Jessica Bowman
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Jessica Bowman

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About Jessica Bowman

Jessica is the In House SEO Adviser for Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. She is the founder and owner of SEOinhouse.com, a company on a mission to make in house SEO simpler. She is a leading advocate of in house SEO, and started in house SEO programs at Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Business.com and Yahoo! Inc.

Jessica Bowman's latest articles

SEO

Not Everyone Has The Aptitude For SEO

Large companies with many divisions have many SEO opportunities, yet also many challenges. One of the first things I do when consulting with companies on how to implement enterprise-level SEO is to identify who needs to do what. But that doesn’t always work out, because not everyone has the aptitude for SEO. Yesterday I spoke […]

SEO

Considering In-House SEO? How To Ease Into In-House SEO Smoothly

In-house SEO can be more cost efficient, but it can also be very costly because in-house SEO has many unique challenges. If you are planning to bring SEO in-house in the coming year, be smart. Most companies can’t actually be 100% in-house because there aren’t enough SEO Michael Jordans out there willing to go in-house. […]

SEO

In-house SEOs: Put On Your Detective Hat

When you’re an in-house SEO, much of your success is dependent on the information you dig up and how you use it. “I feel like a detective” said my client two days into intake discussions with IT. We’re doing a customized SEO training program that involves understanding how the development process works so that the […]

SEO

When IT Says There Isn’t Time for SEO Training

One the best things you can do for successful SEO is equip the development team with SEO knowledge, and this requires more than a 30 minute presentation. Unfortunately, IT often pushes back saying there isn’t time. Here are six tactics for getting IT into your training sessions when they say, “We don’t have time for […]

SEO

How To Adopt A Pro-SEO Culture At Your Company

The most successful SEO programs aren’t solely the result of a great SEO team. They happen because the entire company incorporates SEO into their portion of a given project, and everyone recognizes when it’s time to bring in the SEO to discussions. Establishing this level of SEO buy-in throughout the organization is neither a fast […]

SEO

You Think You Know Enough To Do ALL Of Your SEO In-House?

While SEO can be done completely in-house, not every company truly has the expertise to fly totally solo and make it to the destination without a bit of turbulence and unnecessary crashes along the way. The problem I’ve been seeing lately lies with companies who genuinely believe they know SEO, but the reality is, they […]

PPC

Why You Need To Know SEO Basics, Even If You Outsource

When you outsource SEO, you don’t outsource responsibility and accountability for getting the job done and driving more traffic. Even though you may outsource SEO completely, you really should invest the time understand SEO basics to best manage your SEO firm, your strategy and provide greater value to your SEO program. Relying entirely on an […]

PPC

Outsourcing To Increase SEO Throughput

Even with budgets getting tightened, your SEO program may be kicking, but the head count you requested to keep the program moving upward may not get approved. When this happens, it’s time to look at a Plan B for increasing throughput without adding staff. Many people I talk to think a superstar in-house SEO team […]

SEO

Do You Need SEO Standards For Your Company?

The debate on the need for SEO standards continues, with no clear industry-wide consensus. Without a doubt, however, your company should have SEO standards and guidelines that convey your company’s stance on SEO—namely, clearly spelling out acceptable practices and perhaps even more importantly, definitely drawing boundaries that cannot be breached regardless of whether they may […]

SEO

SEO Site Audit: A Wise Investment For All Companies

More and more savvy companies are undertaking search engine optimization (SEO) site audits to assess the current search-effectiveness of a site, what needs to be done to improve it, and to track a site’s performance over time. I’ve been recommending website audits for years—after all, the accounting department has an auditor, and so should the […]

SEO

Search Engine Reputation Management: Setting & Managing Expectations

The euphemistic phrase “reputation management issue” describes what happens when you have a problem arise in search engine result pages. Whether it’s the result of an algorithm change, bloggers, or social media sites jumping on negative news or other negative linking bandwagons, reputation management issues are a major pain for brands. When this happens, frustrations […]

SEO

Where SEO Belongs In The Web Site Development Cycle

Many in-house SEOs are actually marketers with minimal technical background or insight into the web site development process. Often, these people either have an interest in SEO or were already managing other marketing functions. Because they are new to SEO (and often times new to web site development), they often struggle with getting their requirements […]

SEO

SEOs Should Understand Network Infrastructure

As an in-house SEO, you need to interact with senior engineers, project managers, and analysts who know your infrastructure and its limitations inside and out. Adding an understanding of your network infrastructure to your SEO knowledge base gives you the right lingo and frame of reference for conversations with techies to help you gain coveted […]

PPC

Raising The Organizational Visibility Of The Search Marketing Function

The ultimate goal of any in-house search marketer is for search engine marketing to become ingrained in the way a company does business, similar to marketing, advertising, and public relations. It’s rare for search marketing to gain this much visibility, but we are starting to see a few organizations successfully embrace SEO beyond IT and […]

SEO

No, Junior, You Can’t Be Our SEO Team Leader (Yet)

Let’s face it: sometimes politics plays a huge role in the success—or failure—of your search marketing efforts. For example, sometimes the information technology group is an obstacle and doesn’t want to play nice in the sandbox. To get them on-board and ready to play with the team requires tact and professionalism not mastered by many […]

SEO

Protect Your Employees, Online

Have you ever checked out what people are saying about your brand on blogs and on photo-sharing sites such as Yahoo’s Flickr or Google’s Picasa? Have you also taken the time to monitor what people are saying about your employees? You owe it to your employees to look out for their reputation online when it […]

Content

What To Do When Your Company Wikipedia Page Goes Bad

It happens to many companies: their Wikipedia page evolves and starts reporting bad stats, inaccuracies, legal stories you thought were water under the bridge and more. Wikipedia is a web 2.0 success story, and almost always ranks on page one in Google search results for your brand. Anyone can make changes, and there is little […]

SEO

The In-House SEO Life Cycle

Every in-house SEO program follows a typical life cycle that has for main phases: Courtship, Honeymoon, Reality and Synergy. The duration of time it takes to get from Courtship to Synergy varies with each company, and it can also very for each division within a company. Today’s in-house article will give you an overview of […]

Link building

Dominate Page One For Your Brand Phrases

Facing unfavorable content on page one in the search engine result pages (SERPs) for your brand terms can be a challenge. Today’s article discusses a strategy that allows you to mobilize all of your company websites to jump to the top of the SERPs so that your company dominates page one for your brand phrases… […]

SEO

13 Tips For Getting Page One Search Rankings

How do you get what you want on page one for your brand phrases? When facing negative content at the top of the SERPs, it’s a challenge many companies want to conquer very quickly. The good news is that it is doable; it’s just that not many people talk about how to do it. If […]

SEO

What Are Search Engines Saying About Your Brand?

In the offline world, companies make it a priority to influence the message people see in the media. However, in the search marketing world, very few companies make an effort to influence the message seen in search results pages. Instead, many companies ensure their website(s) are at the top of page one, and leave Google, […]

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