Implementing technical SEO tasks within an enterprise, the challenge often lies in the scale of the website, the intricacy of the tech stack, and the number of stakeholders involved. Prioritization of tasks is crucial, distinguishing them into tiers based on their impact and resource requirements. Effective communication is the backbone of this process, requiring tailored messaging for different stakeholders, technical specifics for developers and business implications for executives. Educating and training staff on SEO’s importance can encourage collaborative efforts across departments. Finally it’s beneficial to nurture a culture of testing, such as A/B testing, to validate the impact of SEO measures.
A key challenge in enterprise SEO is inconsistencies in mobile experiences across large, complex sites. With mobile-first indexing, flaws like slow loads, tricky navigation and ineffective UI can severely impact conversions and rank. To solve this requires governance and coordination. I advocate for global mobile guidelines, automated testing, and cross-functional QA. Rallying around mobile KPIs brings alignment. By making mobile optimization a unified priority across teams, enterprises can systematically fix flaws and deliver seamless mobile experiences that bolster SEO.
With enterprise level businesses, a major challenge SEOs often face are internal roadblocks due to things like legal approval, product approval, development backlog and general business priorities that can put the brakes on implementation. All of this is part and parcel of big business. In my time working with enterprise clients, there are a few things that can help smooth out these bumps. My main piece of advice to solve this is to create SOPs for each stage of the SEO process, which includes teams outside of SEO directly. Take content production for example. You might have to run through: SEO research, briefing and content creation, product team approval, legal team approval and then development team upload. Ensure you provide each of these teams checklist and also make sure they understand the SEO goals of the content. This can help expedite approval and upload.
One of the things to watch out for on enterprise websites is broken internal links. Websites that have thousands of pages often undergo restructure at some point. This is when disaster can occur. When teams re-categorise the website without any SEO guidance, page URLs can change and, as a result, internal links can become 301 redirects at best or broken '404' pages at worst. With any website, it's important that redirections are in place following any URL change to ensure there's no loss of link equity and for the user experience to not be tarnished by links leading to pages that no longer exist. Ideally, all internal links should directly link to the destination page without a chain. That is why a crawl of the website and a planned migration of the before and after URLs is integral to any website development where URLs or structure may be impacted, so that a page's internal links can be updated with the latest and correct URLs, either manually, via plugin or through scripts.
One enterprise SEO issue i consistently deal with is how to address outdated content. Almost all content becomes out dated at some point, even if it is years down the road. As an SEO, you don't always have the expertise to update the information within that content, or even the time to do it. Ideally you can create a team of people within the company, with buy-in from upper management, to get those pieces updated of the course of time.
The biggest enterprise SEO challenge is getting buy-in from other teams. In large organizations, SEO has many moving parts across teams. Despite robust data, it's hard to get stakeholder commitment to ambiguous, long-term roadmaps. I've learned three key lessons in solving this challenge: Frame SEO as enabling other teams to hit their goals. Show how it supercharges their KPIs. Quantify everything with numeric targets and budget scenarios. This shows an understanding of constraints. Build genuine relationships. Help stakeholders see how SEO benefits them specifically. With the proper framing, quantified recommendations, and interpersonal skills, SEOs can overcome buy-in challenges to unlock resources and support.
One enterprise issue that I've faced that's common among enterprises - especially franchises - is a massive amount of duplicate content. Enterprises with sites across the U.S. or globe can have hundreds or thousands of locations with their own internal page on the website. Here's the problem: The typical response I've seen is to have a templated approach, e.g., all of their location pages have the same format, style, and copy with little to no variation. Google wants to serve distinct, unique, helpful content, not duplicate content, so this templated approach hinders organic growth. Here's the solution: Enterprises, as painful as it can be, must make every page unique. Every location website page must be as distinct as possible. To do this, consider having the following info specific for each location: Photos, manager bios, employee profiles, awards and achievements, sponsorships, testimonials, discounts, and anything else you can add to make each location page different.
Right now for many enterprise clients, getting pages indexed (quickly and efficiently) is one of the consistent challenges I see. Fundamentally, if you don't have pages in the index, they can't rank and send you traffic so the need to have a solution is very important. You can manually submit via Google Search Console - but this isn't a scalable solution for more enterprise brands. Instead, they need to primarily consider their internal linking strategy. If new pages are extremely important, they need to be featured on the homepage when they go live, similarly having dynamic links on existing pages added for newer pages can greatly speed up the indexation of new pages.
From my experience, a common challenge in enterprise SEO is effectively scaling high-quality content that meets Google's E-E-A-T guidelines. As enterprises grow, the volume of content required increases, but maintaining the strict quality standards set by these guidelines can become a logistical hurdle. This issue could impede others by diluting their brand's perceived expertise and authority due to inconsistent or subpar content. The solution lies in developing a robust content governance framework that ensures all content, regardless of volume, adheres to E-E-A-T principles. This involves regular audits, upskilling writers, and leveraging technology to monitor and maintain quality across vast content landscapes.
In my experience working with a large company, earning buy-in for your SEO proposals is challenging due to the abundance of projects on the organization's roadmap. A way to overcome this problem is by aligning your proposal with the company's business objectives. Does the proposal solve a business problem? Does it increase revenue? Adding some estimations and forecasting, where possible, can make your SEO proposal easier to squeeze into the roadmap. Here's where communication and transparency are essential. Because if you have access to some business numbers, you can use them in your calculations and come up with estimations for your SEO proposal that will make your manager or client approve it. When it comes to enterprise SEO, business growth is Key. It's not about creating the perfect website but increasing revenue with an efficient strategy, even if it doesn't involve fixing every part from a holistic standpoint.
