Section 5: Strategy
How well are SEOs developing, supporting, and communicating a strategic roadmap?
Our Takeaway
"It’s no surprise to see that SEOs are doing the right research to get the right initiatives into the queue. Achieving success metrics directly ties with how that research is leveraged to support strategy and buy-in. As SEOs, building the full story around SEO value through business cases that feed into long-term, strategic roadmaps is how to win resources and buy-in."
Heather Kaeowichien • Director of Product Management
Question 1
Which of these exercises generally support the creation of your SEO roadmap?
Most SEO teams prioritize competitor analysis and technical audits when building their roadmaps, showing a strong focus on competitive positioning and site health. However, integrating UX insights and securing leadership buy-in could further strengthen SEO strategies and outcomes.
Mihir Naik · Senior Product Manager, SEO — Loblaws
Question 2
How in-depth is your brand's long-term SEO strategy?
- No SEO strategy
- Basic: We have an idea of projects planned for the next 3-6 months
- Moderate: We maintain a roadmap and communicate goals against strategic areas of growth
- Comprehensive: Our roadmap has supporting analysis/documentation and projects contain milestones
- Deeply integrated: Our roadmap has KPIs that align with business goals, and projects contain testing plans
It's worrying to see that a relatively high share of answers still say that there isn't a very in-depth SEO strategy. I hope this evolves with a bigger involvement of SEO at a business level. This is critical for easier buy-in and resources to execute.
Aleyda Solís · Founder & International SEO Consultant — Orainti
It's interesting that almost a quarter of responses don't have something long-term, when - compared to other channels - SEO tends to be a long-term 'game.'
Debbie Chew · SEO Manager — Stripe
Question 3
How are SEO goals and KPIs communicated?
The push to align classic SEO strategy work with the broader product and engineering roadmap is going to be critical, especially now that AI and LLMs are fundamentally reshaping the SERP. If you want to win in today’s search landscape, SEO has to be part of the product lifecycle from day one, not something you tack on the week before GTM.
Glen McMurry · Director, SEO — Upwork
Question 4
Our brand supports the SEO strategy & roadmap with...
Great to see that most SEO teams have a roadmap as opposed to just doing the next shiny thing. Having a plan with stakeholder and leadership buy-in make your SEO day-to-day so much easier.
Gus Pelogia · Senior SEO Product Manager — Indeed
Question 5
How often does the brand hit performance targets in the SEO strategy?
YES! It's not surprising that 80%+ are meeting or exceeding goals. Since SEOs are generally of a more technical nature, they tend to set realistic KPIs — but also it goes back to all the research and their data-backed strategies. It helps when you know the work is likely to be successful before it reaches development and implementation.
Heather Kaeowichien · Director of Product Management — Gray Dot Co
