SEO
7 Tips For Getting The Most Of Your Enterprise SEO Freelancers
Whether this is the first time you’ve outsourced your SEO or you have years of experience working with freelancers, going into the process with a well-structured plan will help you to get the best out of your support team.
At the enterprise level, it’s even more crucial that you have high levels of communication and accountability for any SEO project.
With so many pages to manage, there’s an increased potential for costly mistakes or errors.
It’s your job to prevent those as much as possible.
So what can you do to build a successful team of enterprise SEO freelancers?
These seven tips can help.
1. Provide Them With Thorough Briefs
No matter how big your site is, you will always know more about the business and its goals than the freelancers that you hire.
But that’s also why it’s up to you to educate your freelancers appropriately and give them the inside knowledge that they need to do their work effectively.
With sites that are hundreds or even thousands of pages, it can be incredibly easy for a freelancer to get lost when it comes to the structure of the site and why things are set up the way they are.
Providing them with a detailed brief ahead of the project start date will allow them time to review, follow up, and clarify anything that could make their work more difficult or less successful.
Your brief should include some information on the objective of the work you want the freelancer to complete, along with everything that’s expected from them in terms of deliverables.
You should also clearly outline any deadlines for each aspect of the project, along with agreed-upon processes like standing meetings or check-ins.
2. Establish Concrete Deliverables
While having goals like “increase organic traffic to the site by 10% this quarter” are great to aim for, your freelancers need to have concrete deliverables laid out that make it clear when the work is done.
If you’re not sure where to start with these, it’s important to remember that deliverables are about controllable outcomes.
You should be able to look at them and ask “was this task completed or not?”
Yes, you’re hiring freelancers to make a difference in your business growth.
But their role is to complete the necessary tasks to get you to those goals, not guarantee that those goals will be achieved.
Ultimately, it’s out of both your and your freelancer’s hands as to the results of growth or performance goals, no matter how hard you work.
Setting clear, definable deliverables is one of the best ways to keep everyone on-task and ensure a successful working relationship with your freelancers.
3. Outline Success Metrics Upfront
Before you launch any new digital marketing project, you need to know how you plan to measure its success.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) will vary from business to business, and even from project to project at enterprise-level companies.
Take the necessary time that you need to map out your measures before handing over work to your freelancers.
Common SEO KPIs that you might want to consider are traffic or rankings. Are you seeing an increase in performance in both of these as a result of the work that your freelancers are doing?
But your success metrics don’t always have to be hard data like this.
When internal teams are overstretched and being pulled in too many different directions, mistakes happen more often.
Seeing a reduction in errors or less time being spent on corrections is a valid success metric that you can use with your SEO freelancers.
It might not be as flashy a metric as traffic or rankings, but it can make just as much difference to the bottom line of the business long term.
4. Give Them Access To Necessary Docs And Tools, But Respect Their Process, Too
When you hire freelancers, you need to create an onboarding process as if they were a new member of your internal team.
This means giving them access to any documents or tools that they’ll need in order to complete the work that you’ve outlined for them.
Internal documents can be buried deep in computer files and internal systems, so be sure to clearly lay out instructions for where these files can be found and how the freelancer can access them.
If you’re working in a project management system, set them up as a new user and schedule a call to walk them through where everything is and how your internal team uses the system.
The same goes for your website.
Give your freelancers the access that they’ll need to do their work and take some time to show them where key pages are or any problem areas that you specifically want to bring to their attention.
However, many companies make the mistake of expecting their freelancers to use all of their tools, apps, and internal communications channels.
It’s important for freelancers to stay connected to the project, but they may request you not add them to your Slack, not give them additional email addresses, or that you ping them directly if they are added into internal comms systems on the channel they use the most (generally their own email).
This is to ensure updates are not missed, projects stay on task, and they can manage the number of places they need to check for feedback across clients.
5. Have A Process For Ownership And Check-Ins
When you’re working at an enterprise business, you probably have hundreds of tasks on your plate every day.
After all, that’s why you hired freelancers, to help lighten the load!
But while those freelancers are responsible for the work they’re doing, you are ultimately the point of contact and person in charge of the project.
It’s vital that you schedule a time to check in with your freelancers, either at set stages of the project or on a weekly/biweekly basis to see how things are going.
Set up an internal process for these check-ins that increase efficiency for both you and your freelance team, particularly if you’re working with multiple freelancers across different parts of the project.
