Another major transition that can happen is when the publisher changes its SEO staff. Adding new team members, people leaving the team, or replacing the whole team are all things that can and do happen. These types of changes can happen with in-house SEO staffs, and it can also happen when you use an external SEO agency (e.g., the publisher can decide to switch agencies, or the agency can have internal changes).
Companies make changes in their SEO staffs for many reasons, and issues can arise.
One potential issue is a loss of momentum. The prior SEO team probably had some programs underway, and the new team will have to inherit those programs and sustain them, or else there will be a time delay in results from the new team’s campaign.
Even if the new team does their best to sustain an existing campaign, it will take them some time to become familiar with it, and the specific approach the old team used may not fit the new team’s skill set that well. It is best to be prepared for this type of loss of momentum when making significant changes in your SEO team.
One way to try to deal with this is to hire the new team and have some overlap with the old team. This can work in some situations, but it will not be an option in others.
Another situation that can occur is that the new team may have a different philosophy than the old team (this may be why the publisher made the switch). This will invariably mean a restart of efforts, potentially taking many weeks to regain the lost momentum.
One way to limit the exposure to changes in the SEO team is through detailed documentation. Keep a detailed record of what has been done, when it was done, and why it is invaluable in these scenarios. Ideally, this should be combined with analytics data.
Traditional web analytics makes it easy to go back in time and see traffic data over time, but tools such as Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools don’t; nor do the search engines provide historical data on things such as indexed pages, link counts, and the like. You should also keep a record of these things over time.
In addition, make sure you have ownership of all relevant accounts and passwords. You don’t want any transition to leave you in a situation where you can’t access your critical data.
Make sure that you have documented company processes regarding SEO, and that people associated with the SEO team and/or the management of the SEO team are familiar with those processes. This can help speed up transitions as well. The new team can be trained on what those processes are. Part of this includes having a detailed outline of the tasks and opportunities that are the first priorities for the new team.
With these things in hand, you can get things running smoothly much faster than you can without them. You can start the new team with one or more training sessions to get them up to speed on campaign history, login information, and what needs to be done going forward.
The better prepared you are to get them up to speed and moving forward, the better off you will be. As always, bear in mind that you have hired the new team for their expertise, so the initial training session may result in the creation of a modified plan, but you will get there much faster if you bring all these issues to the table on day one.
Last but not least, you should also go through and revoke the old team’s access to your tracking systems. There is no need for them to continue to have access to your analytics, your Webmaster Tools accounts, and other resources that they no longer need.
Although the great majority of SEO firms (or individual SEO consultants) will handle the process of moving on with professionalism, there is no reason for you, as a publisher, to take that risk. So, although it might be exceedingly rare, the downside potential of leaving yourself vulnerable is just too great.