Both SEOs and developers are considered to be specialists at what they do, and therefore work in completely different ways to one another. But in an ideal world, for teams to operate in the best possible way and the most efficiently, it’s important for them to work together. So, in this blog, I will explain why I feel that SEOs and developers work so well together in a marketing environment.

1. Common understanding of the end goal

Both SEOs and developers have a common goal, to build a website that is user and search engine friendly that you want to see become successful. When building a website, SEO needs to be considered otherwise it’s pointless building a very visually appealing and well-functioning website if this is not search-engine friendly. Having a common goal helps keep both parties focused and motivated, together.

In the environment I work in, I work closely with SEOs and other developers to try and build something that is not only visually appealing but something that performs well in SEO benchmarks. This is important for most businesses and for everyone to understand that the website not only needs to look good, but also appear when searched for in Google.

2. Both are risk-takers

SEO is ever-evolving, and both SEOs and developers need to work together to get on top of the changes that are being made. SEOs and developers need to work together to get in front of the trend and be on top of the changes. Although this ever-evolving SEO needs us both to take risks to get in front of the trend, sometimes these risks can cause errors on the website. But, with the knowledge that is shared, any issues that arise can be fast resolved, making the risk that has been taken worthwhile.

3. We both understand that collaborative environments speed up projects

As I mentioned earlier, I feel that communication and a collaborative environment really helps when building a website, and this is similar here. This is because if SEOs and developers are communicating effectively, it allows continuous feedback from the website the developers are building. This means that the developers can make amends on the fly or just be reminded of the best practices to try and build these in as the project is evolving, rather than having to revisit these at a later date.Working in a collaborative environment can speed up the projects, as studies show that a good collaborative team with SEO and developers not only deliver projects faster but also breaks the barriers down between both teams. For example, if a website is being built with no SEO considerations, it's likely to flag SEO errors. Having the SEO person or team there in the first place is likely to help deter this, which saves time on backtracking and fixing work, as these considerations have already been made during the build.

4. Sharing knowledge 

This is key as to why I think that SEOs and developers work well together as they can share their knowledge and understandings with one another. Teaching and learning from one another has huge benefits from both sides. For example, I feel that a developer could share JavaScript or HTML knowledge to the SEOs as they will have more experience with the coding aspects of building websites. This will benefit the SEOs because it will allow them to not only get a better understanding of how the website works but also gives them the knowledge to add or remove certain aspects from the site, like tracking codes. SEOs on the other hand, can share a lot of knowledge and teach developers, things such as understanding how Google Analytics works within a website. This is handy for developers as it allows them to take this into consideration when building a website.

Overall, I feel that sharing this knowledge between SEOs and developers will give them a better understanding of technical issues on websites and work out whether they are feasible to be fixed or not. For example, if SEOs and developers work on improving a site's SEO score together, then they are aware of what issues are easily fixed and what issues can take that bit longer.

5. Become hybrid

I think that the points above do link into this one, but it’s still beneficial to everyone if each of the roles’ knowledge are shared to make a hybrid role. This would mean that developers would know certain aspects about SEO and the best practises that will enable them to implement without help from SEOs. Alternatively SEOs will understand the development process better and even some development knowledge to add to their skillset too. This will not only speed up projects, but it will also help in the future development of projects as they will both have a basic understanding of one another. There could also be a potential where certain jobs that wouldn’t normally be completed by either team can now happen to speed up the process if certain resources are low. 

I feel that it's really important to have a collaborative team that consists of SEO and web development specialists working together in a close team, so that they can deliver projects that excel to drive performance and traffic to the website, rather than the website being focused on one rather than the other. 

I recently read something that stuck in my mind, that SEOs and developers are like superheroes and sidekicks, but the roles are forever changing depending on the circumstances. This is a good analogy as different situations call for different expertise, so depending on the situation will heavily dictate who takes the superhero role and who takes the sidekick role. But, I feel it's equally important to understand that one isn’t as good without the other.