SEOs fight battles on many fronts, whether it’s proving value to a content director for including keyword research into the content planning process or overcoming objections that arise from dealing with bad SEO agencies. One of the biggest battles is getting prioritization with the development team. It seems that updating buttons and color schemes get immediate priority while SEO requests, like minimizing scripts in the or improving Core Web Vitals, take a backseat and are often held to a higher standard when it comes to proving value.

1. How to Lead with In-House SEO
Product Management
Rock Your KPIs with a Center-Stage SEO Strategy
Joe Satriani, Phil Collen, and John Petrucci

2. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Keith Goode
• SEO Product Director for Dealer.com, Cox
Automotive
• Over 15 years In-House SEO
• Vrbo
• Dell
• IBM
• Cox Automotive Group
• Various startups
• Conference speaker
• Podcast host/guest
• Austin Otaku
• Webcology
• Search Engine Journal
• … and many more
• Certified Scrum Master
• Featured in Majestic’s SEO for 2022

3. Dawn of the
Internet
Moved to ATL –
Internet Startup
Graduated
University
NewEra Co. Job
First Layoff
Second Layoff
Learned more
tech
Third Layoff
Holy crap! I
know SEO!
Moved to AUS
Fourth Layoff
HomeAway
BDX
SpareFoot
Dell
seoClarity
NewEra Co. Job,
Part 2
Started speaking
at conferences
Fifth Layoff
IBM
More
speaking
gigs
SEJ Master Class
My Journey in Search
AMD
CAPG
First Patent
Freelance
Copyediting and
Technical Writing
Computerjobs.com

4. Presentation Disclaimer
Opinions expressed herein are my own. No forward-
looking statements regarding Cox Automotive,
Dealer.com or any subsidiary of Cox Enterprises have
been included. None of Cox’s data, revenue, or secret
sauce have been revealed. Statements made in this
presentation have not been tested by the FDA. Use at
your own discretion.

5. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
What Do I Hope to Accomplish in 20
Minutes?
• Introduce SEO product management as a discipline
• Briefly discuss Agile methodology and its application to SEO
• Talk about audits, sizing efforts/ROI and getting buy-in
• Go through objections and how to overcome them
• Discuss how to deal with downtime after your features are
rejected

6. Key Takeaways
• Understand How Your Dev
Team Works
• Learn How to Optimally Size
and Focus Your Requests
• Gain Allies Across Teams
Mark Holcomb: Periphery,
Haunted Shores

7. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Who Can Benefit
from This Session
• In-House SEOs
• Technical SEOs (specifically)
• Content SEOs
• Agencies working with In-
House Teams
• Executives
• Product Managers
Steve Vai

8. Product
Management
Why Should You Care About It? What
Should You Know About It?

9. What is an SEO Product
Manager?
• Evaluates the technical underpinnings
of the site or platform for:
• Crawlability
• Indexability
• Core Web Vitals
• Other Areas of Opportunity
• Builds feature and epics
• Establishes technical SEO roadmap
annually
• Provides ongoing QA, user studies, and
monitoring
• Educates teams
Yvette Young,
Covet

10. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
What is Agile Methodology?
Very simply, Agile Methodology is a framework for getting things
done, whether content or development projects. It seeks to break up
feature requests by discipline into quick wins, or minimally
marketable products (MMP), and iterating further improvements
over time rather than working on a task until it’s perfect.
“Perfection is the enemy of done.”

11. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Agile Team Structure
• Product Managers/Stakeholders
• Product Owners
• Scrum Master
• Team Members
• Developers
• Sys Admins
• Content Writers
• Analysts
Tosin Abasi,
Animals as Leaders

12. What the Agile Process Looks Like
Release
Daily
Scrum
Product
Increment
Daily
Cycle
Sprint
Review
Sprint
Retrospective
Update
Product
backlog
SCRUM
PROCESS
User Stories are
Added to the
Process
The Process is the key. Daily scrums with a
consistent Release schedule
Everyone contributes to the
process and helping refine it.
All activities should address an
issue that can be fixed with the
next release.
Sprint
Planning
meeting
Daily
Cycle
Product
increment
SCRUM
ARTIFACTS
Risk & Issues
Sprint
Backlog
Product
Backlog
Sprint Burn Down
Product
Burn Up
SCRUM
ROLES
Product
owner
Scrum
Master
Stake
Holders
Users
Team
Members

13. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Agile in a Nutshell
• User Stories – broken down
into Sprint-sized tasks per
team member
• MMPs iterated and refined
over time
• Not an orthodoxy – Orgs can
iterate on the process itself to
find the right mix for them –
Agile-ish
Misha Mansoor: Periphery,
Haunted Shores

14. It’s worth noting that while many marketing and development teams
have adopted Agile as their framework, the process of setting a
budget, establishing annual priorities, and building roadmaps is still
very much a Waterfall process.
Stanley Jordan

15. Why is it Important to
Learn About Product
Management?
Unless you’re in a self-sufficient
company of one, chances are
you’ll need to learn how the
framework works, what
language to use, and how to get
the best results from your
relationships in the company to
get what you want and need.
Steve Vai and the
Hydra

16. Scaling Your
Efforts
How to Properly Audit, Prioritize, Size and
Promote Your Requests

17. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Getting Buy-In
• SEOs understand how
important technical feature
requests and content are –
others do not
• Understand how to align your
benefits to overall company
KPIs
• Listen, refine and integrate
with other efforts as necessary
St. Vincent (Annie Clark)

18. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Avoid Giving Executives Unrefined Audits
• It’s easy to just hand someone
a report from Screaming Frog
and assume you’ve shared
something valuable
• This all bleeds together into a
meaningless mass to them
• Paradox of Choice
• Agencies bidding for new
business still do this

19. Executive Priorities vs. SEO Priorities
High
• LOI: Immediate Impact
• Leading benefit: Engagement Improvement
• Result: Revenue Gains
Medium
• LOI: Takes Longer
• Leading benefit: Industry Share of Voice
• Result: Improvement in Reach
Low
• LOI: Long-term Impact
• Leading benefit: Technical Efficiency and Excellence
• Result: Better Alignment with Industry Best Practices

20. It is vital to link your feature requests and epics to executive priorities and
KPIs. “Because Google said so” generally won’t justify the effort, resources or
costs in their minds.
Sarah Longfield

21. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Helpful Tip
If you have an executive leader
who even remotely understands
SEO, getting priority and funding
will be infinitely easier.
Carlos Santana

22. Executive Priorities vs. SEO Priorities
Foundation
Engagement
Promotion

23. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Categorize and Group Your Findings

24. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Plot Your Features into
the LOE/LOI Matrix
• No unprioritized and
unsized audits!
• Map your requests to the
appropriate quadrant to
understand how to
prioritize your work.
• NOTE: Defects don’t go on
this matrix. They’re
prioritized first.
Low Difficulty /
High Benefit
High Difficulty /
High Benefit
Low Difficulty /
Low Benefit
High Difficulty /
Low Benefit

25. Calculating Benefit
Metrics You REALLY Need to Know:
• Value per Visit (VPV)
• Engagement Rate
• Overall Traffic
• Traffic by Page Type
• Traffic, Engagement and Revenue by
channel
Calculate Benefit:
• Increase in traffic?
• Improvement in VPV?
• Improved engagement rate?
Vinnie Moore

26. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Writing Effective
Feature Requests
• Problem Statement
• As an SEO, I would like …
• Acceptance Criteria
• Overview & Context
• Benefits
• Success Criteria / Desired
Outcomes
• SMEs & Stakeholders
• In Scope / Out of Scope / Known
Risks / Dependencies
Plini

27. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Example
Name SEO: DDC – Ability to NoIndex/NoFollow a Page
Problem Statement As an SEO, I would like to have ability to turn on and off the robots meta-tag values of ‘Noindex” and
“Nofollow” across all page types except the homepage.
Acceptance Criteria AC1: A checkbox on Composer that will update the robots meta-tag
AC2: Removal of all pages with Noindex/Nofollow values from XML sitemaps
AC3: Ability to turn off the Noindex/Nofollow value
AC4: Restoration of pages previously noindexed/nofollowed in XML sitemaps
Overview & Context The ability to Noindex certain pages allows users to control indexability of pages with sensitive
information.
Benefits Brings us into alignment with other CMSs. Gives greater control of indexation to sites
Desired Outcome <meta name=“robots” content=“Noindex,Nofollow”>
Subject Matter Experts Keith Goode (SEO)
Stakeholders SEO – Keith Goode
In Scope All pages except for the homepage
Out of Scope The homepage
Known Risks / Dependencies Granting this level of control to users could result in pages being removed from the index that shouldn’t be
removed.
Tags SEO, SEO: Keith, DDC SEO

28. Dealing with
Objections
Opportunities to Learn and Respond to
Critics

29. Objection is an
Opportunity for
Correction
• Developers are not SEOs. They
don’t understand:
• Technical SEO
• How Google renders content
• What affects crawlability and
indexability for Google
• How search has evolved and where
it’s going
• Leadership doesn’t always
understand how it all relates to
making more money
• Everyone falls victim to panic
provoking marketing
Tony McAlpine

30. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Demonstration and
Documentation
• Share the latest documentation
from the search engines and
posts by search analysts there
• Demonstrate what’s broken
and how to fix it
• Provide screenshots
• DOM vs. Page Source
• GSC Reports
Devin Townsend

31. • Most importantly, don’t take it personally, even though some people will make
it feel personal
• If it’s important to you, help them understand why it’s important.
Regi Wooten

32. Dealing with
Rejection
What to Do with Your Time Once Your
Features Are Rejected for the Roadmap

33. • There are a ton of site components that address everything from
functionality to usability.
• SEO is just one product, even though it affects and is affected by many
other products
• Even when you’re not in the roadmap, your job isn’t done as an SEO
Aaron Marshall, Intervals

34. Education, Enablement
and Evangelism
• Training Sessions by Discipline
• Open Office Hours
• Intranet Learning Center
• Roadmap and Release Updates
• Evangelize Your Results Upline
• Email Updates
Joe Satriani and Steve Vai

35. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Find Alternative
Development Paths
• Defects
• KTLO (Keeping the Lights On)
• Sitewide Best Practice
Alignment (DEX, BBB)
• Hack Days
• Special Projects
Orianthi

36. Shift Your Own
Learning Path
• Learn the technical
underpinnings of your site
• Learn JavaScript
• Become a certified Scrum
Master
Tim Henson:
Polyphia

37. Twitter: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
In Summary
• Understanding your development framework can help you build
better requests
• When you build better requests and tie them to KPIs, you’re more
likely to get priority
• Use your downtime to build alliances, evangelize your work, and
share your knowledge

38. Thank You!
Let’s Connect
Yoyo (Pinxy Liu)
@keithgoode
/in/keithlgoode/
mastodon.social/@keithgoode