This episode of International Web Effectiveness Podcast discusses the concept of Web CoEs, also known as Centers of Excellence or Expertise. Bill Hunt and Bill Scully share their experiences and insights on the impact of CoEs on businesses and how to establish one.
Key Takeaways
Benefits of CoEs:
- Reduce frustration and disorganization.
- Increase efficiency through collaboration and shared knowledge.
- Improve communication and understanding across different disciplines.
- Provide a platform for decision-making and problem-solving.
- Facilitate resource and tool sharing.
- Enhance communication and collaboration with stakeholders.
- Help reduce costs and increase revenue.
Key elements of a successful CoE:
- The right people with diverse expertise and good communication skills.
- Clear vision and objectives.
- Strong communication and collaboration within the team and with other stakeholders.
- Regular meetings and updates.
- Sharing best practices and knowledge.
- Effective measurement and monitoring.
Common pitfalls to avoid:
- Lack of communication and collaboration.
- Poorly defined goals and objectives.
- Inadequate resources and support.
- Resistance to change.
- Lack of measurement and monitoring.
Additional Notes:
- The episode also covers the importance of aligning CoEs with global strategies and the challenges of managing international teams.
- The next episode will take a deep dive into the root causes of project failures and how CoEs can help prevent them.
Catch the Full Episode
YouTube: https://youtu.be/IM-XKRDaAB4?si=7Ps8XgftE6siU4ha
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6MX7iM9CFNEGve275o9LAr?si=BL4KZORyRVm9VVasg7g4Ow
Transcript
Bill Scully: Welcome back to Episode 4 of the International Web Effectiveness Podcast, where Bill Hunt and I, Bill Scully, focus on strategies and techniques to ensure your web presence effectively serves both internal stakeholders and global customers.
In our last episode, we discussed the value of web governance. It can sound intimidating, as if it limits flexibility, but as we explored, governance is really about having guidelines that streamline processes, reduce errors, and make operations more scalable.
This week, we’re diving into the value of Web Centers of Excellence, also known as COEs. Some people refer to them as Centers of Experience. But before we get into that, we have some news.
I noticed that Gary, from Google’s SEO Office Hours Podcast, mentioned—paraphrasing here—“Generally speaking, a ccTLD will tend to have a slight advantage due to its location relative to the user.” I agree with that, but this circles back to our last discussion—statements like this can be taken out of context or misinterpreted.
My first thought is: is this any different from implementing hreflang? What are your thoughts, Bill?
Bill Hunt: If you haven’t listened to last week’s episode or Episode 2, I highly recommend it. I don’t think this is much different. What concerns me is that, whenever a soundbite like this comes out, people rush to make drastic changes—like replacing their global .com domain with ccTLDs—just because someone at Google made a statement.
As we’ve said before, anything can work if it’s done correctly. If you’re not using ccTLDs, hreflang can serve the same purpose when implemented properly. In fact, if you read the full article, Gary later clarifies that language is the key factor. Search queries in a specific language play a significant role.
A ccTLD is a strong signal that a site is targeted for a specific country—Germany, Korea, etc. But will a Korean site perform better simply because it uses a .kr domain? Not necessarily. If two sites are otherwise equal, then yes, a ccTLD might provide a slight advantage. But if your content is better and you’re using hreflang effectively, a .com domain can compete just fine.
So, please, don’t start ripping apart your website based on a single statement. As we discussed last week, the GA Agency’s research supports the same conclusion—it’s nuanced, and results will vary depending on your market. The key takeaway is to think strategically: does it make sense for your business? If using ccTLDs aligns with your goals, great—go for it. But rankings don’t equal revenue. If you’re investing in major changes, make sure they actually contribute to your bottom line.
Bill Scully: Agreed. It’s always good to get direct insights from Google, especially given the recent discussions around this topic.
Now, let’s move on to today’s main discussion: Web Centers of Excellence. We’ll share our experiences, their impact on businesses, and how to establish one.
I have firsthand experience with this. I represented search in Siemens’ corporate COE when it was first created. Later, I was hired by a competitor as Director of Digital Marketing, and my first task was to build a COE from the ground up.
Bill, you’ve consulted with dozens of different COEs. What are your thoughts on building and managing a web marketing COE?
Bill Hunt: They’re critical, especially for global organizations. Even for smaller companies, a Center of Excellence can increase efficiency, reduce costs, and align teams.
