SEO is a long-term investment that can deliver great results for your business, but how do you convince your stakeholders and clients that it's worth the money and time? In this article, you'll learn some tips and strategies to justify your SEO budget and demonstrate the value and ROI of your SEO efforts.
Before you ask for a budget, you need to have a clear and realistic SEO plan that aligns with your business objectives and target audience. You should explain how your SEO strategy will help you achieve your goals, such as increasing traffic, conversions, revenue, brand awareness, or customer loyalty. You should also outline the steps and tactics you'll use to implement your SEO strategy, such as keyword research, content creation, technical optimization, link building, or analytics.
One of the things many people overlook when they focus on the technical aspects of SEO is building content that answers questions customers have. So be sure your SEO plan has a list of the most common questions your customers have. If you make sure your website answers all those questions, completely, you will have a foundation for all the other technical aspects of SEO. You will also have content that the people who ultimate buy from you will appreciate.
It might be helpful to try a smaller proof of concept type test run to show that an SEO strategy is working, maybe through A/B testing on specific campaigns.
In my 20+ years helping businesses successfully increase SEO-driven traffic exponentially I do this: #1 Ensure Google Analytics and Search Console are on your site. #2 Review the overall performance of the site and make improvements (ex: website.grader.com) #3 Optimize off-page #SEO which includes: -Page title (<60 characters with keywords) -Meta Description (<160 characters with keywords and an intentional hook to increase CTR) -Image Keyword Descriptive Alt Tags -At least one internal hyperlinked anchor text and one external #4 Optimize on-page SEO -One H1 (main header with keywords) -Others are H2s and H3s for sections -Provide valuable content #4 Add content through new pages and blog #5 Measure, Improve, Adapt, Repeat
Justifying your SEO budget to stakeholders and clients is essential to secure the necessary resources for your SEO initiatives. Align with Business Goals: Begin by aligning your SEO strategy with the broader business goals. Educate on SEO Benefits: Clearly explain the benefits of SEO, including its long-term value. Set Clear Objectives: Define specific, measurable, and time-bound objectives for your SEO initiatives. Track and Report Progress: Provide regular reports and updates that show the progress of your SEO efforts.
One of the best ways to justify your SEO budget is to show your results and progress. You should use data and metrics to measure and report your SEO performance, such as organic traffic, rankings, click-through rates, bounce rates, conversion rates, or revenue. You should also compare your SEO performance with your competitors and industry benchmarks, and highlight your strengths and opportunities. You should also show how your SEO performance has improved over time, and what factors have contributed to your growth or challenges.
Google Analytics has some great dashboards to help you show performance, but you can use tools like data studio and tableau to help create customized views your stakeholders will actually care about. Simplify the data for you audience then make it relevant to them.
Clients are wising up as to how important SEO is for their businesses so justifying the cost of it shouldn’t be a huge concern, if you’re accurately and fairly priced.
Another way to justify your SEO budget is to communicate your challenges and needs. You should identify and prioritize the areas where you need more resources, support, or expertise to improve your SEO results. You should also explain the risks and costs of not investing in those areas, such as losing market share, missing opportunities, or falling behind the competition. You should also provide realistic estimates and scenarios of how much budget you need and how you'll use it to overcome your challenges and achieve your goals.
One critical message to communicate is how SEO takes consistency. Results are not immediate, like performance marketing. It is important to educate stakeholders that SEO is the long game and at least 6 months of diligent effort is needed to start seeing results
Un mensaje crítico para comunicar es cómo el SEO requiere consistencia. Los resultados no son inmediatos, como el marketing de resultados. Es importante educar a las partes interesadas en que el SEO es el juego a largo plazo y que se necesitan al menos 6 meses de esfuerzo diligente para comenzar a ver resultados
Finally, you should demonstrate your value and ROI as an SEO professional or agency. You should show how your SEO efforts have contributed to your business outcomes, such as generating leads, sales, referrals, or retention. You should also calculate and compare your SEO ROI with other marketing channels, such as paid ads, social media, or email. You should also showcase your SEO skills, knowledge, and experience, and how they add value to your business or client.
The key to this is using a program that fully shows a client the various elements and progress of your SEO campaign. Our firm uses Agency Analytics, but others capture the same effect. Provide your client with a login to the program for them to get the gist of how your campaign is performing. They may not understand all of the data, but knowing they can look at any time is reassuring. Give them reference articles for tools like Google Analytics to show that you are happy to educate them with what they need to know. Also encourage meetings with the client so you can detail what's transpired and answer their questions.
