Enterprise Level SEO - 5 Reasons Why SEO for Big Companies is Different

One the best parts about the last three years of working here at BusinessOnLine is that I have had the opportunity to work on numerous projects for large enterprise level clients, some of whom are Fortune 500 companies. And I thought it would interesting to compare the experiences I have had with those projects and how they differ from my experience with smaller clients. Keep in mind that this list is from an SEO engineering perspective. It doesn't take into account the differences in the sales cycle or the project management responsibilities.

Here is my top 5 list of differences in the SEO process for enterprise level clients:

1) Number of Stakeholders
It has been my experience with smaller businesses that there are generally only one or two (possibly three) stakeholders in a project. In other words, if those two or three people decide that your suggested SEO strategy is valid, it gets implemented. In larger corporations, there might be several different stakeholders that need to understand and buy off on your suggestions. Often times this can mean having to speak to a large number of people with a Power Point presentation as to why you are recommending the changes, what their effect will be and if applicable, how to do the changes. Sometimes it might mean doing more than one meeting. I have seen situations where the Internet marketing team and content management team have both agreed to suggestions only to have the IT team push back at a later date. And then another meeting is need with the IT team in order to clarify suggestions. I have also seen it where the content management team is opposed to using certain keywords because of branding considerations. These types of scenarios are much more common in an enterprise level engagement and will sometimes require a little more preparation on your part (like a Power Point presenation for example).

2) Technical Limitations
Eliminating SEO problems from CMS systems is a common for both big and small business. But most small businesses use 3rd party CMS software platforms. Most of those systems by now have SEO modules that you can add to them to make them more SEO friendly. Although I still think Oracle is one of the most problematic but that's a conversation for another day. With enterprise level clients, it is not uncommon that they have their own proprietary CMS system. So that extends the learning curve versus if someone is using Drupal or even Wordpress, which you might already be familiar with. Additionally, your timeline may be affected by the fact that your suggested SEO modifications to their CMS system can be implemented, but it will take a couple months to get the code pushed. These are the kinds of variables that are more common with enterprise level clients. These are also the kind of variables that require more time investment from the SEO engineer's perspective.

3) Ability to Directly Implement Suggested Changes
One of the biggest differences between enterprise level clients and smaller clients is your ability to directly interface with the Web site. It is very common with smaller businesses to be given FTP access so that you can use Dreamweaver or a similar Web design program to implement new title tags, Meta tags, content edits, and other SEO recommendations.

With larger clients, these changes usually need to be put into a document like an Excel spreadsheet and delivered to the client who then implements your suggestions. An audit it needed afterward to ensure that everything has been changed correctly. Creating these deliverables in a presentable fashion that is consistent with your company brand imaging is no small task when you have never done it before.

4) Time Frame of Implementation
With smaller companies, there aren't usually that many hurdles (except the IT team guy's quirky schedule) that get in the way of implementing SEO changes once they have been agreed upon. With enterprise level clients however, it is more common to have to work around code pushes or scheduled release dates. This obviously affects the overall timeline of the SEO campaign. It's important to identify these issues in the beginning of an SEO engagement to schedule work efficiently and set expectations accordingly.

5) Number of Meetings
Other than #3, I think this is one of the biggest differences between big and small companies. The sheer amount of communication that needs to happen in order to get your teams moving in the right direction. By teams I am refering to your own internal team as well as the client team. With large projects comes a large work load that is usually handled by a team of experts. Coordinating those team members takes management skills that are not needed with smaller engagements. Additionally, coordinating the education of the various client stakeholders, the actual implementation of SEO recommendations and the results of that implementation, typically requires more meeting time than with one or two decision makers in a small company. If for no other reason than the number of questions that people have about the process.

I hope that illustrates some of the challenges that SEO professionals face with large enterprise clients that are not as common with smaller companies.