Matthew Widdop
Matty is a Digital SEO Executive at Intelligency, helping our clients to improve their digital performance. Matty is currently studying for his Level 3 Multi-Channel Marketer apprenticeship and has completed a Sport Journalism Degree at the University of Huddersfield.
SEO is, of course, its own marketing channel with many different specialisms, including technical, content and digital PR. However, SEO is part of a wider marketing team including content, designers, developers, PR and PPC. So how do all these moving parts come together to work harmoniously on a website? In this article, we will discuss how SEO fits into the wider marketing team and how it supports certain roles.
SEO and Content
SEO and content are disciplines that are intrinsically linked. Any content produced online needs input from SEO, or at least should be written by someone who is aware of SEO best practices and the steps they need to take to make their content rank consistently.
By combining your SEO and content teams, using, for example, an SEO Content Executive, the production of content can be seamless, using keyword research to feed into content to help improve search engine rankings.
SEO UX/ UI Design
UX and UI design is another instance where SEO can play an important role. Web Developers and Front End Designers often don’t start out in SEO, but they generally have the same goals as an SEO Executive: making sure the site is coherent with clear navigation, in-depth content and a fast-moving site.
SEOs can help in this process by using data such as keyword research or heatmapping and click map data to feed into designs and highlight user intent to the design team to help build a more streamlined site that is geared towards helping SEO make improvements. They can also feed in what needs to be added to the page specifically from an SEO perspective including certain headings, structure and content sections.
It is best to include SEOs in the process early on when it comes to design and development as bringing SEOs onboard just before launch makes it difficult for them to make fundamental changes to the page if the design has already been approved. SEO should have input during information architecture, navigation, templates, migrations, JavaScript decisions and content planning, not merely perform a final technical audit.
SEO and PR
Backlinks are a great way to improve the SEO of your site, building authority by gaining external links from other authoritative websites that help increase your own site’s authority in the eyes of Google.
Backlinks can be gained through the use of digital PR, and therefore working closely with PR departments is important for SEOs, as they can help the PR team with insights such as which brands to contact for links and who is providing links to competitors, etc.
Ultimately, SEO shouldn’t operate in isolation. Many of the things that make an SEO strategy successful rely on collaboration with the wider marketing team.
Whether that means working with content teams to make sure keyword research and search intent are considered when creating new content, collaborating with designers and developers to build search-friendly websites from the outset, or supporting PR teams in identifying opportunities to earn valuable backlinks, SEO has a role to play across the entire marketing process.