It’s your responsibility to stay on top of everything, to make sure that deadlines are being met, and that work is up to the standard that you’re expecting.
Keeping in touch on a regular basis, without micromanaging your external team, is the best way to stay on track.
6. Set Up Standing Meetings To Keep The Project Moving
While weekly or biweekly check-ins are helpful, be sure to schedule standing meetings and calls to keep the project moving along.
Most teams find that these standing meetings are most useful around key deadlines, like wrapping up an SEO audit or ahead of a project launch.
Check-ins are often more informal and by email, whereas these standing meetings should take place in person or over a video call and be structured more like a formal meeting.
Put together an agenda and email this over to your internal team and all of your freelancers at least several days ahead of the planned meeting time.
This gives everyone a chance to look over it and add any additional comments or suggestions.
During your standing meetings, review what has been completed so far and how this has gone.
You should then set aside some time to discuss any changes that may have happened internally that might impact the work that your freelancers are doing and to talk about upcoming deadlines ahead of the next meeting.
Standing meetings can certainly take up time in your schedule, but they’re an important part of managing an outsourced team.
Knowing that you have a set appointment to discuss the project will keep the momentum going and go a long way towards making your freelancers more successful.
7. Have A Quality Assurance Process Before Go-Lives
Just as you’re responsible for making sure that work gets completed, it’s also your responsibility to ensure that work is of the highest possible standard before it goes live.
Yes, everyone makes mistakes.
But it’s vital that you catch these before they’re launched to the wider world.
Building a quality assurance process into your project launch schedule can help you to keep the appropriate checks and balances in-house.
This might mean having several sets of eyes look over a piece of the project before it’s put on the website or asking a senior member of the team for final sign-off before sending feedback to your freelancer.
Be firm with maintaining and adhering to your process once it’s in place.
Thinking that you can skip a step or two is a sure way to set yourself up for something to slip through the cracks.
It may take longer to work through each item on the checklist, but it can save you embarrassment or, worse, losing money when your project goes live.
Conclusion
Enterprise SEO is a unique and challenging beast, but it’s also incredibly rewarding when you see your hard work paying off.
Working with freelancers is one of the best ways to bring specialized expertise into your team and plug gaps that need filling in order to launch a successful project.
With the right systems and processes in place, you can help your freelancers to deliver their best work for you and build a lasting working relationship that your enterprise business can benefit from for years to come.
More resources:
Featured Image: 4 PM production/Shutterstock
SEO
Google Cautions On Blocking GoogleOther Bot
Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about the non-search features that the GoogleOther crawler supports, then added a caution about the consequences of blocking GoogleOther.
What Is GoogleOther?
GoogleOther is a generic crawler created by Google for the various purposes that fall outside of those of bots that specialize for Search, Ads, Video, Images, News, Desktop and Mobile. It can be used by internal teams at Google for research and development in relation to various products.
The official description of GoogleOther is:
“GoogleOther is the generic crawler that may be used by various product teams for fetching publicly accessible content from sites. For example, it may be used for one-off crawls for internal research and development.”
Something that may be surprising is that there are actually three kinds of GoogleOther crawlers.
Three Kinds Of GoogleOther Crawlers
- GoogleOther
Generic crawler for public URLs - GoogleOther-Image
Optimized to crawl public image URLs - GoogleOther-Video
Optimized to crawl public video URLs
All three GoogleOther crawlers can be used for research and development purposes. That’s just one purpose that Google publicly acknowledges that all three versions of GoogleOther could be used for.
What Non-Search Features Does GoogleOther Support?
Google doesn’t say what specific non-search features GoogleOther supports, probably because it doesn’t really “support” a specific feature. It exists for research and development crawling which could be in support of a new product or an improvement in a current product, it’s a highly open and generic purpose.
This is the question asked that Gary narrated:
“What non-search features does GoogleOther crawling support?”
Gary Illyes answered:
“This is a very topical question, and I think it is a very good question. Besides what’s in the public I don’t have more to share.
GoogleOther is the generic crawler that may be used by various product teams for fetching publicly accessible content from sites. For example, it may be used for one-off crawls for internal research and development.
Historically Googlebot was used for this, but that kind of makes things murky and less transparent, so we launched GoogleOther so you have better controls over what your site is crawled for.
That said GoogleOther is not tied to a single product, so opting out of GoogleOther crawling might affect a wide range of things across the Google universe; alas, not Search, search is only Googlebot.”
