the room.
Lack of resources: Trying to optimise 13 sites, with a team of 3, as well as educating the rest of the company on the importance of what you do, can leave you a bit pushed for time. Throw in some traditional online marketing, monthly & weekly reporting and the odd bit of PPC, and it can seem like there just aren't enough hours in the day.
Recognition: Being part of a small team, who come to be seen as being centrally important to the future of the business, is a pretty exciting place to be. When that team essentially starts changing the way that company does business, it's really exciting.
Education, education, education: Ok, so some of them may laugh. But finding a person, or group of people who get it and are keen to learn, can be very rewarding. Seeing them create content that then ranks really well against competitive phrases, is a pure buzz.
Variation: Although there is a lot of stuff that stays the same, there is also an incredible amount of variety when you have responsibility for sites whose topics range from science to social care, farming to hotels & restaurants. And the range of people you get to meet matches this variety.
The people: I know that I just mentioned this in passing, but what I'm referring to are the people in an in-house SEO team. If the team I worked in was anything to go by, then they tend to be pretty dedicated - otherwise they wouldn't be in-house right?!
Overall, I'd have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time in-house and the good definitely outweighed the bad.
I certainly had no great yearning to leave, and was very happy in my position. I learnt a huge amount and, for me personally, with my love of journalism, being involved with a major publishing company working out how to adapt to the Web 2.0 world was incredibly interesting.
I hope to be able to keep track of the ups & downs of working for an agency in the same way, but in the meantime, does anyone else have any experiences, positive or negative, of working in-house?
Often times the biggest challenges are training the team (plus having time to perform the services like they should be) and not knowing which of your ideas are going to get approved by board members or your CEO.
I think the rewards definately outweigh the challenges. Often times you can become a hero in your work place just by doing what you love, if you are on a team with other experts you get to learn from them and you get to have your ideas used in big business (with the chance it will lead to other things or get recognized by your colleagues).
I used to run my own freelance biz, but hated the administrative duties that come along with being the owner. I just like to get down and dirty with optimization and marketing if possible. Right now I work in-house with a team of about 20 under my supervision. I wouldn't dream of leaving any time soon (maybe if we got bought out by a player).
<p>Great insight, good luck with the new position.</p> <p>Often times the biggest challenges are training the team (plus having time to perform the services like they should be) and not knowing which of your ideas are going to get approved by board members or your CEO.</p> <p>I think the rewards definately outweigh the challenges. Often times you can become a hero in your work place just by doing what you love, if you are on a team with other experts you get to learn from them and you get to have your ideas used in big business (with the chance it will lead to other things or get recognized by your colleagues).</p> <p>I used to run my own freelance biz, but hated the administrative duties that come along with being the owner. I just like to get down and dirty with optimization and marketing if possible. Right now I work in-house with a team of about 20 under my supervision. I wouldn't dream of leaving any time soon (maybe if we got bought out by a player). </p>
The point about learning is very valid - if wasn't for the incredible knowledge, and infinite patience of my boss, there's no way I'd be making the move I am now....
<p>The point about learning is very valid - if wasn't for the incredible knowledge, and infinite patience of my boss, there's no way I'd be making the move I am now....</p>
Hey - he's already written my reference - if he hadn't then you would have seen some ass/arse kissing...
<p>Hey - he's already written my reference - if he hadn't then you would have seen some ass/arse kissing...</p>
Get post, I am also an In house SEO for a large coporation and the knowledge I have obtained over the past year has increased my understanding of both the business and the SEO world.
<p>Get post, I am also an In house SEO for a large coporation and the knowledge I have obtained over the past year has increased my understanding of both the business and the SEO world.</p> <p>I also run my own SEO/web development firm and working as a contractor also has its Pros and cons </p>
#4 really hits home - despite all the education and all of the supposed buy in, you'll frequently run into a lack of time and resources to throw at seo when it's in house. In keeping with this post, the flip side is that it tests your creativity to the limit when it comes to getting things done.
