Seven Reasons Why You Need To Implement SEO Right Away

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persuade-your-boss-to-use-seo

Convincing your boss to implement SEO strategy can be a tricky business.

While most professionals have long understood and embraced the power of SEO, there are many business owners who still view it as a deceptive practice. In today’s post, we will explain seven great pointers to help your boss understand why they should be investing in SEO. Without further ado, let’s start with the first tip:

1. DEFINE SEO CLEARLY

If your boss doesn’t understand what SEO truly is, they are more than likely going to pass on implementing it. That’s why you need to take the time to clearly explain to your boss what SEO is and how it can help in plain English. Instead of focusing on the minute details, approach your boss with a value/results oriented approach.

2. LEVERAGE LOSS AVERSION TO MAKE YOUR CASE

Take advantage of the fact that people are more likely to take action to prevent loss than to initiate growth and tell your boss that the business is suffering to competitors because people find them easily when searching for (insert product or service), making the business lose at least (number of leads/sales) every day. This is one of the most effective persuasive technique. Give it a try.

3. FIND CASE STUDIES FOR SIMILAR BUSINESSES

Even the best SEOs are not a perfect fit for every client. As part of your due diligence you should find a company that has helped a company similar to yours. Most people think this means niche but it could be companies that work with small businesses, companies that specialising in working with an in-house SEO staff, or a company familiar with your local area. Even if you plan to handle the SEO in house, you can search for case studies that show SEO has worked for companies like yours, overcoming one of the most common objections a boss will throw your way.

4. RUN THE NUMBERS

Showing your boss how to save money is a surefire way to get his attention. If you are the marketing manager or upper level management and have access to the marketing budget, you should create a comparison showing the customer acquisition cost for other marketing channels compared to the cost of customer acquisition via SEO. While you are at it, you can also put together some figures for training your in house team versus hiring an agency to handle the SEO if your boss approves.

5. START WITH THE OBJECTIONS

If you have been at your current company for a while you most likely have a good idea of how your boss ticks and what ranks highly on his list of concerns. Use this understanding of how they think to create a list of objections they are likely to give you and start your pitch by listing and overcoming those objections. You can present it as “common SEO misconceptions” while defining SEO.

6. EXPLAIN THAT SEO SUCCESS CAN BE MEASURED

Regardless of how great the theory of SEO may sound to your boss, numbers don’t lie. Before you suggest SEO to them as a strategy you should take some time to determine what results you expect from an SEO campaign and how those results translate into increased income for the company. They should be goals that show value but can be tracked and understood by even non-technical members of management. Increased sales and a higher number of qualified leads being generated are two pretty simple yet effective ways to measure the success of an SEO campaign.

7. TELL THEM A FEW HORROR STORIES ABOUT SEO

While it may sound counterproductive, sharing a few SEO horror stories can actual be beneficial if you can identify what went wrong in those examples and what steps you have taken to ensure that similar issues do not arise with your own SEO campaigns. If you can’t clearly define what the issues were and how to avoid them, you should skip this step. However, if you think you are able to pull-off this stunt, your boss may be quite impressed with the amount of research you put in before bringing up the idea.