You’ve got millions of pages, multiple brands, and a enterprise environment to navigate in your in-house SEO role. John Shehata has one detailed, comprehensive roadmap plus 21 actionable tactics tailored for enterprise success. In this presentation, you’ll learn how to establish trust, cut out inefficient tasks, and build a lean SEO team that is flexible enough to maneuver in a complex corporate structure and expert enough to exponentially expand your mega site’s web presence. Presentation by: John Shehata – VP SEO, Condé Nast This presentation was given at the 2015 Conductor C3 marketing conference. Learn more: http://c3.conductor.com/

1. Enterprise SEO for Mega
Sites/Brands
@JShehata

3. 1. Develop Technical Skills
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4. Develop Analytics/Excel Skills
GSC (Search Queries)
Google GA / Omniture
KWs Metrics
Rankings
APIs
Screaming Frog
MOZ Top Pages
Crawl Errors
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5. 2. Understand Your Technology
• CMS
• Frontend / JS web frames
• APIs
• etc
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6. 3. Build Relationships
Communicate in Person, Emails are not enough
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7. #SEOThursdayDonuts
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8. 4. Dev/Tech Language
Tech/Dev Teams
• Great ally or the worst hurdle
• Push Back when appropriate
• Your strategy is Dead-On-Arrival without
technical resources.
• Never say “is it doable?”
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9. Never Tell a Developer
“it is easy”
Dev is marketers best ally or worst enemy
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10. 5. Find Hidden/Shared Resources
• Sister companies
• Cross promotions,
• Talents in other departments
• Link Building
• Internal
• Vendors/affiliates
• Sponsorships
• Legal contracts
• Content syndication
• etc
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11. 6. Show Value
17% - 35%
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12. 7. SELL Your Projects
Align your Goals
with the Company’s Goals
i.e. Align your Projects
with the Company’s Projects
Find a project sponsor
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13. 8. Quick Wins First
• Don’t do any radical changes in the
first 3-6 months
• Focus on quick wins
• Start with Solid Winners not
Experiments
• Earn a reputation that your
recommendations work
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14. 9. Initiate Big Projects
• Small Projects Justifies Big Projects
• Divide Big Projects into smaller tasks
• Find projects that can include these tasks
• Focus on quick wins
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15. 10. Choose your Battles Wisely
Prioritize / Ask your manager
to prioritize your work
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16. 11. Stop Long Emails
Tell A Story /
Promote your
success / Use
Numbers
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17. 12. Stop Whatever Doesn’t Provide Value
Task
Reports
Meetings
etc.
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18. 13. Center of Excellence [COE]
SEO Ambassadors
(across sites, global, editorial, IT)
• Badges / Compliance Certificate
• Train the trainer
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Highlight the Champ

