Take, for instance, a company such as IBM that has 55 million pages. How can a company of that magnitude even make sure that all of those 55 million pages are indexed? According to Hunt, the same SEO techniques apply to both small and large programs, but the large programs just need to be approached holistically and with scale in mind.

Measurement is another challenge with large SEO programs since the metrics are different than they are in smaller campaigns. Ego is also a challenge because many of these companies think they should automatically rank #1 in the search engines since their business is a $50 million dollar company.

For these reasons, it is very important to communicate in a language that C-level executives understand. These executives only want to know about objectives such as the opportunities involved, the costs of the program, and the yield they will receive.

“You have to speak their language. Just trying to overwhelm them with your brilliance about algorithms and stuff like that doesn’t work,” adds Hunt.

Many of these factors fall into the Missed Opportunity Matrix, which is a concept he introduced many years ago to the SEO community. It is, essentially, an exercise that shows what companies could be doing if they were effectively utilizing SEO. Learn more about the concept in this blog post.

Are you successfully scaling your large SEO program?

First, know whether or not the search engines are indexing all your pages. If they aren’t, then you need to check a few things out. Make sure you have a sitemap that is working correctly, and check your own spider to make sure you’re being seen. Also, look at your combined PPC and organic data to find out what is converting and what is not.

Although having a big site or numerous sites might seem like a pain, there are some perks involved. You can create a set of templates and use them multiple times and optimize them accordingly.

Another hint for managing a large site is to make sure your links are specific. Inbound links that only link to your homepage aren’t really benefiting you. For instance, if someone is using your products or services, have them link to that page instead of the homepage. This method will help both the searcher and the company.

Large sites are a bit overwhelming, but just need to be broken down. Everyone simply needs to work together and focus on the end user’s wants and needs.