<p>#4 really hits home - despite all the education and all of the supposed buy in, you'll frequently run into a lack of time and resources to throw at seo when it's in house. In keeping with this post, the flip side is that it tests your creativity to the limit when it comes to getting things done.</p>
My situation sounds very similar to yours, 'cept we were a team of four, and it was only a dozen sites. Unfortunately the bad outweighed the good, mostly with the beauracracy. My old boss left about 6 weeks after I did. We were 'replaced' by the boss's cousin. Anyways, I learned alot, but it left me with a very sour taste in my mouth about office politics and B$ in general. But that was over a year ago, and life is good. Good Points Ciaran
<p>My situation sounds very similar to yours, 'cept we were a team of four, and it was only a dozen sites. Unfortunately the bad outweighed the good, mostly with the beauracracy. My old boss left about 6 weeks after I did. We were 'replaced' by the boss's cousin. Anyways, I learned alot, but it left me with a very sour taste in my mouth about office politics and B$ in general. But that was over a year ago, and life is good. Good Points Ciaran</p>
I've never worked as an in-house SEO, but I think most of these pointsstill apply to working for quite a few in-house departments. I've certainly dealt with my share of bureaucracy before.
Working for myself I still have to deal with point #4 under the bad. I'm only a team of one so there's even less of me to go around.
<p>I've never worked as an in-house SEO, but I think most of these pointsstill apply to working for quite a few in-house departments. I've certainly dealt with my share of bureaucracy before.</p> <p>Working for myself I still have to deal with point #4 under the bad. I'm only a team of one so there's even less of me to go around.</p> <p>Congrats and good luck on the new job and please don't let it keep you away from here. </p>
I have to say I specifically focused on client side. I like client-side better because the battle for whether you *should* do SEO has been won - you can simply get on with the job.
I like the atmosphere, the opportunity to work closely with everyone in marketing and there is such a great team here it really makes it fun.
<p>I have to say I specifically focused on client side. I like client-side better because the battle for whether you *should* do SEO has been won - you can simply get on with the job.</p> <p>I like the atmosphere, the opportunity to work closely with everyone in marketing and there is such a great team here it really makes it fun.</p>
In-house you can win that battle, sometimes fairly easily, but then you hit the wall that every other department has things that *should* be done, and because of the vagaries of SEO, and the concreteness of the other tasks, the resources aren't always available to 'simply get on with the job'. :(
<blockquote>the battle for whether you *should* do SEO has been won - you can simply get on with the job.</blockquote> <p>In-house you can win that battle, sometimes fairly easily, but then you hit the wall that every other department has things that *should* be done, and because of the vagaries of SEO, and the concreteness of the other tasks, the resources aren't always available to 'simply get on with the job'. :(</p>
Definitely - just because a company has recognised that search is important doesn't mean that they have recognised how important.
Domain management for example - getting people to realise that they shouldn't just go & buy a domain any time they fancy, and that they all need to be managed to avoid duplicate content issues, is a constant struggle of education...
<p>Definitely - just because a company has recognised that search is important doesn't mean that they have recognised <em>how</em> important.</p> <p>Domain management for example - getting people to realise that they shouldn't just go &amp; buy a domain any time they fancy, and that they all need to be managed to avoid duplicate content issues, is a constant struggle of education... </p>
"because you don't have that keyword in the URL like they do. And... and... and here is my 27 page report in 8pt font explaining exactly why all ring-bound and ready to go."
<p>I have some fantastic piles of paperwork I get to throw at people.</p> <p>"Why don't we rank better for x"</p> <p>"because you don't have that keyword in the URL like they do. And... and... and here is my 27 page report in 8pt font explaining exactly why all ring-bound and ready to go."</p> <p>I produce scary amounts of paperwork sometimes in response to what is seen as an innocent question.</p>
<p>I must be lucky then...</p> <p>or I have made them fear me by the sheer amount of paperwork that I produce about everything.</p> <p>I think I could write an essay on punctuation inclusion and its effect on SEO.</p> <p>Scary stuff!</p> <p>*smiles*</p>
great article, here im in a great position. i'm an inhouse SEO and a webdeveloper on my own, this way i get enought variety and its great to reach your personal goals!the negative way of working like me is that you never have a real good focus!
<p>great article, here im in a great position. i'm an inhouse SEO and a webdeveloper on my own, this way i get enought variety and its great to reach your personal goals!the negative way of working like me is that you never have a real good focus!</p>
another bad thing... everyone thinks they know about seo... and some people stick their noses more than needed!
<p>another bad thing... everyone thinks they know about seo... and some people stick their noses more than needed!</p>
A very good point - and one that I picked up on in these two previous posts. Alexa in particular is one thing that people pick up on with no real idea of how it works....
<p>A very good point - and one that I picked up on in these two <a href="the-6-most-dangerous-search-metrics">previous</a> <a href="a-little-knowledge-can-be-a-dangerous-thing">posts</a>. Alexa in particular is one thing that people pick up on with no real idea of how it works....</p>