The Best of the SEO MBA
A recap of all the top posts from the last 3 years...
Hey, it’s me Tom Critchlow. As I noted last week the SEO MBA is going on pause for a while. Last chance to purchase the course (at a big discount) before Aug 31st - you’ll have access after that but new sales will be closed.
As I prepare to put the SEO MBA into hibernation for a little bit, I thought it would be useful to catalog all of the writing over the last 3 years and put it into one place.
Here’s all the stuff I’ve written. The best ones have a ⭐ gold star.
Which piece is your fave? Drop a comment!
Executive-ready Communication
A foundational theme for the SEO MBA is communicating with executives. It’s a skill no one ever really teaches you - you just kind of figure it out by watching and learning (and maybe getting it wrong a few times!).
Some key pieces:
⭐ Good slides reduce complexity - foundational skills for executive-ready presentations including my version of the pyramid principle.
⭐ Presenting to the CEO in 5 slides - a deep dive into how to put together an actual executive summary (not a table of contents).
How to write an Amazon-style narrative memo - the underlying logic is the same for presentations and for written memos, in this piece we look specifically at how to quantify and focus your communication.
How to make an SEO strategy - the key to being strategic is to focus on diagnosis, guiding principle and coherent actions. This will elevate your game to talk big picture.
Communication skills
We used to say at Distilled “communication solves all problems” and well, erm, I’ve never stopped saying it actually. Clear, effective communication is still one of the most important skills SEOs can learn.
Some key pieces:
⭐ Managing expectations by finding good comparisons - A great reminder that you can use comparisons to help people understand your recommendations and also make your ideas more believable by grounding them in reality.
Let’s get rid of the SEO legends (yes we’re talking about charts) - an oldie but a goodie, how you report on data really matters and some simple tweaks make a big difference! (Bonus one - here’s a tweet showing how I make charts look great using Google Sheets and Figma)
Advocating for expanding your SEO team - A nice reminder about how to build the business case for headcount internally.
Your boss cares about reporting more than you do - honestly the title kind of says it all here. SEOs chronically under-value reporting as a communication tool and a way of getting buy-in.
Using surveys to increase executive buy-in - we focus a lot on the data in SEO but often it’s the qualitative data that really wins people over…
Mindset Shifts
One of my personal goals in life is to help people look at things in new ways. So I’ve tried to help reframe SEO in a few different ways in my writing.
Some of the key pieces:
⭐ Is SEO worth it? - a mini manifesto for ensuring you’re properly accounting for the full costs of an SEO program, not just the SEO people/agency time.
⭐ Input Metrics for SEO - once I learned about input metrics I never looked back. It rally reframed how I think about managing change, reporting and objective setting.
Mindset shifts for strategic SEO - some simple reframes like thinking in 12 month timeframes and looking at the total addressable market
Are you making SEO strategically important? - it’s remarkable how large organizations are allergic to talking about SEO at the top levels. Here’s some advice on how to ensure you’re working on strategic projects.
Pace layers of SEO - It’s really easy to get caught up in short-term impact (and frustrations with lack of resources!) but SEO is a complex system and there are a variety of intervention points..
Getting buy-in requires executive empathy - a gentle reminder that it’s the CEO’s job to say no, so don’t take it personally (but also don’t stop trying after only one “no”)
Let’s never talk about SEO audits again - still perhaps my most controversial opinion about SEO is that I never want to hear the words “SEO audit” ever again
SEO Careers
I did a whole series of content about SEO careers - this was a while back so folks might not have seen these pieces. But there’s some good stuff:
⭐ The SEO Skills Maturity Matrix - still the all time top post from the SEO MBA. Has a spreadsheet full of potential skill pathways to help you think about levels (for you or for your team)
Why there are no VP SEO jobs - a long hard look at how high you can get inside an organization with a pure SEO mindset.
Unbundled & Commoditized: The future of SEO careers? - despite the bland sounding title this one has some key ideas about SEO product management and SEO editors as emerging roles for a changing world.
Being Mid-Career Sucks: The Context Crisis - this doesn’t actually say anything about SEO but there’s some good advice in here about managing up and managing down (spoiler alert: it’s communication!)
Navigating an SEO career - this one actually is more about navigating any digital career and a little love letter to blogging
For Agency Owners
A couple of posts focus specifically on SEO agencies and how they operate:
⭐ How to turn your agency into the McKinsey of SEO - a lot of agencies like to think of themselves as providing “consulting services” but actual consultancies operate very differently to how most SEO agencies do…
Agency SEO Careers in a Commoditized Market - despite the title this is actually mostly about agency positioning, not agency careers (though, spoiler alert: being good at positioning will get you a long way inside an agency!)
Misc Faves
These are strictly labeled as “posts that no one else liked but are still near and dear to my heart”:
Nerding out on Nerdwallet - honestly I wish I’d done more of these earnings report pieces but thankfully Glenn has been doing a great job keeping on top of public companies and their SEO info
Visual revolution in knowledge work - if you’re not using Figma, honestly how do you even work? I’m not sure everyone thinks this way but I do!
Look at your fish - a walkthrough of how I use Figma to do qualitative competitor analysis and workshop activities.
Are you problem solving or capacity building? - honestly perhaps the most important lesson to learn as a consultant.
Once again - the SEO MBA is at a steep discount ($500 for both courses) until Aug 31st after that I’ll close new signups so get it while you can!
(Also I posted on LinkedIn about agency licenses for the course. If you want to chat let me know!)
"Managing Expectations by finding Good Comparisons" is still the best SEO MBA newsletter (for me). Still use this framework to blow attitudes to SEO out the water and show a vision of what could be.
Good luck with everything Tom. And can't wait to read your book.
I liked a lot of them and reference learnings from you all the time. Before your article on input metrics I didn't know the concept so I grabbed Working Backwards and really enjoyed that a lot.
Other than that, it's not the articles I valued the most but rather the ideas. Because an article is just a vehicle for an idea, not the idea itself (from my view point). To list a few examples:
- Selling SEO as growth, which is infinite, rather than optimization, which sounds marginal
- Input Metrics to create a clear connection from "what you do" to "what you get from it"
- SEO strategies and what they MUST contain
- Why SEO audits are often a waste of time (which I don't agree with entirely, but I absolutely get what you want to say)
- Telling a story driven by data, leveraging comparisons with competitors
I could list many more. When someone asks for a resource to read something smart about SEO, the SEOMBA immediately comes to mind.
To end this: For your future I wish you luck and success. Selfishly I hope the SEOMBA will be back sooner rather than later, rising like a phoenix from the ashes and even better than it was before.