This week Binti Pawa from Time Inc. shares insights into content and site migration challenges and best practices in this Share15 interview. Binti presently heads SEO for Time Inc., working on such brands as Travel + Leisure, Food & Wine and InStyle, where she is responsible for leading, developing, and integrating SEO and content strategies.
Binti Pawa from Time Inc. at Share15
BE: Can you tell readers a little more about your session?
BP: I’m very excited to speak again and be back at Share! This year I’m talking about “Surviving the Perfect Storm” of Content Migrations—a popular industry topic and challenge for us all. For audience growth, businesses or marketers have to make a call on what to tackle—whether it’s a CMS platform migration, domain migration, re-design, or content overhaul. We’ve all been there. The question that always comes to mind is this: How to migrate with least impact to natural search traffic? Attendees at my session will walk away knowing how to mitigate natural search referrals by touching on key areas and learning best practices. One of the Time Inc. brands will be used throughout the presentation as a test case in how to survive the perfect storm. Attendees will also take away learnings and “gotchas” that will help them in future migrations.
Expectation management and SEO challenge
BE: What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing people in SEO?
BP: I think the biggest challenge that SEOs face is mismanaged expectations. “There is no one definition or one right way to do things in SEO—but there is a wrong way.” This can often lead to mismanaged expectations. It’s important for SEOs to ensure that stakeholders or clients understand what to expect from BIG changes to their site. Many times I see SEO programs fail because the expectations were not set up front or the teams were not educated. Keeping up with the constant algorithms is also up there. Just when we think things are settling another wave of updates are announced-- the most recent with Google’s April Mobile update. With big projects already underway for most SEOs it can make it difficult to introduce new projects into the roadmap, especially when the impact is uncertain.
Time Inc. and BrightEdge product innovations at Share15
BE: How does BrightEdge help you elevate your business performance?
BP: I love the speed at which BrightEdge adds new features and functionality to its platform. Last year at Share14, they introduced the concept of the Story Builder and enhancements to Data Cube. A few months later, the products were released. I particularly enjoy the Story Builder, and think it’s a great feature when you want to share a narrative about a particular campaign or a project vs. just having dashboard with graphs.
I love the speed at which BrightEdge adds new features and functionality to its platform.
BE: This is your 2nd year at Share15 – why do you attend?
BP: I also enjoy attending Share because it’s not your typical conference. There is a genuine sense of learning and takeaways from real-life case studies that Share15 speakers relate to the audience. It’s a good-size conference where you don’t feel overwhelmed—perfect for networking and meeting different individuals from many industries.
Networking with experts and making the most of Share15
BE: What are you looking forward to the most?
BP: I’m really looking forward to networking at Share15; it’s a terrific place to meet some of the greatest experts in the industry. I’m also very eager to hear about new capabilities and technology enhancements that BrightEdge may possibly announce at Share15. To make the most of your trip Share15 I would advise you to plan ahead. Know which sessions you want to attend in advance as some get full fast. Don’t skip the morning breakfast or lunches; it’s a great time to network and bounce ideas off of leading experts in the industry.
If you have not had the opportunity to register for Share15, make sure you head over to our conference page and sign up. We look forward to seeing you there!
Conference Details September 21-23 Westin St Francis San Francisco, CA