In digital marketing, agencies and in-house teams often separate into specialized units like SEO, PPC and content marketing.
While this division makes sense internally, it doesn’t align with how customers experience a brand online. Customers don’t think in silos – they interact with a brand’s digital presence holistically.
This reality calls for a unified approach to digital marketing, where SEO plays a pivotal role.
With its broad skill set encompassing research, copywriting, technical insights and digital PR, SEO professionals are uniquely positioned to bridge gaps between different marketing disciplines.
This article explores how SEOs can collaborate across digital marketing teams to create a more cohesive strategy, enhancing overall effectiveness and delivering better results for both businesses and customers.
Sharing research
SEO teams gather extensive research, which is the foundation of their strategy.
They analyze keywords customers use and search volumes, which I call the “voice of the customer” – a clear reflection of what they want.
They also research competitors, compiling data on what ranks well for them and how their sites perform.
This research provides valuable insight into competitors’ SEO strategies and the customer journey they are targeting. It shows what competitors prioritize based on their rankings and recent content.
This information is highly useful to the broader marketing team. For example, it can supply the paid media team with keyword data and give content teams insight into where competitors are focusing their efforts.
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Copywriting: Skills sharing and training
Copywriting is a key skill for SEO, as content is one of its main pillars.
With Google’s improved understanding of context, SEO copy should now simply be excellent writing. While keyword themes are still important, the days of spammy SEO content are over.
This makes copywriting a valuable skill to share and train other teams on.
If other teams are creating website copy, they should understand SEO requirements to ensure the content is optimized.
Likewise, SEO teams can learn from paid media teams.
For example, meta descriptions are like paid ad headlines, so studying high-performing ad copy and click-through rates can help improve SEO content’s impact on search results.
Technical collaboration
Technical SEO pros possess specialized knowledge about how a website’s technical health and decisions affect its visibility on search engines.
This creates a significant opportunity for technical SEOs to collaborate with website product owners and web developers within the digital marketing team.
Building a strong relationship between these teams is crucial for a successful search strategy, especially since SEO can often seem mysterious to those outside the field.
Clear communication and data-driven decision-making can empower both teams.
Additionally, collaboration between the SEO team and the UX team is essential. A website that fails to convert users won’t support the SEO strategy and vice versa.
By working together on technical optimizations and design enhancements, both teams can improve performance and enhance the customer experience.