In-House SEO With Agile Development: Success At Rapid Speed

SMX West 2013

Gregg HoltsclawMarch 13, 2013

www.dacgroup.com@greggholtsclaw

The Plan

The Solution

How does this relate to SEO in a Scrum?

• Small problems are either resolved, or they make the backlog

• New issues come up often, bloating the backlog and leaving them unaddressed

• A new Scrummaster is worried about containing the problem

• In newly implemented Agile environments, speed is prioritized and not a solution. (80% there is better than nothing)

• Fixes implemented late in the process, or after release are cumbersome, difficult, and often impossible

What is SEO?

• Exceptional Content Made Accessible

Five common problems

• Right response vs.. A response• Measurement• Documentation• Iteration• Ownership

Right Response vs.. A Response

• 80% delivered is not delivered, resist signing off on a business requirement that is almost there

• Your primary focus is executing SEO, not moving the project forward, but fear the backlog

• Don’t lose your voice in a stand-up and be relegated to the sprint review

Measurement

• Benchmark. Your Scrum team cares about business reqs set in a meeting, you care about results.

• Measure ongoing efforts– Traffic– Actions– Conversions– Value (Order or Lead Quality)

• Create a narrative of your program performance (Numbers aren’t enough). Moving the backlog means detailing business value

Documentation

• Things will change quickly, don’t use that as an excuse for lack of documentation

• Establish SLAs to determine how content is added, how technical issues are addressed, and how you develop timelines because a user story won’t be enough

• Did compliance, legal, and brand buy into Agile?

Iteration

• Set checkpoints• Iterate not just on failing strategies, but on

successful strategies• Be prepared to help with Q/A

Ownership

• Document who claims ownership in meetings• Communicate ownership to each team• Not everyone in your company is working a

sprint. Here’s how to deal with Legal, Brand, etc.

The Sixty Second Case Study

Case Study

• Right response vs. a response – Scrummaster is desperate to show progress

• Measurement– Are changes creating business value?

• Documentation– Did someone claim something in a Scrum and forget it before

they made it back to their desk?• Iteration

– A checkpoint saves you from the wrong result• Ownership

– When two teams are working on the exact opposite response

Three things to avoid

• Silos– You already have small sprint teams, silos are part

of the game• Not seeing the forest for the trees• Deprioritizing your plan– As an SEO, your plan is longer than Sprint cycles

Recap

• Right response vs. a response• Measurement• Documentation• Iteration• Ownership

Thank You