The Biggest Challenge of In-House SEOs

A lot of companies are used to hiring folks from outside (consultants) and paying them a fortune to get their search engine optimization done. But in-house SEO can be just as effective and show a company’s dedication to a long-term SEO strategy. But as someone who has worked as both in-house SEO and a SEO consultant, I can tell you that working as an in-house SEO is not so much fun that you may have come to believe.

I remember when I started my 9-5 job as an in-house SEO. I had so many plans, and I wanted to achieve so much. What I did not realize at the time was a lot of those plans wouldn’t work out too well in a corporate environment. Working for a big company is like being a on huge boat. You can’t just change directions and introduce a new path like you would in a start-up. There will always be organizational resistance to new plans, and let’s not forget that the agility may not be there after all.

The biggest challenge for an in-house SEO is getting other business units involved and show them why SEO matters. I remember my plans were questioned all the time, and folks were asking if it was “necessary” to change Title Tags and so on. If you can’t have your IT team on board or get support in other business units, it will be hard to get anything done. Implementing SEO changes can be as simple as just adding tags or as complex as doing major redesigns. But regardless of what changes you have in mind, you should always try to get all internal stakeholders involved to make sure they understand why your proposed changes need to be done. Now I wish that were easy