Building an in-house SEO team can be a game-changer for driving organic growth. By leveraging internal resources and expertise, you gain greater control over your SEO strategy and alignment with broader business goals. But how do you assemble a high-performing team?
This comprehensive guide will walk you through proven steps for optimizing your in-house SEO program. Follow these best practices, and you’ll be on track for delivering tremendous value through search engine optimization.
Align SEO Efforts With Overarching Business Goals
The first step is ensuring your SEO initiatives support your company’s main objectives. What are the key goals – driving leads, boosting brand awareness, increasing sales? Understanding the core focus allows you to tailor programs accordingly.
For example, if lead generation is the priority, focus on ranking for commercial keywords that attract high-intent visitors. If brand-building is critical, target informational queries around your products, services and industry. Always view SEO through the lens of business impact.
An in-house team enables this strategic alignment more seamlessly than an external agency. With an intimate understanding of the company and direct access to cross-functional teams, an internal group can design initiatives that move core metrics.
Conduct Thorough Keyword Research
Now it’s time to dig into the keywords and phrases that searchers are using to find your offerings. The right toolkit here combines data from multiple sources:
Google Keyword Planner provides monthly search volumes for keywords. This indicates demand.
SEO tools like Ahrefs reveal how competitive each keyword is to rank for. Look at top-ranking domains and pages.
Google Autocomplete surfaces long-tail variations of core keywords that users search.
Google Trends shows geographic and time patterns in keyword usage.
Once you’ve compiled a list, narrow it down by focusing on 3 tiers:
- Tier 1 – High-volume, high-value targets crucial to goals
- Tier 2 – Medium-volume keywords supplementing Tier 1
- Tier 3 – Low-competition long-tails for easy wins
Group keywords by theme to guide content development. Audit existing pages against opportunities in each tier and persona. This forms the foundation for optimization.
Create Detailed Buyer Personas And Customer Journeys
Now that you’ve identified key terms, it’s crucial to understand the people searching them. Creating detailed buyer personas ensures your SEO content will resonate.
Check on Search Engine Journal: Buyer Personas: A Beginner’s Guide for Marketers
Start by researching your existing customer demographics – location, age, gender, income level, company size etc. Look at their interests based on social media profiles. Conduct surveys and interviews to uncover their challenges and motivations.
Grouping personas by their role in the purchase process also allows you to map content types to their customer journey. For example:
- Problem Awareness Stage – Blog posts, videos, and guides targeting knowledge gaps
- Information Gathering Stage – Comparison articles, product specification pages, and detailed tutorials
- Decision Making Stage – Pricing pages, demo requests, free trials, and customer testimonials
In your content strategy and optimization, cater to each persona’s search behavior at their current stage.
Benchmark Your Competitors’ SEO And Content
Performing a competitive analysis uncovers opportunities by revealing where competitors rank for target keywords.
Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Alexa to analyze their:
- Technical SEO – Site speed, mobile optimization, indexing issues
- On-page optimization – Keyword usage, meta tags, content types
- Backlink profile – Quantity/quality of backlinks by type
- Most popular content – Highest-traffic pages and assets
Look for strategic gaps where you can create differentiated, better-optimized content to pull search traffic.
For example, a top-ranking comparison article missing your product presents an opportunity to publish a more comprehensive version. A commonly shared but outdated “Ultimate Guide” presents a chance to update and outrank it.
Optimize Technical SEO Elements For Maximum Crawlability
Before creating content, it’s crucial to have the technical SEO foundations in place. Technical issues can prevent search engines from properly crawling, indexing, and ranking your pages.
An effective in-house SEO team will be well-versed in diagnosing and addressing technical problems like:
- Site speed – Leverage page caching, compression, CDNs to accelerate mobile and desktop site speed
- Mobile optimization – Ensure a responsive design and mobile-friendly, crawlable configuration
- Indexation issues – Fix crawling errors preventing pages from being indexed, like robots.txt blocks and broken links
- Site architecture – Create a logical IA that enables discovery of key content with minimal clicks
- Structured data – Implement schema markup to power rich snippets and sitelinks in SERPs
Proper technical SEO greatly enhances the ability for pages to get discovered, crawled, and ranked – setting the stage for content optimization.
Develop a Content Strategy Optimized for SEO
When it comes to ranking, the content is king. An effective content plan will help your pages attract searchers and satisfy their intent.
