Presented on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at Pubcon in Las Vegas, NV at the Luxor Casino and Resort conference center. In the trenches of digital marketing, internal conflicts can be just as fierce as external competition. SEO warriors, your greatest foes might not be spam bots or algorithm updates, but colleagues from other departments with good intentions (and sometimes, questionable tactics). Ever faced these SEO roadblocks? UX wants to revamp the site structure, throwing your carefully crafted keyword targeting into chaos. Legal nixes that perfect meta description because it uses a "trademark grey area" term. Marketing insists on a flashy new subdomain, splintering your precious link juice. Sound familiar? You're not alone. This session is your battle cry, your guide to navigating the treacherous landscape of in-house SEO conflicts. Here's what you'll learn: Identifying common SEO roadblocks from other departments. Building bridges, not walls: Communication strategies for winning over colleagues. The art of compromise: Finding SEO-friendly solutions that appease everyone. Case studies: Real-world examples of SEO victories forged in the fires of friendly fire. Leave this session armed with the knowledge and tactics to turn internal conflict into collaborative triumph. Remember, SEO isn't a solo mission - it's a team effort. Let's win together!

1. When
Friendly Fire
Strikes!
True Stories from the Inside
Presented by Keith Goode
#Pubcon

2. X: @keithgoode Mastodon: mastodon.social/@keithgoode
Keith Goode
• Concierge SEO Consultant, Goode Search
• 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. The Enemy
Inside the
Gates
Why Updates Are the Least of
Your Worries

4. Expectations vs. Reality
SEOs are largely focused on the ever-evolving landscape of search. We
expect challenges associated with:
• Algorithm Changes
• Seasonality
• Market Shifts
• Competitors surging in the SERPs
• AI getting it absolutely wrong (follow @lilyray for examples)
www.goodesearch.com

5. Friendly Fire
Comes from
Behind
For In-House SEOs, the real
surprises come from:
• Bad deployments
• Bad coding
• Server changes
• Stripped budget and resources
• … and more

6. Real-World
Friendly Fire
Scenarios
And How to Deal with Them

7. Developers

8. Canonical Tags – Story #1
• Early days of canonicals
• Provided guidance:
• Cleanest, renderable URL
is the canonical URL
• The canonical URL should
have a self-referential tag
• Parameterized pages all
had self-referential
canonicals
• Lost ranking across the
board
www.goodesearch.com

9. Canonical Tags –
Story #2
• CMS powering over 11,000 websites
• Developer read a random forum post about
preventing XSS attacks
• Replaced all punctuation in canonical tag URLs
with their HTML code equivalent
Example: https:/
/www.roundrocktoyota.com&
#47;
• No new content was indexed for weeks
• Google claimed this syntax wasn’t a problem
• Spoiler: It was a problem.

10. Bad Deployment
• Framework migration on
WordPress
• Noindex,Nofollow robot meta-
tags not switched from staging
to production
• The company’s most important
content channels were down for
several hours until it was fixed.

11. Executive
Leadership

12. Budget Denial
• SEOs, like other
departments, send their
budget requests each fiscal
year
• Project work
• Tools, Platforms, and New
Hires
• Estimated revenue
improvements
• Project work, tools,
platforms and new hires are
denied
• Revenue estimates remain
www.goodesearch.com

13. The Mystery of the
Missing Priority
• Received approval for 5 epics for
the fiscal year
• 6 months passed with no
movement
• Reached out to the Product Lead
for advisement
• The SVP had deprioritized SEO in
February and didn’t tell the SEO
Team
www.goodesearch.com

14. Working
Together to
Resolve Issues
How to be the Voice of Reason in a Mad World

15. As SEOs, it may not be our fault when technical issues happen, but it’s our
responsibility to catch them as soon as possible and mitigate them.
www.goodesearch.com

16. Continual
Monitoring
Some tools offer this
• Content King
• Ahrefs
• Lumar (soon)
But ultimately, you’ll have
to monitor it yourself
www.goodesearch.com

17. Other Options
• GSC and GSC Emails/Alerts
• Manual SERP checks
• Pre-launch QA/testing
• Post-launch reviews

18. • Democratize SEO with training sessions
• Integrate with development into the testing cycle
• Show the value of the work associated with SEO
www.goodesearch.com

19. For Executives
• Continually tell your story
• Affirm the importance of SEO
through effective reporting
• Correct misunderstandings with
evidence
• Loop executives in early in the
process

20. Connect with Me!
• Website: https://www.goodesearch.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keithlgoode/
• X: https://twitter.com/keithgoode
• Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@keithgoode
• Dot: https://dot.cards/keithgoode
Images in the presentation courtesy of Amblin Entertainment
www.goodesearch.com

21. Thank You!