# Managing 90 SEOs: What Actually Scales (And What Breaks)

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-edward-show-6568456/managing-90-seos-what-actually-scales-and-what-breaks
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-edward-show-6568456/managing-90-seos-what-actually-scales-and-what-breaks.md
Podcast: [The Edward Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-edward-show-6568456)
Published: 2026-05-15T13:54:00+00:00
Episode link: https://9342edaa-17ad-4315-a037-ec4dfabd63f7.libsyn.com/managing-90-seos-what-actually-scales-and-what-breaks
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/9342edaa-17ad-4315-a037-ec4dfabd63f7/Managing_90_SEOs_What_Actually_Scales_And_What_Breaks.mp3?dest-id=4081527
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-edward-show-6568456/episodes/managing-90-seos-what-actually-scales-and-what-breaks
Duration seconds: 5088

## Resource

E1045: This is what it takes to carry the responsibility of managing 90 SEOs AT THE SAME TIME. I sit down with Travis Tallent, former Managing Director of AI SEO at Brainlabs, where he led a team of 90 SEOs, CROs, digital PR specialists, and content strategists across enterprise clients like Microsoft and GitHub. We break down what scales inside a large SEO organization, what quietly breaks, and what most people get wrong about hiring, systems, and AI. This is not surface-level advice. It's what happens when you grow a team from 15 people to 90 in four and a half years and have to build the infrastructure to support it. What we cover: Leadership and scale - What leading 90 SEOs is really like day to day - The growing pains of scaling from 15 to 90 people - Why process matters more than talent at scale - How to build systems for communication across large teams - Decision rights, hierarchy, and why clarity prevents chaos - How to stop teams from getting in each other's way Hiring and onboarding - The most underrated skill in SEO hires - How to screen for real operators, not surface-level knowledge - The interview question that reveals everything - What a three-month onboarding program actually looks like - Why mock calls and repetition build communication skill - How to design onboarding that produces confident, client-ready SEOs Digital PR and link building - Why traditional outreach often fails at enterprise scale - What actually works in digital PR today - How to build data-driven linkable assets - Personalizing outreach without burning your domain reputation - Creative examples of assets that generate thousands of backlinks - Why brand investment matters more in the AI era CRO and conversion strategy - Why incremental button tests rarely move the needle - When full…

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