SEO (search engine optimisation) is still quite a young discipline when compared with the history of marketing as a whole. This relative infancy leads a large number of business leaders to be sceptical of SEO simply because they don’t understand its clear benefit for their organisation.
Some bosses simply won’t see the utility of SEO because the company’s sale numbers are fine and there isn’t any urgency to try new marketing tactics. Even in these situations, they are missing a huge opportunity by not utilising the full potential of a carefully constructed optimisation strategy.
Also, the fact that SEO results generally take a few months to materialise makes it a harder sell to business leaders who want to see a ROI very quickly. Therefore, convincing your boss that SEO is important will mainly come down to showing them the inarguable long-term benefit it can provide.
A big part of SEO is simply increasing the functionality of your website
Depending on your industry, your company’s website may be the primary way in which prospective customers find out about and engage with your products/services. Therefore, it’s only common sense to make sure that your website is as functional and user-friendly for said customers.
A good SEO strategy will involve the planning and creation of unique content that separates your website from the competition. If you frame SEO more as a enhancement of your company’s website rather than an obscure marketing tactic based on complex algorithms, your boss may be more likely to bite.
It perfectly complements an existing PPC strategy
If your organisation is already using digital marketing in the form of PPC (pay-per-click) advertising, then adopting an SEO strategy is a perfect way to complement it. Compared to PPC, SEO is much cheaper and has much more potent long-term effects.
Since PPC involves the use of keywords and an interaction with Google’s platform, it’s not a big leap for your boss to understand how and why SEO is worthwhile.
Competitors are likely already using SEO
A great way to convince your boss SEO is important is to play into their fear of falling behind the competition. SEO may take a while to produce results, but if your competitors have already got the ball rolling they are going to have a significant advantage over you.
Show your boss which competitors appear higher in search results and identify what SEO tactics they appear to be using. This will help your boss understand what they’re missing out on and will further legitimise SEO in their eyes.
Show them some statistics on effective forms of marketing
If you think your boss may be more receptive to cold hard facts, show them some easily discoverable statistics on the growing effectiveness of search marketing. These numbers tie into the fact that the average consumer is less receptive to traditional forms of marketing and is using search engines to find authoritative sources of the products and services they need.
You don’t have to convince your boss to abandon TV and magazine ads, just tell them they need to make room for SEO.
Tell them that you can handle it on their behalf
If you’ve already established a high level of trust with your boss, then you should be able to convince them that you can manage the implementation of SEO. Sometimes your boss may simply feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of organising an entirely new marketing strategy, so if you can relieve that pressure they may be more amenable to pursuing SEO.
Above all, there’s no good reason for your organisation not to implement a rudimentary SEO strategy. If you can convince your boss of SEO’s clear benefits, then they should jump on board.
As our marketing manager, James takes on the responsibility of overseeing the creation of original, persuasive and high quality content that is an integral part of how we achieve success for our clients. Through his experience working in the SEO field, James has developed a robust understanding of core digital marketing principles and has a particular interest in the growing importance of sincere and engaging content in world where issues like ‘fake news’ have become a major talking point.