Driving SEO for Disney — Ben O’Grady // Disney Streaming

Ben O'Grady, SEO Media Manager at Disney Streaming, delves into SEO at Disney. Disney is a global entertainment giant with an extensive array of products and services. Contrary to the misconception that SEO for Disney is "easy" due to its brand recognition, the reality is that the agility of third-party websites poses significant challenges to Disney's content in search rankings. Today, Ben discusses driving SEO for Disney.
About the speaker

Ben O'Grady

Disney Streaming

 - Disney Streaming

Ben is SEO Media Manager at Disney Streaming

Show Notes

  • 01:50
    Disney's vast ecosystem of brands and SEO
    SEO at Disney plays a central role in optimizing the online presence and visibility of the entire Disney ecosystem. This encompasses theme parks, streaming services, and Disney's partner brands, requiring SEO to collaborate with teams internally and within the Disney portfolio.
  • 05:51
    Managing SEO for Disney movie releases
    SEO must be aware of the third-party sites ranking for Disney's movies before release and determine where to send traffic once the movie is released. This process requires SEO collaboration with marketing, product, strategy, and studio teams to cover the shows lifecycle.
  • 07:24
    Prioritization and balancing SEO responsibilities at Disney
    Unlike other large enterprises, Disneys SEOs wear multiple hats, handling technical, product, and content SEO. Consequently, it requires careful time prioritization based on ongoing projects, whether it's a website relaunch or a movie release.
  • 10:05
    SEO challenges for Disney
    While Disney dominates in ranking for branded keywords, the complexity arises with granular content. Approval processes involving brand, legal, and copy teams often lead to revisions, making it challenging to outrank agile third-party sites on granular pieces of content.
  • 13:55
    Staying fresh and relevant in the SEO industry
    To keep SEO knowledge current, stay up-to-date on new technologies, and network with people in your organization and the SEO industry. Doing freelance SEO work for small businesses and volunteer organizations can also help to grow your SEO skills.
  • 17:42
    The value of freelance and volunteer SEO work
    Ben completed his first SGE optimization on a third-party site of a client he does volunteer work for. Unlike Disneys rigorous approval process, that environment allowed him to get it into production faster and conduct the necessary experimentation and testing.

Quotes

  • "I do everything SEO-wise from product SEO, to technical, to content SEO. If you're an SEO with Disney, you will wear all of those hats." - Ben O'Grady

  • "My first SGE optimization was done on a third-party website I do volunteer work for. It was much faster and easier to make some changes, get it into production, and do testing vs. trying to do it at Disney" - Ben O'Grady

  • "For any one of the hobbies you're passionate about, find a website owner, and do the SEO for them just. Volunteer for 10 hours and just go to town. That will keep you fired up for this job." - Ben O'Grady

  • "Were good on branded keywords, domain authority, and page authority, with millions of backlinks to our home pages on big sites. Where we have to work hardest is granular content that outranks third-party websites." - Ben O'Grady

About the speaker

Ben O'Grady

Disney Streaming

 - Disney Streaming

Ben is SEO Media Manager at Disney Streaming

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