Immediately establish a baseline of reporting for ROI, as in most companies, an intentional SEO strategy is lacking, and you will move the mark quickly. Phases should be a 24-month timeline and while owners will want quicker timelines keep to your guns because results will begin in <1 year in most cases. (assumes you know your top 50 keywords you wish to get found for i.e. what does your perfect prospect search for) Phase 1: Website grader and Search Console impressions Phase 2: Targeted keyword success Phase 3: Overall traffic KPIs including total #s, time on site, etc. Phase 4: With CTAs/Gated Assets in place on every page and on your growing blog, begin gathering conversions for leads.
SEO helps you get free traffic from search engines by making improvements to your website. It requires an initial investment but has lower ongoing costs compared to paid advertising (SEM). With SEO, you optimize your website to attract visitors without paying for each click or view. On the other hand, driving the same amount of traffic through SEM can be more expensive because you need to keep paying for ads to maintain traffic levels. In summary, SEO is a cost-effective way to get sustainable organic traffic to your website without the need for continuous payments.
Showcasing real business results from SEO becomes easier with CRM reports. Then you can demonstrate real conversion rates in the Sales funnel and report on content and pages that help Sales team close.
La clave para esto es utilizar un programa que muestre completamente al cliente los diversos elementos y el progreso de su campa?a de SEO. Nuestra firma utiliza Agency Analytics, pero otros capturan el mismo efecto. Proporcione a su cliente un inicio de sesión en el programa para que pueda obtener la esencia de cómo se está desempe?ando su campa?a. Es posible que no entiendan todos los datos, pero saber que pueden mirar en cualquier momento es tranquilizador.
One of the reasons why your stakeholders and clients may be reluctant to invest in SEO is because they don't understand it well enough. You should educate them on the basics and benefits of SEO, and how it works in relation to other marketing channels and strategies. You should also explain the challenges and complexities of SEO, and why it requires constant testing, learning, and adapting. You should also use simple and relevant examples, case studies, or testimonials to illustrate your points and make them more convincing.
As anyone who is experienced in SEO understands, SEO is not just one element that needs "fixing." SEO involves keyword planning, a content strategy, optimization, technical fixes and link-building. Your clients and stakeholders may not understand all of those elements, but it's up to you and/or your agency to at least explain what that entails and explain the work involved. For example, show them a backlink report. Identify the number of backlinks their site has versus the competitors. If you at least show them how you will tackle each element, they can identify a ballpark of the time spent on their site and appreciate the cost.
I've been trying to explain this to stakeholders forever. While not perfect... the best way I have found to explain SEO is (at 10,000 feet)... "SEO is in a way Computer to Computer UX" (Then I add) "Basically making sure all the content you want to make available to human users is also accessible, and readable by other computers, so those computers, can recommend your content to humans." Then come down to 5,000 feet and talk about why and how etc... Not perfect, but it's a place to start. People working on the web understand what a good UX experience is vs a bad UX experience. Understanding that other computers, are also very important users is a big step forward. This also gets me started with their UX folks.
Como entiende cualquiera que tenga experiencia en SEO, el SEO no es solo un elemento que necesita "arreglarse". El SEO implica la planificación de palabras clave, una estrategia de contenido, optimización, correcciones técnicas y construcción de enlaces. Es posible que sus clientes y partes interesadas no entiendan todos esos elementos, pero depende de usted y/o de su agencia al menos explicar lo que eso implica y explicar el trabajo involucrado. Por ejemplo, muéstrales un informe de backlinks. Identificar el número de backlinks que tiene su sitio frente a los de la competencia. Si al menos les muestra cómo abordará cada elemento, pueden identificar una estimación aproximada del tiempo que pasan en su sitio y apreciar el costo.
Last but not least, you should build trust and rapport with your stakeholders and clients. You should communicate clearly and regularly with them, and keep them updated on your SEO plans, actions, and results. You should also listen to their feedback, concerns, and expectations, and address them promptly and professionally. You should also be transparent and honest about your SEO performance, challenges, and opportunities, and avoid making unrealistic promises or guarantees. You should also show appreciation and recognition for their support and collaboration.
My clients fall in 2 categories - big-picture thinkers and detail-oriented. And the former is easier to convince than the latter. One can dig up a lot of analytics data and test cases to convince a client about any budget. But if you do not align your budget presentation with that of your client’s thinking, it’s a lost cause. So, for the big picture clients, grab and showcase the analytics data (before and after shots, if possible) with a definite timeline, and of course demonstrate your own capabilities as a SEO Ninja. Past projects and social proof matter. On the other hand, for the detail oriented client, also add in the list of steps you want to undertake to achieve the goals you’ve promised in your budget. And then it’s all good.
Mis clientes se dividen en 2 categorías: pensadores de gran alcance y orientados a los detalles. Y el primero es más fácil de convencer que el segundo. Uno puede desenterrar una gran cantidad de datos analíticos y casos de prueba para convencer a un cliente sobre cualquier presupuesto. Pero si no alineas la presentación de tu presupuesto con la del pensamiento de tu cliente, es una causa perdida.