These slides were presented at the SEMrush webinar "21 Soft Skills to Supercharge Your In-House SEO Team". Video replay and transcript are available at https://www.semrush.com/webinars/21-soft-skills-to-supercharge-your-in-house-seo-team/

1. 21 SKILLS TO
SUPERCHARGE
YOUR IN-
HOUSE SEO
EFFORTS
John Shehata
SEMrush Webinar 2020
21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS @JShehata 1

2. 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 2
JOHN
SHEHATAVP, Audience Development Strategy
(Search, Social & Email)
@JShehata
@JShehata

3. 3@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS

4. BEST NEWS SEO TOOL OUT THERE!!!
NewzDash.com

5. 1. BUILD
RELATIONSH
IPS
 Communicate in Person, Emails are not
enough
 Identify major stakeholders in you company
and meet with them on regular basis
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 5

6. #SEOTHURSDAYDONUT
S
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 6

7. 2. WIN THE
DEV/ENGINEE
RING TEAM
 Dev is marketers’ best ally or worst enemy
 Push Back when appropriate
 Your strategy is Dead-On-Arrival without
technical resources
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 7

8. NEVER
 Never Tell a Developer “IT IS EASY”
 Never Ask a “Developer is it doable?”
 Never tell a developer how to solve the
problem?
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 8

9. 3.
UNDERSTAN
D YOUR
TECH STACK
 CMS
 Frontend
 APIs
 etc.
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 9

10. 4. LEARN
TECHNICAL
SEO
 CMS
 Frontend
 JS Framework
 APIs
 etc.
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 10

11. 5. SELL
YOUR
PROJECTS
 Align your Goals with the Company’s Goals
 Find a project sponsor “SEO Advocate”
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 11

12. 6.
ESTABLISH
QUICK WINS
FIRST &
FAST
 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
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 12

13. 7. INITIATE
BIG
PROJECTS
NEXT
 Small Projects Justifies Big Projects
 Divide Big Projects into smaller tasks
 Find projects that can include these tasks
 Focus on quick wins
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 13

14. 8. SHOW
VALUE
 Provide $$ for project impact
 Use KPIs in addition to traffic
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 14

15. 9. DEVELOP
ANALYTICAL
SKILLS
 Google Sheets / Excel
 Google Analytics / Omniture
 BI Dashboards
 MySQL
 APIs
 A/B Tests
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 15

16. 10.
ESTABLISH
AN SEO
PROCESS
 Editorial Teams
 Design Teams
 Engineering Teams
 Product/Project Teams
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 16

17. @JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 17
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/de
sign comps
review
breadcrumbs
placements
text placement
social
integrations
H1 heading
tags
SEO
recommendati
ons 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
Implementatio
n
QA
Quick SEO QA
Baseline
analytics
reports
Content in
Feeds
Live
SEO BPG
if needed
3,6,9 months
reports
Link Building
Ranking
Reports

18. 11.
INTEGRATE
INTO THE
WORKFLOW
 Integrate into tools used
Jira
Word Doc
Slack
 Integrate into processes
Kick Offs
Specs Gathering
Etc.
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 18

19. 12. FIND
HIDDEN
RESOURCES
 Sister companies
 Talents in other departments
 PR
 Freelance/Agency budget “It easier to hire an
agency than hire full time staff”
 Etc.
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 19

20. 13. WORK
ON TEAM
VISIBILITY
 Bi-Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly Training
 New Hires training/orientation
 Team Wiki & FAQ
 Best Practices Guides
 Monthly Newsletter (industry updates, team
updates, major projects and wins)
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 20

21. 14. DEVELOP
CENTERS OF
EXCELLENC
E
 SEO Ambassadors
(across sites, global, editorial, IT)
 Badges / Compliance Certificate
 Train the trainer
 Highlight the Champ
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 21

22. 15. DEVELOP
ROADMAPS
 Develop Annual SEO Roadmaps
 Work with content teams on Content Calendar
 Plan trainings & refreshers
 Plan Technical & Content Audits
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 22

23. 16. PICK
YOUR
BATTLES
WISELY
 Prioritize your asks/recommendations
 Fight for projects that will move the needle
 Fight against projects that will harm the site
 Learn the art of negotiation and compromise
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 23

24. 17. WE ARE
STRATEGIC
PARTNERS
 Tailor your feedback (executives high level vs.
granular recommendations)
 We provide recommendations to other teams
to implement!!
 Avoid sending keywords and
recommendations without understanding the
goals and objectives
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 24

25. 18. STOP
WHATEVER
DOESN’T
ADD VALUE
 Reports that no one reads
 Long Emails
 Long Periodic Meetings
 Less is More!!
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 25

26. 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 on 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
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 26

27. 20. PLAN
FOR THE
FUTURE
 Voice Search
 Podcasts
 Increased Google Zero Clicks
 Search Engine Push APIs
 Assistant Devices
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 27

28. 21. RESPECT
OTHERS’
CRAFT
 UX
 Edit Teams
 Developers
 Designers
 Etc
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 28

29. BONUS: BE A GOOD PERSON
 Be genuine, approachable and humble
 Help others
 Share knowledge
 Always be open to learn something new
 Contribute to the community
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 29

30. THANKS
John Shehata
@JShehata
@JShehata 21 SKILLS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR IN-HOUSE SEO EFFORTS 30