Iâm sure weâve all been there. Weâve completed an audit and now have a roadmap of issues to work through.
The client is also on board with the recommendations, and so are the stakeholders, but youâre struggling to get your SEO recommendations added to the dev queue.
Even with the best SEO recommendations in hand, implementing any recommendations can sometimes be challenging. I understand this struggle, and itâs something Iâve faced on multiple occasions. So, I have created some steps to help you overcome this blocker.
Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA) on Twitter shared a great example of a framework they use called NAWEE. This stands for Nicely Ask With Examples and Explanations. I really like this analogy, and it is very similar to what I will walk you through; Lyndonâs method explains âWhat, why, how it should be, where to look for info, examples of bad/goodâ.
Letâs dive into how you can get your SEO recommendation implemented quickly and much more successfully.Â
Working with Developers for Better Tech Implementation
To make your suggestions more impactful and increase the chances of getting them implemented successfully, follow these key points when sharing your SEO recommendations.
Whether you share your issues on technical tickets, emails, or however your teams prefer to receive them, following these guidelines should streamline the whole process for everyone involved.Â
What is the Issue?
Be as specific as you can about what the issue is. If you feel like youâre over-explaining, thatâs fine. In fact, youâre probably using the right amount of detail.
Describe the issue with distinct details so that even someone with no website experience and seeing this problem for the first time can understand what is wrong.
Feel free to include images of the issue, too; the more details, the better at this stage, and it avoids any confusion.
Where has it Been Found?
Donât just say that the website is on page x. Share the exact URL or range of URLs affected by the issue you found.
If you are focusing on a certain area of the page, be very clear about where you are referring to.
Including these very specific details will mean there is less back and forth later on, and everyone should be able to get the answers they need from your suggestions. Â
Why is it a Problem?
SEO issues can be problematic for several reasons. They can stop users from converting, affect how search engines crawl the site, harm how users take certain actions, and much more.
Whatever the case, explain why it is a problem and who your SEO recommendations would affect.
If your development teams use a system like Jira, Asana, Basecamp or something similar, they may want to write your tickets using user stories. You can do this as part of this section.Â
An example of a user story could be:Â
As a new or existing website user,
I want to be able to successfully visit the intended destination page when clicking on internal links,
So that I can visit the content I intended to.
If you have any resources explaining why the issue is a problem, you can also include them in this problem section.
How should it be Fixed?
This “How” section is another area where you need to be very specific and clear with what you would like to be done about the issue. The more detailed you can be, the better.
The more exact details you can share here with your SEO recommendations, the better and quicker the resolution will be, and there should be less back-and-forth, too.
As before, if there are resources that back up your recommendations or you can share examples of competitors and others in the same industry that have done what you are presenting, I suggest including them here.Â
Where possible, include examples of what NOT to do to fix the presented issue, where possible. This is an easy step to miss, but as Lyndon pointed out, if you don’t supply examples of failures or incorrect implementations, you may get those as solutions.Â
Being clear on what shouldn’t be done can ensure there are much fewer complaints and stops anyone from being frustrated or upset with the output.Â
Who is Responsible for the Fix?
Include details (name, job title, and email addresses) of everyone involved in resolving this issue.
Any stakeholders, managers, consultants, etc., should be specified, as well as anyone responsible for budgets, additional signoff and the developers themselves should be mentioned.
State what they would be expected to do and ensure they know their involvement would be needed to resolve this issue.
When should it be Fixed by?
When is the deadline that you would need your SEO recommendations to be implemented? You can break this down into two sections if needed:Â
- When should the fix be ready on the staging site?
- When should it be ready to publish on the production website?
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Being clear on the deadlines will help ensure everyone is on the same page and when they need to be involved.Â
You can even take this a step further and state why the deadlines have been set in this manner.
This way, there should be much fewer excuses for any missing deadlines. Â
The deadline to get our SEO recommendations on the staging site and ready for testing has been set as [date].
This date has been specifically set so that we have adequate time for testing, and any tweaks can be made as needed.
If this date is not met, we will not have time to carry out the next stage of work.
This would mean the launch date of the new website would be delayed.
The Most Effective Way to Fix SEO Issues
Following these points when sharing your SEO recommendations will significantly improve your chances of successful implementation.
Furthermore, applying the same logic to your communication strategy will result in quicker and easier interactions with colleagues, stakeholders and clients.
Gus Pelogia on LinkedIn had a great point to add about ensuring you attend dev sprints as much as possible. This is crucial in giving you better insight into how tasks are progressing and leaves less room for surprises and disappointment.
Integrating yourself within the dev teams lets you see which tasks are being prioritised. You may find that smaller tasks are getting added to sprints more frequently (as they’re easier to work on and publish), but the higher-impact items are left by the wayside. By having a seat at the table, you can ensure that the tickets likely to make the biggest difference to performance are being worked on.Â
Remember that not all SEO issues need to be worked on either. Some are more “nice-to-haves” and won’t necessarily improve performance. These can be worked on further down the timeline, perhaps when there’s a gap in one of the sprints, and you’re comfortable with how things are progressing.Â
Effective communication is the key to achieving results in any SEO strategy, and briefing issues with development issues and clients is no different.
Try including What the issue is, Where it has been found, Why it is a problem, How it should be fixed, Who is responsible for the fix, and When it should be done and experience the positive impact they can have on SEO implementation efforts for yourself.
