Changing SEO Vendors or Staff Members

Another major transition that can happen is when the publisher changes its SEO staff. Team members may be added, people may leave the team, or the whole team may be replaced. These types of changes can happen both with in-house SEO staff and 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 when this happens.

Potential Problems

One potential issue is a loss of momentum. The prior SEO team probably had some programs underway, and the new team will inherit those programs and have to sustain them, or there will be a delay before any results are seen from the new team’s campaigns.

Even if the new team does its 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 them work for a while in parallel 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, and ...

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