It Might Affect A Wide Range Of Things
Gary is clear that blocking GoogleOther wouldn’t have an affect on Google Search because Googlebot is the crawler used for indexing content. So if blocking any of the three versions of GoogleOther is something a site owner wants to do, then it should be okay to do that without a negative effect on search rankings.
But Gary also cautioned about the outcome that blocking GoogleOther, saying that it would have an effect on other products and services across Google. He didn’t state which other products it could affect nor did he elaborate on the pros or cons of blocking GoogleOther.
Pros And Cons Of Blocking GoogleOther
Whether or not to block GoogleOther doesn’t necessarily have a straightforward answer. There are several considerations to whether doing that makes sense.
Pros
Inclusion in research for a future Google product that’s related to search (maps, shopping, images, a new feature in search) could be useful. It might be helpful to have a site included in that kind of research because it might be used for testing something good for a site and be one of the few sites chosen to test a feature that could increase earnings for a site.
Another consideration is that blocking GoogleOther to save on server resources is not necessarily a valid reason because GoogleOther doesn’t seem to crawl so often that it makes a noticeable impact.
If blocking Google from using site content for AI is a concern then blocking GoogleOther will have no impact on that at all. GoogleOther has nothing to do with crawling for Google Gemini apps or Vertex AI, including any future products that will be used for training associated language models. The bot for that specific use case is Google-Extended.
Cons
On the other hand it might not be helpful to allow GoogleOther if it’s being used to test something related to fighting spam and there’s something the site has to hide.
It’s possible that a site owner might not want to participate if GoogleOther comes crawling for market research or for training machine learning models (for internal purposes) that are unrelated to public-facing products like Gemini and Vertex.
Allowing GoogleOther to crawl a site for unknown purposes is like giving Google a blank check to use your site data in any way they see fit outside of training public-facing LLMs or purposes related to named bots like GoogleBot.
Takeaway
Should you block GoogleOther? It’s a coin toss. There are possible potential benefits but in general there isn’t enough information to make an informed decision.
Listen to the Google SEO Office Hours podcast at the 1:30 minute mark:
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Cast Of Thousands
SEO
AI Search Boosts User Satisfaction
A new study finds that despite concerns about AI in online services, users are more satisfied with search engines and social media platforms than before.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) conducted its annual survey of search and social media users, finding that satisfaction has either held steady or improved.
This comes at a time when major tech companies are heavily investing in AI to enhance their services.
Search Engine Satisfaction Holds Strong
Google, Bing, and other search engines have rapidly integrated AI features into their platforms over the past year. While critics have raised concerns about potential negative impacts, the ACSI study suggests users are responding positively.
Google maintains its position as the most satisfying search engine with an ACSI score of 81, up 1% from last year. Users particularly appreciate its AI-powered features.
Interestingly, Bing and Yahoo! have seen notable improvements in user satisfaction, notching 3% gains to reach scores of 77 and 76, respectively. These are their highest ACSI scores in over a decade, likely due to their AI enhancements launched in 2023.
The study hints at the potential of new AI-enabled search functionality to drive further improvements in the customer experience. Bing has seen its market share improve by small but notable margins, rising from 6.35% in the first quarter of 2023 to 7.87% in Q1 2024.
Customer Experience Improvements
The ACSI study shows improvements across nearly all benchmarks of the customer experience for search engines. Notable areas of improvement include:
- Ease of navigation
- Ease of using the site on different devices
- Loading speed performance and reliability
- Variety of services and information
- Freshness of content
These improvements suggest that AI enhancements positively impact various aspects of the search experience.
Social Media Sees Modest Gains
For the third year in a row, user satisfaction with social media platforms is on the rise, increasing 1% to an ACSI score of 74.
TikTok has emerged as the new industry leader among major sites, edging past YouTube with a score of 78. This underscores the platform’s effective use of AI-driven content recommendations.
Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have also seen significant improvements in user satisfaction, showing 3-point gains. While Facebook remains near the bottom of the industry at 69, Instagram’s score of 76 puts it within striking distance of the leaders.
Challenges Remain
Despite improvements, the study highlights ongoing privacy and advertising challenges for search engines and social media platforms. Privacy ratings for search engines remain relatively low but steady at 79, while social media platforms score even lower at 73.
Advertising experiences emerge as a key differentiator between higher- and lower-satisfaction brands, particularly in social media. New ACSI benchmarks reveal user concerns about advertising content’s trustworthiness and personal relevance.
