Within many organizations, SEO efforts can fall short—not because the strategy is flawed, but because communication around said-strategy and the work surrounding it isn’t strong. While SEO doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it thrives when stakeholders understand its value and give their support in order to contribute to its success. Unfortunately, SEO professionals often struggle to explain their work in terms that make sense to leadership, product teams, or even marketing colleagues. They use jargon that only makes sense if you’ve had to migrate domains or implement 301 redirects. If you’re tired of hearing “SEO takes too long” or “we’re not seeing results,” I’m writing this post for you.
Let’s explore how better communication can transform your SEO efforts from misunderstood to considered critically-important.
Speak Their Language, Not Yours
One of the most common breakdowns in SEO communication happens when SEOs use too much jargon. While “canonical tags,” “HREF lang tags,”“link equity,” or “crawl budget” are everyday terms for us, they mean little to someone in finance, sales or other professionals.
Instead, tie the work that you’ve done to business outcomes:
- Instead of saying: “We optimized for long-tail keywords.”
- Say: “We’re targeting more specific keywords that convert better.”
Make SEO relevant to your audience’s goals. Product managers want to know how SEO improves user experience. CMOs care about brand visibility and revenue. Developers want to understand technical priorities in a clear roadmap. Translate accordingly and tie to revenue, if possible.
Share Progress Proactively
SEO can seem invisible, especially in the early stages when you’re getting everything set up. That’s why regular timely updates matter. Set expectations upfront that SEO is a long game—but show how every step leads to results and explain why.
Try a simple structure for monthly or biweekly updates:
- What we did (technical fixes, content optimizations, link-building initiatives)
- Why it matters (how it ties to business goals or user outcomes)
- What’s next (upcoming priorities, roadmap progress or needs from other teams)
- Performance highlights (ranking improvements, traffic growth, or SERP features gained)
When people see that SEO is progressing while getting consistent updates—even before the traffic spikes—they’re more likely to stay invested and supportive as they’ve been kept in the loop along the way.
Create Visibility with Cross-Team Touchpoints
SEO touches nearly every digital department: content, dev, UX, analytics, PR, and more. If you’re not cross-collaborating with these teams, your strategy is missing crucial context—or buy-in.
Set recurring syncs with key stakeholders from different teams:
- A monthly meeting with product teams to align on roadmaps
- A monthly meeting with PPC specialists to align SEO & SEM
- A quarterly SEO 101 refresher for content writers and editors
- Ad hoc developer check-ins for technical changes or sprints
Even better, create shared documentation in your project management tool (like a public SEO roadmap, tool access log or a backlog of priority pages), so teams can view or contribute anytime.
Celebrate SEO Wins Publicly
When your efforts pay off—whether it’s a new page ranking on page 1 or a 15% traffic lift after a technical audit—don’t keep it quiet. Celebrate those wins where people will notice:
- Share in Slack or Teams channels
- Share directly with your manager or stakeholders on a project
- Include in company-wide newsletters
- Mention during team stand-ups
Make SEO visible. When others see its impact, you build internal supporters who advocate for your team while armed with evidence of your expertise.
Strong Communication = More Buy-In
Strong SEO performance doesn’t happen without strong internal communication. By speaking the language of stakeholders, proactively sharing updates, cross-collaborating, and celebrating your wins, you can elevate SEO from mysterious, black magic to a trusted, high-performing business driver.
SEO isn’t just about rankings—it’s about relationships. Start cultivating them inside your organization, and you’ll see the results echo across your metrics.