In the last episode, we talked about subject matter experts. Even if you don’t formalize it as a COE, the key is bringing together experts from different disciplines to collaborate. How do we align strategies? How do we optimize processes? How do we ensure our deployments are search-friendly?
Most multinationals I’ve worked with either had a COE or developed one alongside their search program. And in every case, even if it was just an informal lunch-and-learn setup, the impact was clear—performance improved significantly. It’s absolutely worth the investment.
Bill Scully: So, step one is essentially hosting a lunch-and-learn with key stakeholders, introducing yourself, and starting the conversation?
Bill Hunt: Exactly. When I’ve helped build COEs, the first step was forming a team—not just SEO professionals, but web developers, content strategists, and project managers. The goal was to centralize knowledge, resources, and best practices.
Once the team was in place, we defined our vision and objectives. Even setting simple benchmarks, like a 20% increase in traffic, helps measure success and secure buy-in from leadership.
Interestingly, the team I worked with didn’t hire new people—we reassigned existing employees, ensuring they dedicated a portion of their time to the COE. This wasn’t a separate department but rather a cross-functional team focused on solving challenges across regions.
The moment you bring people together and clarify roles, things start moving faster. Suddenly, teams understand what you do, what information you need, and how to work together efficiently. That’s when real progress happens.
Bill Scully:
I think that’s key—people not understanding how their actions impact others, positively or negatively. Take something as simple as adding a new widget to a website. It might seem like a small change, but if it slows the site down by 50%, that’s a big issue. It affects customer satisfaction because users complain about slow load times, and it can also hurt search rankings since Google considers page speed a factor.
That awareness of how each person contributes to the overall website ecosystem is critical. It’s surprising how little people think about the downstream effects of their work. Redirects are a great example. Content teams constantly update, merge, and delete pages without realizing they might be erasing valuable search equity. A page that ranked well and drove leads or revenue could disappear overnight just because someone thought it wasn’t needed anymore.
Even in paid search, there’s often a disconnect. A brand might think a white paper download is a great offer, but the user just wants a quick solution to their problem. These kinds of mismatches happen all the time.
Public relations teams, for instance, don’t always realize the power of the links in their press releases. When media outlets copy and paste those links, they create valuable backlinks. And when you show them the actual traffic their links generate, they’re amazed. They get excited to see the real impact of their work.
Some people are energized by these insights, while others get discouraged when they realize their work has had a negative effect. But having these discussions is crucial to improving overall performance.
When everyone works toward a common goal, smarter decisions happen. Like, should we really be bidding on keywords where we already rank number one? Or could that budget be better spent elsewhere? Standardizing tools, analytics, and SEO processes not only improves efficiency but also cuts costs.
But beyond that, there’s the value of sharing and implementing best practices. Bill, you’ve got a lot of experience in this area. Want to share some thoughts?
Bill Hunt:
Absolutely. I always tell people—if you attend a conference, take notes, highlight key insights, and share them with your team. Even without a formal structure, just setting up a Slack channel, an email thread, or any internal communication method can make a big difference.
I’m also a big fan of what I call “corporate judo.” Instead of creating separate SEO or PR guides, integrate these best practices into existing company standards—like brand guidelines. Those are already monitored and enforced, and people pay attention to them. The more we embed SEO into mainstream processes, the better.
Since this podcast focuses on global SEO, we also need to think beyond just individual teams. In many companies, there are people who spend maybe 10% of their time on SEO. They’re not thinking about these details every day. But if they’re managing a paid agency, for example, a little knowledge can go a long way.
Maybe someone in another market is about to launch a new website that relies heavily on JavaScript. If they’ve heard about SEO’s challenges with JavaScript, they might take a moment to check Google’s recommendations before going live. That kind of awareness is invaluable.
And that’s really what we’re aiming for—not strict, rigid rules, but an open, educational, and supportive approach. We want teams to see SEO as something that complements their work, not as a restriction. If they hear about a best practice, their reaction should be, Oh, do we have a guide for that? Let me check and see if we’re following it.
Bill Scully:
Exactly. And when SEO is positioned as a revenue driver, it gets executive support. The more people recognize that SEO teams are helping them achieve their goals, the easier it is to align priorities. Instead of a constant push-and-pull between marketing and IT—where one side wants changes to rank better and the other wants to limit development costs—you get everyone working toward a shared objective.