Enterprise SEO will always be a unique challenge for those in the field doing the work. Most companies make changes slower than the SEO landscape evolves.
This will be even more true in 2024, given how quickly AI and tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot are building a presence in how people find information and how much they trust it.
In this article, we will touch on key skills, both hard and soft, that I believe are essential for enterprise SEO today and in the future.
AI
I’ve previously gone over my personal thoughts on AI, and while I don’t use it to create content, I still use it for other purposes, such as:
- Formal creation.
- Building AppScripts.
- Guidance in the creation of tools to help my own productivity that I otherwise would not be able to do on my own without a lot more time and effort.
It’s a big issue you can’t ignore if you want to be successful.
1. Use AI on your own day to day
Up to 64% of business owners said artificial intelligence would improve business productivity, and 42% believe it will streamline job processes, according to Forbes. It is now a general expectation for “office” roles like SEO.
Even if, like me, you’re not keen on using AI-based tools for the creative elements of your role, use them to build the processes in the background for your boring, repetitive tasks.
2. Use of AI within SEO
The AI market is expected to reach $407 billion by 2027, and to date, half of US mobile users use voice search every day. Whether or not you believe that ChatGPT and other LLMs will be viable marketing channels, your bosses probably do.
You need to carefully research how to increase your visibility in ChatGPT. This is a cutting edge area of SEO with limited resources, but experts like Wil Reynolds, Michael King and Jes Scholz can help. Key points to consider are:
- While that’s a good starting point, ChatGPT doesn’t retrieve responses the way “People Also Ask” responses seem to.
- Bing’s index powers many current LLM models, like ChatGPT. Use Bing Webmaster Tools more often and start digging.
- Understanding RAG, how it works and what triggers could make or break visibility in LLMs.
Scalability
One of the biggest differentiators of enterprise SEO is scale. It’s not a few hundred pages; it’s a few million, maybe more.
It’s hard to sit down and actually analyze trends if you’re not able to analyze at scale. The migration of many to GA4 may only make this more difficult.
I will fully admit that these two particular skills are controversial because I am still learning them.
3. SQL
With GA4 and the push to create data lakes via BigQuery with your own historical data instead of Google keeping it, you might hit a point in your year-over-year analysis in Google Analytics now within the interface where you can hit a wall, specifically with conversion events.
Although I haven’t faced it with my clients yet, I’d rather be prepared ahead of time than learn everything quickly when it happens.
Learning these skills can mean you reduce your reliance on your analytics team for questions about things like year-over-year conversion data and deep dives into why or how it was.
4. Log file analysis
This skill helps you understand how and when Google crawls your site. It also helps you identify if Google is stuck on or repeatedly visiting unimportant pages.
While not exactly “pruning,” knowing how Google interacts with your site is increasingly important to the crawler.
Dig deeper: Why Server Logs Matter for SEO
5. Python
Although SQL for SEOs is most closely related to data analysis in Google Analytics or your data lake, you can appoint Python to do a number of things, including but not limited to:
- Identification of user intent.
- Monitoring competitors’ websites for changes.
- Internal link analysis.
While the late Hamlet Batista’s archive, SEO Pythonistas, is no longer live, he has a number of tutorials here on Search Engine Land to help you start your learning journey.
Dig deeper: 5 Python Scripts for Automating SEO Tasks
Mark
SEO is moving closer and closer to the brand team.
Why?
Because Google is able to ingest so many more “brand” signals.
Over the years, Google has built a detailed understanding of brands, similar to its own version of Wikipedia, to better understand their meaning and nuances.
6. PR/digital PR
I’m not saying that everyone needs to become an expert in outreach and brand management. However, it is increasingly important to get in touch with the people in your company who handle press and PR.
Traditional PR is catching up with SEO and practices like deep-linking, but they may need guidance or reminders.
Dig deeper: What is digital PR for SEO?
7. Social channels
Google is getting better at understanding your brand as a whole and showing it in search results. This makes it essential to have a unified marketing strategy across all channels.
For example, if something is heavily promoted on Instagram or TikTok but barely mentioned on your website, it might not perform well.
Communication and planning with your other marketing channels, especially social media, will help improve your results.
I say “especially social” because Google uses videos from platforms like TikTok and Instagram directly in the search results. Brand consistency is likely to become even more important as generative search expands.
Dig deeper: Social search and the future of brand engagement
8. Schema and semantic markup
As Google evolves and adds more data, it will accept more types of schema markup. Knowing how to properly use and organize schema markup becomes increasingly important as data grows.
Emilia Gjorgjevska at WordLift explained why schema and semantic markup are important and here to stay. She highlights the crucial role of the schedule at the company level, although its impact on revenue or sales is not always clear:
“Schema markup improves search engine understanding by providing structured data that helps search engines better understand the content of a web page. […] Generative AI models, like those used in search engines, rely on clear and accurate data to provide relevant results. Schema markup ensures that AI can accurately interpret and leverage your content, thereby improving its visibility and relevance.
Enriching your site with schema markup also improves the visibility of your content. […]
[S]chema markup enables companies to quickly and accurately update search engines about changes and new offers. This rapid communication is essential to maintain up-to-date information and ensure users receive the most current data about products and services.”
9. Reporting
Corporate reporting can be challenging. We may need to pull data manually; it may be incorrect or there may be outages or delays. But sometimes we make it more complicated than necessary because we are too focused on the details.
I advocate what Ian Lurie has long suggested: use progressive details.
- For your boss’s boss who just wants a summary of business KPIs, give it to them.
- For product owners in sales who need more detail on the same KPIs, please specify.
- And for your immediate colleagues or boss who wants detailed diagrams, give them to them.
Learning how to create graphs that quickly get to the point and align with your company’s KPIs will likely make your life quite a bit easier. Reporting well is a skill and a muscle that needs to be built.
Along with Lurie, Tom Critchlow also has some great tutorials on reporting and metrics.
10. Stakeholder management
Like reporting, stakeholder management is a skill that takes effort and practice to develop.
Ultimately, it’s an exercise in compromise. This can be difficult if you are coming into the business from a smaller company where you could access the website and make the changes yourself if no one was particularly responsive.
Dig deeper: How to use SEO training for stakeholder management
11. Business and market understanding
You might notice that I’ve mentioned business a lot, whether it’s KPIs or brand continuity. Understanding the business context is critical to making a significant SEO impact at the enterprise level.
Knowing what your competitors are doing and your own business plan should guide your SEO strategy. For example, if you plan to launch a gaming arm in 18 months, start building relationships and context now.
If you’re changing your pricing, don’t update product pages with language about saving money. The idea is to align your SEO priorities with your business plans.
Dig Deeper: Enterprise SEO is 50% education and culture
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