19. 14. Ongoing Education
• Bi-Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly Training
• New Hires
• Wiki
• FAQ
• BPGs
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20. 15. We are Consultants!!
We provide recommendations to other teams to
implement!!
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21. 16. SEO is Evolving
SEO is not dead, it is Evolving,
and so must you too!!
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22. 17. Develop A Content Marketing Strategy
• Editorial calendar
• Evergreen content
• Product Reviews
• Best/Worst Lists
• Trending topics
• National vs. Local Content
• FAQs
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23. 18. Mobile SEO
Desktop is no longer your main platform
• Mobile
• App Store Optimization
• Social
• YouTube
• Etc.
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24. 19. Make Them The Hero
• Communicate Results to participating teams
• Make others great! Focus on making the other people
successful, and you’ll earn their trust.
• Make your emphasis how SEO will make them successful.
• Make a big deal of giving public acknowledgement of their
vital contribution.
• Respect the hard work these folks have to do that has
nothing to do with your SEO needs
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25. 20. Less Is More
• Focused recommendations
• Focused emails
• Focused reports
• etc.
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26. 21. Establish an
SEO process
Discovery
Understand Project
Goals and
objectives
Traffic Sources:
Search, Social,
Internal traffic?
Top Keywords:
what is the search
interest?
Location on site:
directory,
subdomain, page,
sections, etc.?
Do we need a
CName?
Do we need a
landing page
(/blogs/) for all
created templates
Content: is it new
content, new content
replacing existing
content, removing old
content, etc.?
Will page content
be delivered via
Javascript, AJAX,
other un-friendly
SEO technologies?
do we need a
separate XML
sitemap?
Design
wireframes/desi
gn comps review
breadcrumbs
placements
text placement
social
integrations
H1 heading tags
SEO
recommendation
s for label, layout
and links
Pre Dev.
Meta Date (page
titles, meta
description,
keywords)
SEO friendly URL
formats
Copy Reviews:
does the page
need
intro/closing
copy?
Canonical tags
Social tags /
Other tags
robots.txt
updates if
needed
analytics
integration
secure 5 links to
new content
Schema
Implementation
QA
Quick SEO QA
Baseline
analytics reports
Content in Feeds
Live
SEO BPG
if needed
3,6,9 months
reports
Link Building
Ranking Reports
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27. #Bonus: Be a Good Person
Approachable
•Available
•Share Knowledge
•Train and Train Again
•Invest in People, Develop Skills
SEO
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28. SEO
Roadmap
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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29. SEO
Roadmap Company Goals
Team/Departments
SEO Challenges &
Opportunities
Strengths &
Weaknesses
Workflow/Process
Analytics/Baseline
reports
researching / info
gathering
Technology, Code
Content, Links, Social
Media
Building Targeted
Keyword lists
Crawl Errors
Comp. Analysis
PM Process
Training
SEO 101 Training
SMO 101 Training
Tech/Dev Training
PM/Product Training
Executive Training
Best Practices
Guides (BPG)
SEO/SMO Blog/Wiki
Search/Social Media
Monthly Newsletter
Answering emails
SEO/SMO
Compliance Test
Content Strategy
Low Effort, Big Wins
On Page
Optimization
Page Titles, Meta
Tags
HP / Section Pages
302/301 Redirects
Robots.txt fixes
Error Pages
Meta Tags / Social
Tags Optimization
Rich Snippets
Duplicate Content
Canonical Tags
Big Projects List
Videos / Photos
Mobile
Content Vertical
Optimization
Universal SERPs
Rich Snippets
Link Building
Crawl Efficiency
Social Media
Syndication
Daily Reports
Monthly Reports
Author Reports
Category/Product
Reports
Social Media Reports
Project Reports
Seasonal Reports
Support ongoing
and new projects
SEO Recos to
seasonal content
Provide SEO Recos
to Breaking News
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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30. SEO Roadmap
• Discover
• What are the main objectives of the site/brand (uniques, revenue, video views, etc.)
• Conversion Points (newsletters, sign ups, etc.)
• Know the Team (Design, IT, Legal, Editorial, Marketing, PM, Technology, Analytics)
• SEO SWOT Analysis / Challenges and Opportunities
• Extensive Site Audit (GSC, Screaming Frog, DeepCrawl, Crawl Errors, etc.)
• Competitive Analysis (SEO, Social Media, Links, Rankings, etc.)
• Understand The PM Process / Editorial Workflow
• Understand Technology & Code
• Build Targeted KWs lists (KW research, Analytics, etc.)
• Build Baseline Reports (Setup – Analytics Team)
• Define your SEO Metrics (Visits, SEO Visits, etc.)
• Identify Conversion Points (Signups, sales, etc.)
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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31. Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Understand your Weaknesses and Strengths
• Media Sites
• Lots of content
• Videos vs. Text?
• Lots of Links
• No Sales
• Ecommerce
• Lots of Products
• Same Product Description across multiple sites
• Little Unique Content
• Duplicate content
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32. Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Issues
– Content Overlap
– Thin Content
– Inefficient Crawling (Millions of Pages)
– Too much content to optimize
– One man department
– Tech/Dev/Company has other priorities
– Duplicate Content On Site/Off Site
– Etc..
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33. Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Questions to ask (before you start):
• SEO Budget
• Resources
• Legal
• Tools
• Usability
• Previous SEO?
• Previous link building??
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34. Maximize Enterprise SEO
• Project Management Process Integration
• SEO is not an afterthought (It starts before development)
• Understand The Process
• Kick Offs / Traffic Sources Expectations
• Requirement gathering
• IT / Development
• Design Comps
• Content / Internal Links
• Do your own QA
• Reports
• Check Changes to the site [changedetection.com]
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35. SEO Roadmap
• Inform “Develop Institutional Knowledge”
• Training (SEO 101, Tech/Dev Training, PM/Product Training)
• Executive Training: C-level executive buy-in is a must (It is not Voodoo Magic!)
• Best Practices Guides (BPG) / One Sheet Checklist
• SEO/SMO Blog/Wiki
• Search Monthly Newsletter
• Answering emails
• SEO Compliance Test
• Customize your training material
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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36. SEO Roadmap
• Quick Wins “Low Hanging Fruit: Low Effort, Big Wins”
– Site Level Optimization
– Duplicate Content
– 302/301 Redirects
– Robots.txt fixes
– Canonical Tags
– Crawl Errors, Error Pages
– Link Building (partners, affiliates, widgets, etc.)
– Template Level Optimization
– On Page Optimization (layout, Heading Tags, etc.)
– Page Titles, Meta Description, SEO Tags
– Inline Linking / Deep Linking
– Pagination
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
– Page Level Optimization
– Money Terms
– Top 10 Paid Keywords - PPC
– Top Keywords
– 2nd Page Rankings
– Top Exit Pages (Bounce rate)
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37. Low Hanging Fruits
2nd Page Rankings
1st Page below the fold Rankings
Low CTR-High Ranking Terms
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38. SEO Roadmap
• Big Wins “Big Projects”
• Mobile SEO / Deep Links
• Schema / Rich Snippets
• Content Verticals Optimization (entertainment, tech, etc.)
• Universal SERP Optimization (News, Local, etc.)
• Syndication
• Social Media
• Link Building Campaigns
• SEO Clean Up
• Crawl Efficiency
• Duplicate Content
• URL Architecture
• Thin Content
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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39. SEO Roadmap
• Support
• Support ongoing and new projects
• SEO Recos to seasonal content
• Provide SEO Recos to Breaking/Trending News
• SEO Recos to all new designs and tech projects
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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40. SEO Roadmap
• Reports & Analysis “Tell A Story”
• Executive Summary is a Must
• Daily/Monthly Reports
• YOY, Seasonal Reports
• Author/Content/Product/Vertical Reports
• Social Media Reports
• Project/Event Reports
• Content Reports
• Lag/Lead Reports
• Promote your work //// Track traffic changes for all work done
Discover Inform
Quick
Wins
Big Wins Support
Report &
Analyze
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41. Thanks
John Shehata
@JShehata
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