6 Basic Requirements for In-House Search

Executive level buy-in:
Big changes can’t happen without senior level support.  Without it, search won’t be a priority for the company, which will lead to poor results, frustration, and the re-engagement of agencies.

Peer level buy-in:
Search doesn’t happen in a vacuum.  People throughout the organization impact search.  If the IT department doesn’t prioritize building in SEO, or the design department keeps pushing the required landing pages further down the timeline, search gets stalled and it shows in the results.

A plan for ongoing skills development and expertise assessments:
Notice we didn’t say “training?”  Training is one, single element in creating the skilled, expert staff you will need for in-house search.  (See our article on this topic).  You will also benefit tremendously by implementing a skills assessment system.  This can be accomplished by third party audits.

The right resources and tools:
Does the team have the tools to perform their jobs?  (Bid management, keyword research, etc.)

A documented Process:
With a documented process, it’s much easier to bring on new members of staff and get them up to speed on how things are done within your company.  It also helps to identify bottlenecks and redundant steps in the process, further increasing efficiencies, while at the same time ensuring that everything follows the same optimized flow.

Identified metrics and reporting:
Management expects an increase in ROI as a result of this effort.  Start with a baseline (again, this should be an outside, third party audit that has nothing to do with your existing search firm).  Then make sure you have the right measurement infrastructure to track and report on progress.  Without this, you will be subject to attacks from naysayers.