How to Become Your Organization's SEO Champion

Most organizations don’t think about SEO—until something breaks. Rankings drop. Paid performance softens. Or a competitor overtakes you in search without spending an ad dollar.

Suddenly, it’s a scramble. Marketing teams are left defending an underperforming channel, make a case for budget reallocation, or explain to leadership why organic was overlooked.

This is where an SEO champion steps in, not as a hero, but as the missing link between urgency and action.

What it really means to be an SEO champion

Champions also understand that SEO isn't a one-time fix. It’s an ongoing, iterative effort—less like a campaign, more like product development. It needs upkeep, iteration, and the right benchmarks to keep momentum.

Becoming your company’s SEO champion means staying ahead of that moment. Not just pushing SEO forward, but translating its value to the people who control priorities.

One marketing leader told us:

"When you take your eye off the ball of SEO, very quickly it was like... we're ranking for the wrong stuff."

Traffic alone doesn’t mean growth. If it’s not converting to pipeline, it’s not working.

Common roadblocks

Without clear expectations on timing, leadership often underestimates the runway needed for real results.

Across dozens of conversations, we keep hearing the same themes:

• Leadership understands SEO is valuable, but not how it works
• The knowledge gap blocks resourcing and buy-in
• SEO feels like a long game, which makes it harder to justify this quarter

The opportunity for real impact

Champions close those gaps. They connect the dots between strategy and search visibility. They give the company better options than relying on paid alone.

Advocacy isn’t a one-time pitch. It’s bringing SEO into quarterly planning, channel reviews, and cross-functional meetings. It’s repetition with relevance. That doesn’t mean convincing everyone in one meeting. It means showing up with context, benchmarks, and a clear story. Not just that SEO matters, but how it drives qualified pipeline, reduces Customer Acquisition Cost, and builds long-term leverage.

SEO is easier to deprioritize when no one is advocating for it. If that person isn’t you, there may not be one.

But if it is you, and you know what strategic SEO can unlock—step up and lead the conversation.