After five years of in the field of SEO, I've learned a lot of great lessons about how to effectively communicate during site launches. This presentation will give you clear and actionable takeaways to help enhance your communication with clients during SEO site launches.

1. Joe Kelly // @kellyjw514
Lead SEO Analyst at Workshop Digital
Setting & Managing Client Expectations
During Enterprise Level Site Launches

2. Site launches are difficult

4. - involved in major decisions about changes on the new site.
- proactive in communication about the SEO issues that
needed to be fixed.
- setting expectations upfront about rankings and organic
traffic at the time of launch.
We weren’t

5. How can we avoid
these situations?

6. 3 lessons to help you
- integrate yourself with a client
- enhance communication with stakeholders
- get issues resolved before launch
manage client expectations

7. Lesson 1
How to make the site launch a
success for everyone, not just you

8. !
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9. 🧟
🧟
🧟🧟
🧟
🧟
!

10. 😎
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11. 🤗 Grateful for the conversation
🗣 Shared what they cared about
' Appreciated the education
Outcome

12. 🤔

13. Who else is there?

14. )
*
CMO
Marketing
Director +
"
,
Location
Managers
Sales
Managers
Project
Managers
🥉Other Third
Party Vendors

15. .Developers
/ 0Email
Team
Content Team
🕴
Social
Team
2Designers
3Analytics
Team

16. That’s a lot of people
who all use the website
and would benefit from a
successful site launch.

17. How can you help all of
these teams?

18. Start by meeting with them

19. identify areas to
provide extra value.
You want to learn
To help you
what they’re
accountable for.

20. establish
immediate trust.
You want to learn
To help you
what’s important
to them on the site.

21. how SEO fits
within their role.
set expectations
early on.
To help you
You want to learn

22. Does everyone involved with
the website know of the
impending changes?
🗣
Always ask yourself

23. Just because something is basic
knowledge to you, doesn’t
mean it is for everyone else.
Don’t assume

24. Isolating yourself with
information puts a lot at
risk for everyone involved
with the new website.
🚨 🚨
Hot take

25. 🙂
Worst case scenario

26. example_irl

27. - Previous vendor mishandled site launch in 2016
- 5K URLs will be using AMP
- URL structure was changing
- Glaring technical issues took up majority of our time
- All redirects were tested prior to launch
Scenario

28. Where I messed up

29. Isolated information
🏝

30. Isolated information

31. Isolated information

32. URLs are the only thing
that affect everyone.
Hot take
🚨 🚨

33. How can we do a better job
of making the site launch a
success for everyone?
Recap

34. - Make their goals, your goals. Talk with the teams to learn about their
goals and what they care about the most. See how you can help them.
Lesson 1 takeaways
- Get out of the “organic only” mindset. Look at the popular pages
by source to see the full picture.
- Don’t isolate yourself. Share data and information about impending
changes to minimize surprises and issues.

35. How to communicate SEO issues
for everyone to understand
Lesson 2

36. .
2
2
02
0
0

37. 🙄
2
2
02
0
0

38. 🤔

39. Why were they frustrated?

40. - Recommendations
were too high-level
The client wanted
clear and specific
directions - Right information,
wrong audience

41. how can we communicate our
information for everyone to understand?
As SEOs,

42. Tailor your recommendations to
your audience’s needs and goals
. *
Understand who you’re talking to

43. Understand who you’re talking to
. *
For developers, focus on clearly outlining each
issue, where it’s occurring, and what your
specific recommendations are for fixing it.

44. For all non-developers, recommendations
and explanations should be less technical,
and focused more on business impact.
Understand who you’re talking to
. *

45. How this applies to
site launches

46. How this applies to site launches
SEO audits of the new site
. 2+*

47. 2 documents to communicate
SEO issues from an audit

48. Site Audit: Developer
SEO Task List
Site Audit: SEO
Issues and Solutions
- Designed for everyone
- Outlines issues &
solutions
- Includes screenshots
- Describes how issues can
impact organic visibility
and the business

50. Site Audit: Developer
SEO Task List
Site Audit: SEO
Issues and Solutions
- Designed for developers
- Outlines issues & solutions
- Includes prioritization
- Specifies each URL with the
issues you’re addressing
- Date added and progress
- Validation notes

53. How can we communicate
SEO issues for everyone
to understand?
Recap

54. - Know your audience. Tailor your information and
recommendations to align with your audiences needs and goals.
Lesson 2 takeaways
workshopdigital.com/stat-city-crawl/
- Use our templates. Effectively communicate all of your SEO
recommendations to everyone involved with our free documents.

55. Lesson 3
How to prioritize SEO needs when
there are conflicting priorities

56. website goals and objectives
are going to change.
Over time,

57. website goals and objectives
are going to change.
This is especially true during site launches.
Over time,
stakeholder

58. new stakeholders
join the project.
During the
redesign process
there’s a spike in
resources available.

59. a lot of
competing ideas.
a division of the
new resources.
Which creates

60. Difficulty 📈

61. example_irl

62. !
2
2
22
2
2🍞/🍞/🍞

63. !
:
:
::
:
:🍞/🍞/🍞

64. 🤔

65. Is this worth fighting for?

66. the existing site didn’t
use breadcrumbs.
there was
minimal SEO risk.
We knew it meant
Because we knew

67. the designers were
temporarily involved.
their goals were
short term.
Because we knew
We knew it meant

68. We knew it meant
Because we knew
the client had post-launch
development support.
we could prioritize this
for post launch work.

69. We didn’t get the
breadcrumbs implemented.
Outcome
🍞/🍞/🍞

70. every SEO will struggle to get buy-in
for a recommendation at some point.
Not every SEO will struggle to
get buy-in for breadcrumbs.
However

71. And when this happens

72. Recap
How can we prioritize
SEO needs when there
are conflicting priorities?

73. - Understand the big picture for your client. Know what kind of
role SEO plays for them post launch.
Lesson 3 takeaways
- Know when stakeholder goals are going to change. If something
is contentious, ask yourself if it will be contentious post-launch.
- Weigh the SEO impact of items you can’t get buy-in for. Outline
the business and organic impact it can have for the client.

74. Final thoughts

75. These lessons aren’t
limited to site launches

76. Don’t undervalue the
power of communication

77. Thank you!
Joe Kelly // @kellyjw514