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MASTERING IN-HOUSE SEO BLEEDING EDGE STRATEGIES AND TACTICS FROM LEADING IN-HOUSE SEO EXPERTS PUBLISHED AND COMPILED BY SIMON SCHNIEDERS CEO OF BLUE ARRAY Mastering In-House SEO -Bleeding Edge Strategies And Tactics From Leading In-House SEO Experts ISBN 978-1-8380053-0-6 © Blue Array-Blue Array Ltd., Reading Bridge House, George Street, Reading Bridge, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 8LS Published in March 2020 This book is dedicated to my wife Lacy and our daughter Amelia. Simon Schnieders PRAISE FOR MASTERING IN-HOUSE SEO Navigating internal politics and processes is one of the greatest challenges in-house SEOs face; a bigger challenge than the SEO discipline itself. This book is packed with wins and solid advice that my younger self would have begged for. LUKE CARTHY eCommerce Growth Consultant A book that achieves the rare feat of going broad and going deep. ORIT MUTZNIK Head of SEO at SilkFred As someone who has been on both sides (agency and in-house), I’m confident both groups will learn a lot about the world of in-house SEO by reading this book. RICHARD NAZAREWICZ Technical SEO Manager at the Wall Street Journal This book is exactly the type of resource I would have loved to have when starting out a decade ago. KERSTIN REICHERT SEO Digital MarketingManager at Tide If you are an in-house SEO, this book should always be an arm’s length away. With case studies, tips and guides, it has everything you need. ELI SCHWARTZ Former Director of Growth and SEO at SurveyMonkey From philosophy to tactics, from technical deep dives to challenging people issues, this book has it all. DOMINIK SCHWARZ Chief Inbound Officer at HomeToGo Covering a lot of ground from case studies to career advice, this book is a tour de force through in-house SEO. ADAM WHITTLES Head of SEO at AutoTrader Simon and the team at Blue Array have created an indispensable guide for future generations of in-house SEO managers. EMIRHAN YASDIMAN Technical SEO Lead at Metro Markets CONTENTS FOREWORD SIMON SCHNIEDERS | BLUE ARRAY HOW I BUILT A COMMUNITY FOR WOMEN TO SUPPORT ONE ANOTHER AREEJ ABUALI | SEO MANAGER, ZOOPLA From 1-1 mentoring to running a conference with 250 participants in less then a year: How Women in Tech SEO was founded and grew to an important community in the London Tech scene. A CULTURE OF AUTONOMY: BUILDING AN SEO TEAM THAT CAN DO IT ALL FABRIZIO BALLARINI | ORGANIC GROWTH & SEO, TRANSFERWISE Transferwise is the rare case of a company that provides individual teams staggering levels of organisational autonomy. This has allowed Fabrizio, through merit and perseverance, to build an SEO team of 30+ people, with impressive results. HOW A “SIMPLE” POINT OF VIEW MADE A £30,000/DAY DIFFERENCE LUKE CARTHY | ECOMMERCE GROWTH CONSULTANT Occasional calls to customer service about checkout problems went unresolved for over a year at this niche ecommerce company. Conventional wisdom was that the company's non web-savvy audience was making mistakes. Until Luke looked at the error log files. And yes, this has a lot to do with SEO. BEYOND TACTICS: PRINCIPLES TO DRIVE STRATEGIC SEO SIMON DANCE | SVP GROWTH, LYST.COM There is no shortage of tactics you can use in SEO. But are they what you should focus on? Simon approaches SEO from a principle-based view, and discusses five ways you can rethink SEO from a different perspective. HOW A BEST-PRACTICE GUIDEBOOK HAS HELPED THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES TO SUCCEED WITH SEO ALICE FOSTER | SEO EDITOR, THE TIMES & THE SUNDAY TIMES When Google changed its policy for news sites using paywalls, the Times wanted to jump at the opportunity to change their approach to SEO. But how to kickstart SEO in a culture where it had been low priority? For Alice, an SEO guidebook was the answer. HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE: SEO EDITION DAVID GERRARD | TEAM LEAD SEO, HEYCAR The most important ingredient to your success as an in-house SEO is relationship building. But what specifically does that mean? David Gerrard who defected from the agency world into an in-house role, breaks it down in detail. NECESSARY EVIL TO NOTABLE EDGE: OPTIMISING FILTER PAGES FOR RANKING AND CONVERSION ALINA GHOST | SEO MANAGER, AMARA When it comes to filter pages, most e-commerce sites just block them from being indexed. But Alina and her team found a way to turn these pages into another source of revenue for her company’s online store. REDUCING RISK WITH AUTOMATED SEO TESTING BEN JOHNSON | FREELANCE SEO CONSULTANT First, Ben was having sleepless nights before each new tech release, worried it would break something SEO-related. So he built a QA tool that automated crawls. And lo and behold this tool became a profitable business in itself. DATA-LED JOURNALISM: HOW WE CREATED PAGES MORE PEOPLE WANTED TO READ JONATHAN JONES | FORMER ORGANIC PERFORMANCE LEAD, MONEYSUPERMARKET GROUP Shifting away from link building as the primary source of inbound traffic, Jonathan decided he wanted to create better content. And so he dug into the data to uncover what MoneySuperMarket's audience wanted to read about. Here is the tale of this transition. THE PENGUIN PROGNOSTICATOR: GOING AGAINST THE CROWD ANTONIS KONSTANTINIDIS | HEAD OF SEO, EF ENGLISH LIVE In 2012, Antonis's company happily used the usual grey-hat ranking techniques, which at the time still worked like a charm. But Antonis needed to convince everyone to abandon what worked he saw the Penguin's flipper-writing on the wall. Here's how he did it. THINK LAND GRAB: CAREER ADVICE FOR SEOS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS NEIL MIDDLEMASS | FOUNDER, ASSEMBL SEO is a digital discipline unlike others, and recruiting for it has unique complexities. Neil offers advice for both SEOs and businesses looking to hire, covering issues like evaluating good fit, why SEOs should land grab, and how companies can handle availability gaps. THE OVERKILL APPROACH TO SCORING YOUR DREAM SEO ROLE ORIT MUTZNIK | HEAD OF SEO, SILKFRED Orit recalls how she got her dream SEO role in her dream location. Her recommendations: Burst through the door, use the element of surprise, and outwork everyone else. Yes all of that