IT has undergone a shift. Some of this shift has been talked about previously. But right now, I’m talking bedrock principles. Basics, building blocks, foundations, DNA…you get the point.
There’s a little transitive property thing going on. For those like me who are not always strong on basic algebra knowledge:
The transitive property states that if A=B=C then A=C. Follow me as I make a few leaps with this:
1. Search Engine Optimization is the effective and efficient design of an organization’s website in order to garner attention and traffic.
2. A website is an organization’s statement of its central vision and mission (i.e. strategy).
3. A strategy is an organization’s top-down plan for future success.
Put it all together and what do you get? Any effort for search engine optimization should and must be in line with the vision and strategy of the organization as a whole. If executive management says they want to increase their customer base by X number of customers in Y months/years through internet channels, whoever is developing the optimization plan needs to A. stop panicking and B. have passable (or better) knowledge of how SEO can achieve those goals.
So what should this person do? Here’s a short, non-inclusive list:
1. Talk to an organization’s business process owners to understand the existing environment.
2. Talk to executive management to gain historical perspective on where the organization has been, where it is now, and where management envisions it to be in 5 years.
3. Look at the competitive environment. What is the organization’s competition doing? What do they do better/worse? An extension of this is a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).
The great thing about this is that although you may move from one organization to another, you take the knowledge about a given product, market, or industry with you. You become a valuable resource that can provide informal benchmarks and deep-seeded expertise. The benefits go both ways.