Why This Matters For SEO Professionals
This study provides an independent perspective on how users are responding to the AI push in online services. For SEO professionals, these findings suggest that:
- AI-enhanced search features resonate with users, potentially changing search behavior and expectations.
- The improving satisfaction with alternative search engines like Bing may lead to a more diverse search landscape.
- The continued importance of factors like content freshness and site performance in user satisfaction aligns with long-standing SEO best practices.
As AI becomes more integrated into our online experiences, SEO strategies may need to adapt to changing user preferences.
Featured Image: kate3155/Shutterstock
SEO
Google To Upgrade All Retailers To New Merchant Center By September
Google has announced plans to transition all retailers to its updated Merchant Center platform by September.
This move will affect e-commerce businesses globally and comes ahead of the holiday shopping season.
The Merchant Center is a tool for online retailers to manage how their products appear across Google’s shopping services.
Key Changes & Features
The new Merchant Center includes several significant updates.
Product Studio
An AI-powered tool for content creation. Google reports that 80% of current users view it as improving efficiency.
This feature allows retailers to generate tailored product assets, animate still images, and modify existing product images to match brand aesthetics.
It also simplifies tasks like background removal and image resolution enhancement.
Centralized Analytics
A new tab consolidating various business insights, including pricing data and competitive analysis tools.
Retailers can access pricing recommendations, competitive visibility reports, and retail-specific search trends, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and capitalize on popular product categories.
Redesigned Navigation
Google claims the new interface is more intuitive and cites increased setup success rates for new merchants.
The platform now offers simplified website verification processes and can pre-populate product information during setup.
Initial User Response
According to Google, early adopters have shown increased engagement with the platform.
The company reports a 25% increase in omnichannel merchants adding product offers in the new system. However, these figures have yet to be independently verified.
Jeff Harrell, Google’s Senior Director of Merchant Shopping, states in an announcement:
“We’ve seen a significant increase in retention and engagement among existing online merchants who have moved to the new Merchant Center.”
Potential Challenges and Support
While Google emphasizes the upgrade’s benefits, some retailers, particularly those comfortable with the current version, may face challenges adapting to the new system.
The upgrade’s mandatory nature could raise concerns among users who prefer the existing interface or have integrated workflows based on the current system.
To address these concerns, Google has stated that it will provide resources and support to help with the transition. This includes tutorial videos, detailed documentation, and access to customer support teams for troubleshooting.
Industry Context
This update comes as e-commerce platforms evolve, with major players like Amazon and Shopify enhancing their seller tools. Google’s move is part of broader efforts to maintain competitiveness in the e-commerce services sector.
The upgrade could impact consumers by improving product listings and providing more accurate information across Google’s shopping services.
For the e-commerce industry as a whole, it signals a continued push towards AI-driven tools and data-centric decision-making.
Transition Timeline
Google states that retailers will be automatically upgraded by September if they still need to transition.
The company advises users to familiarize themselves with the new features before the busy holiday shopping period.
Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock
Billions Of Google goo.gl URLs To 404 In The Future
26 Common SEO Myths, Debunked
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 22, 2024
Google Core Update Coming, Ranking Volatility, Bye Search Notes, AI Overviews, Ads & More
11 Copyscape Alternatives To Check Plagiarism
Google Warns Of Last Chance To Export Notes Search Data
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 23, 2024
The Top 5 AI Tools That Can Revolutionize Your Workflow and Boost Productivity
System Builders – How AI Changes The Work Of SEO
Trending Content Output Compared in ChatGPT, Gemini & Claude
-
SEARCHENGINES5 days agoBillions Of Google goo.gl URLs To 404 In The Future
-
SEO7 days ago26 Common SEO Myths, Debunked
-
SEARCHENGINES4 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 22, 2024
-
SEARCHENGINES6 days agoGoogle Core Update Coming, Ranking Volatility, Bye Search Notes, AI Overviews, Ads & More
-
SEO5 days ago11 Copyscape Alternatives To Check Plagiarism
-
SEO6 days agoGoogle Warns Of Last Chance To Export Notes Search Data
-
SEARCHENGINES3 days ago
Daily Search Forum Recap: July 23, 2024
-
AFFILIATE MARKETING6 days agoThe Top 5 AI Tools That Can Revolutionize Your Workflow and Boost Productivity
You must be logged in to post a comment Login