Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

Sound overwhelming? It can be, if you don’t prepare yourself. We suspect that

dealing with your technical staff is going to be the most challenging part of your in-

house SEO adventure. We have observed three major areas of difficulty:

• IT and Marketing speak such different languages it may be hard to get the com-

munication rolling.

• IT is likely to be extremely cautious about taking on any additional workload.

• It may be difficult to find a way that SEO excellence benefits the IT department.

There’s a lot to say here, so let’s discuss these three issues in more detail.

Communicating with IT

Your first task in working with IT will be finding a common language. Your IT com-

rades are technical thinkers. They like numbers, logic, specifications, and processes that

can be repeated. They are less fond of mysterious or amorphous organic processes.

They probably won’t be responsive to a request unless they fully appreciate the logical

reasons behind it.

Ideally, you will go into this conversation with some amount of technical skill

under your belt. You may even want to take a crash course in HTML. But even if you

think that HTML stands for “HoTMaiL” and a “server” has something to do with

getting your eggs Benedict before they get cold, you can still develop a good rapport

with your IT department if you follow this simple rule:

That’s right, you need to be very honest about what you know and don’t know.

Express your needs, and let

them

do their jobs by telling you the right way to get

things done. Bringing IT on board as a partner rather than a servant in SEO can make

all the difference in your ongoing success.

Of course, you may not want all the information that IT is prepared to share

with you. You probably don’t want or need to know the details of why something

can’t be done. If your eyes glaze over at the first mention of “meta refresh,” don’t just

stand there feeling miserable and trying to nod convincingly. Keep the focus on the

overall goals: You need something done. Is it possible or not? If not, what alternatives

are available? There is a give-and-take in play here. If you ask for a layman’s explana-

tion, and genuinely try to understand, you might learn something about the way your

Pearl of Wisdom:

Never fudge about your technical knowledge.

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