One enterprise SEO issue that I have consistently dealt with is the challenge of managing large amounts of content. As a company grows and expands its online presence, it can be difficult to keep track of all the pages, blog posts, and other content that needs to be optimized for search engines. This can lead to issues such as duplicate content, keyword cannibalization, and other SEO problems. One solution to this problem is to implement a content management system (CMS) that allows you to easily organize and manage your content. A good CMS will have features such as a content inventory, keyword research tools, and built-in SEO best practices. This will allow you to keep track of all your content and ensure that it is optimized for search engines.
One big SEO headache in a large company is making sure all our many web pages show up well on Google without stepping on each other's toes. If two pages fight over the same Google search words, neither wins. To fix this, we use smart SEO software to sort out which page should show up for which search words. This helps us stay organized and avoid mix-ups. We keep checking our pages to make sure they're still friends with Google. It's like a big team working smoothly together instead of everyone shouting over each other.
At dasFlow, one enterprise SEO challenge we've consistently faced is optimizing our extensive product portfolio for search engines. With a diverse range of custom athleisure apparel, ensuring that each product is accurately represented and easily discoverable can be daunting. This issue could resonate with others in the e-commerce space, where extensive product lines can lead to missed SEO opportunities. To tackle this, we implemented a comprehensive tagging and categorization system. By ensuring that each product is meticulously tagged with relevant and searchable keywords, we enhanced discoverability and user experience. To measure the impact, we tracked metrics like organic traffic, bounce rate, and conversion rates on product pages, witnessing a significant improvement in our SEO ROI.
One enterprise SEO challenge I've encountered is managing and optimizing content at scale. As a business grows, so does its content library, making it challenging to ensure every piece aligns with SEO best practices. This issue can affect others because neglecting content optimization can lead to missed organic search opportunities. To solve it, I recommend implementing a robust content management system that allows for easy auditing, optimization, and tracking of SEO performance across a vast content landscape.
- Identifying and Prioritizing Keywords Keywords are one of the most critical aspects of SEO. They act as a bridge between what users search for and what content is being provided by a website. Identifying relevant keywords and prioritizing them can be a challenge, especially for large enterprises with a vast range of products or services. Not having a clear strategy for keywords can result in wasted time and effort on optimizing for irrelevant terms. This can also lead to a lack of consistency across the website's content and overall SEO strategy, making it difficult for search engines to understand and rank the site. To tackle this issue, enterprises should conduct thorough keyword research to identify high-volume, relevant keywords that align with their business goals. This research should involve collaboration between different departments to ensure alignment and consistency.
SEO Struggle- Managing Algorithm Changes Consistently dealing with the impact of frequent algorithm updates poses a significant challenge for our enterprise SEO endeavors, potentially affecting other businesses similarly. The volatile nature of search engine algorithms can lead to sudden fluctuations in rankings and organic traffic, requiring continuous adaptation of SEO strategies. Emphasizing the diversification of traffic sources and prioritizing high-quality, user-focused content creation enables us to mitigate the effects of algorithmic changes. By focusing on building a strong brand reputation, fostering authentic user engagement, and staying updated with industry trends, businesses can proactively prepare for algorithm shifts, ensuring sustained visibility and relevance in the ever-evolving digital landscape.
Broken Links The most common SEO problem I’ve encountered is broken links. When visitors encounter a 404 error because of a broken link, they quickly exit the website. This leaves a bad impression on your website, eventually affecting sales and customer retention. Besides, the broken links make it difficult for Google to crawl and index your website, negatively affecting your search engine ranking. This will also hurt your website’s domain authority. To solve this problem, you must identify pages throwing the error on your website. You can use the crawl stats functionality in Google Search Console or Ahrefs. Once you find the broken links, replace or recreate the content. You can also use 301 redirects to divert your visitors to similar content on your website.
Broken Links Broken links can negatively impact your website’s traffic in several ways. First, they interfere with the browsing experience. Your visitors will be frustrated and discouraged to browse your website further when they encounter broken links. This will not only drive visitors away but also affect the search engine ranking of your website because search engines may interpret broken links as a sign of poor-quality content. Besides, search engines may find it difficult to crawl and index your website. To solve this problem, you’ll first need to check if you have broken links on Google Search Console. Links that generate “Not Found” results are broken. Remove these links to make your website credible and authoritative.
In our journey to streamline SaaS selection, one persistent SEO challenge we've encountered is maintaining the equilibrium between technical SEO requirements and providing an engaging user experience. As algorithms evolve, keeping pace with Google's indexing preferences while serving up rich, interactive content has been a tightrope walk. This is a hurdle for others in the field as it requires a robust understanding of SEO trends and user engagement metrics. Our approach to resolution hinges on continuous A/B testing and data analysis to fine-tune our platform. We employ agile strategies, integrating the latest analytics to adjust our SEO tactics, ensuring both visibility and user satisfaction. This dynamic, data-driven method has become indispensable in our playbook for sustained digital growth.
Founder, Personal and Professional Growth at katharinegallagher.com
Answered 2 years ago
As I grow my business, the SEO challenge I face is how to scale my content effectively. I think this is an issue all businesses have to face at some point, especially when growing their blog to increase organic traffic. Quite simply, the management and optimization of a large number of pages across a website can get complex without the meticulous handling of SEO practices. Regular content updates due to Google algorithm changes mean I have to constantly review content and audit performance metrics. To maintain uniform SEO standards across the entire site, I am trying to implement automation where possible. I use content management systems (CMS) with built-in SEO features, such as Wordpress and RankMath. I am also starting to use standardized templates and SEO guidelines to ensure consistency when hiring out tasks. I am constantly prioritizing my efforts based on traffic and conversion potential, which helps me focus on high-impact pages first. You have to be strategic with SEO!