How to Convince Your Boss to Invest in SEO

This article is a translation of excellent material from ahrefs.com, which is a guide for company managers

Posted by Joshua Hardwick – Head of Content @ Ahrefs

SEO can increase traffic and sales to your company's website, as well as boost your company's bottom line, and therefore increase investment for your business.

But if your boss doesn't think so, then let's look at the options and how to convince him.

The first thing to consider is that your boss doesn't have any idea what SEO is.

You need to explain in simple terms what website promotion is and how SEO will make your bosses more money and help them reach their business goals.

Let's go through the action plan you can apply:

1. Outline the final result
2. Explain your logic
3. Create an action plan
4. Talk about possible numbers
5. Dispel myths and work through objections

Step 1. Outline the final result

It is very important to talk about the final result of what you offer. The result must be realistic. It is better to underestimate than to overestimate the possible future outcome.

For example: 

“By investing in SEO, we can reduce PPC spending by $15,000 per month by replacing paid traffic with organic traffic.”

Step 2. Explain Your Logic

Accurate data is crucial to explaining your position.

For example, you find that a company spends $15,000 a month to compete for a position in the SERPs for 20 keywords.

SEO will give much more. If you rank organically for these keywords, you will get that traffic for free. With proper SEO promotion, the site will be able to reach the top of the organic search traffic for important keywords for free.

While, you need to spend about $43,500 per month on Google Ads.

This way you will show that your offer is based on real data.

таб3 -Н3- Step 3: Create an Action Plan

Even if your boss is impressed with your presentation and calculations, you need to draw up a clear plan of action. Do not go into SEO terms! Try to keep your focus on the big picture. Speak in simple and understandable language

You could say, for example, that the “general health” of your site is significantly lower than that of your competitors.

It is important to focus on only two things:

What are you going to do and why (don't get too technical)

What resources will you need

The ultimate goal of your entire presentation is to show that your plan is workable and realistic.

Step 4. Talk about numbers. How much will it all cost?

Especially for SPRAVA blog readers, we made an addition to the original article with a selection of price ranges and companies, who work in Ukraine. Moreover, we prepared for you an article about what determines SEO services pricing.

UpWork provides such data.

The final estimate might look like this.

But these numbers will not tell your boss anything about ROI(return on investment).

Therefore, it is important to give the boss an approximate estimate of the return on investment in SEO.

It will look like this.

In this case, payback is achieved after 12 months.

You need to speak honestly, without exaggerating the merits of SEO promotion. G

Step 5: Demystify and Handle Objections

The most popular myths about SEO:

1. “SEO is a fiction”

SEO itself really works. This is a set of jobs aimed at matching your site to Google's ranking factors to help your site's pages appear higher in search results. 

Many arguments in favor of SEO can be found on the Internet. For example, you can show that 60% of marketers say that SEO is the highest quality source of leads.

You can show your boss the Traffic Value metrics, do it using the example of competitors.

For example: “competitor’s site receives approximately X organic visitors per month, which generate $X profit.”

2. "SEO takes forever?"

Нonesty is always the best policy. Don’t need to wait for lightning-fast results from SEO, and that the pages of your site will take first place in the top by month, you don’t have to promise.

Based on the study of 2 million keywords, only 5.7% of pages rank in the top 10 during the year.

There is no magic button in marketing, so it's okay to explain that SEO also takes time.

3. “What if we disappear from the search results after a Google update or because of a ban?”

Here is an example.

Most likely, as a result of the Google update, you can see a negativel impact on your traffic,  but they’re unlikely to wipe you out completely.  There are no worries following the “white” promotion methods.

The main task is to dispel all the myths and fears associated with SEO.

And finally...

Convincing your boss to invest in SEO isn't easy, but the benefits can be huge. And Ahrefs are proof of this. If you want a large number of customers and a strengthened positioning of your brand on the Internet, you need to convince your boss that your company needs to do SEO.

Lenara Kozakova, project-manager

Classic SEO has long faded into the background. When we say "SEO website promotion", we no longer mean writing articles and headlines, but making a profit through another sales channel - the site. Therefore, for a marketer, this is part of the job. In today's business, under current conditions, not being present on the Internet means being the most niche business without many growth prospects.

Sooner or later, an entrepreneur faces the question of scaling up a business, opening new points of sale, etc. This process can go according to several scenarios: 

• Finding premises, hiring employees for a new premise, purchasing equipment, organizing logistics, advertising a business in a new region of presence, etc. 
• SEO-optimization of the site for an additional region, launching advertising campaigns for a new region, building logistics. 

The second option not only sounds simpler, but in the realities of our time is much less energy and resource consuming. The main thing is that the business has an understanding that the site is another full-fledged sales channel.

Do you want a free consultation on the website promotion from a professional SEO services company?