Mediaboss Marketing

One of the first questions companies noodle through when hiring an SEO practitioner is where SEO should reside.This is nowhere truer than in organizations that are hiring an SEO for the first time.

A couple of things determine these decisions as to where SEOs reside: One is budget for head count and the other and the most important factor: Ownership of site (who is responsible for the corporate website).

Before we go into listing all the areas within a company where an in-house SEO should reside, lets get some definitions out of the way.

As mentioned earlier there are many polarizing opinions as to where the best place in the organization for an in-house SEO to reside.Let's consider the most likely options and some of the things to watch out for.

It can seem confusing at first as to why SEO should be part of a companys IT infrastructure group. The rationale behind this is since they have ownership of site from an infrastructure point of view then it would serve best if SEO is part of this group.

Also, as this group is about technology and ensuring the site is working well it seems like a logical place for SEOs to be, correct? Not necessarily. Often the first mistake is letting infrastructure group decide the fate of marketing your site.

If you place SEO in this group then the marketing aspect of SEO will be lost and you may have employee turnover on your hands. Plus, SEO will be fighting battles with marketing and other groups to get SEO changes pushed through whereas it should be the other way around where SEO is fighting battles with the infrastructure group.

Depending on the size of your company, many tend to have a separate Design & Development team. Now, it also depends on the influence of this team as to whether they have ownership of the site or solely operate as an agency within the company.

If the site ownership falls under their purview then chances are SEO could be part of this group. Placing SEO in this group seems to be natural since SEO is all about making changes to the site.

A few SEOs report to this group and it's honestly always puzzling as to why. Many companies still view website as a communications platform hence the corporate communications team end up with website responsibility. The inclusion of SEO here is flawed in so many ways in my opinion as they would be cut off from the main functions like marketing, development, and other teams.

Read more from the original source:
Where Should In-House SEO Reside?