Start by mapping your personas, keywords, and customer journey stages to relevant content types and topics. Look for gaps where new content assets are needed to capture search traffic.
Some proven formats to include:
- Blog Articles: Useful for informational keywords. Aim for 2500+ words with keywords throughout.
- FAQ Pages: Target transactional keywords for each product/service. Structure with h2/h3 headers around questions.
- eBooks / Guides: Lead magnets that provide step-by-step advice for complex topics. 40-50 pages works well.
- Product Pages: Optimize for commercial keywords around features, pricing, and use cases.
- Video Tutorials: Engage searchers looking for quick how-to lessons. Embed videos in posts for amplification.
Repurposing content across formats (blogs into videos) further maximizes reach.
Define Roles and Responsibilities For SEO Team Members
Assembling a skilled in-house SEO team requires defining roles and responsibilities clearly. While separation of concerns, collaboration is essential.
Here are typical roles needed:
- SEO Manager – Develops strategy, manages programs and campaigns, reports on performance
- Content Strategist – Creates content plan, manages content creation, drives ideation
- Content Creator – Writes and optimizes articles, blogs, guides around keywords
- Technical SEO Lead – Oversees site audits, technical optimization, fixes crawling issues
- Link-Building Specialist – Creates relationships, secures backlinks from other sites
- PPC Manager – Manages paid search campaigns across Google, Bing, etc.
- Data Analyst – Analyzes performance data, extracts insights, and presents reports
Determine which roles your business needs most. Hire strategically for SEO experience. Filling skill gaps with training and mentoring improves team capabilities over time.
Provide Tools and Systems For Collaboration
Technology and systems enable the team to collaborate smoothly. Some essential tools include:
- SEO platform – Centralized workspace for keyword research, content optimization, rank tracking
- Content CMS – Creates intuitive workflow for content creation, review, and publishing
- Document management – Shared access to files like keyword research, audits, campaign briefs
- Communication – Email, Slack/Teams channels for constant collaboration
Also establish processes for content development, optimization, and reporting. Document checklists, guidelines, and SOPs in a knowledge base for training.
With the right tools and systems, the team functions as a cohesive unit.
Enable Continuous Education And Development
SEO changes rapidly. An ongoing investment in education helps the team keep pace with best practices.
Dedicate time for staying up to date on SEO through:
- Industry news – Reading blogs, forums, publications
- Webinars & events – Attending virtual summits, conferences
- Certifications – Getting certified through programs like SEMrush, Moz, HubSpot
- Training – Blocking time for internal training on new techniques
Education expands capabilities, allowing the team to evolve the SEO program. It also helps retain talent by supporting their growth.
Track Performance And Optimize Accordingly
Measuring SEO performance is crucial for optimization. Establish processes for monitoring:
- Rankings – Track keyword ranks in Google to improve targeting
- Traffic – Analyze trends across organic, paid, and referral channels
- Conversions – Connect rankings and traffic to business outcomes like leads and sales
- Technical metrics – Crawl stats, page speed, structured data adoption
- Content metrics – Engagement on articles, videos, and other assets
Set targets and monitor progress against internal goals and competitors. Use data to identify issues and opportunities to test new approaches. Continuously refine efforts based on measured results.
Link SEO Impact To Business Goals
Ultimately, SEO success is defined by impact on the business, not just website traffic. Clearly convey how your activities, campaigns, and optimizations move the needle on core KPIs.
Some examples of showcasing SEO value:
- Leads generated from organic traffic
- Bounce rate decrease from better targeting
- Increased brand awareness through more keyword visibility
- Higher revenue from specific landing pages ranked
- Faster break-even on marketing spend due to SEO scale
This builds credibility internally and justifies further investment. Work closely with sales, product, and leadership teams to align on goals.
The Key To SEO Success Lies Within You
By following the best practices outlined above, you can build an elite in-house SEO team tailored to your business needs. Develop the right skills, processes, and technology foundations. Obsess over continuous improvement through testing and metrics.
Most importantly, align SEO with overarching company goals, and demonstrate the tremendous value delivered through search. This will earn the buy-in and resources to enable organic growth for the long-term.
The opportunity is right in front of you. With a strategic approach and effective team, you can own the search results your customers are searching for. Now get out there and start optimizing!
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