Scientists might tell you that the last dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, but they haven’t seen your boss yet.
Old-school definition; she’s the kind of person who only reluctantly accepts email because she still believes the internet is a fad.
But she is the decision maker and the one who controls the wallet. How do you convince her of the importance of SEO?
How do you build a case Add it to your marketing plan and allocate resources to make it successful?
If only there was some kind of handy guide you could refer to… oh wait. We got something just now.
Why SEO should be part of every marketing plan
In 2021, U.S. consumers will spend $870.78 billion online, or approximately 19% of total purchases. That doesn’t even include all the in-person sales driven by web research and awareness.
Quite simply, every business needs a website.
And since a website without visitors is simply useless, every business needs to include SEO as part of their marketing plan.
This article will give you a step-by-step process for building a business case to add SEO to your business case.
Why you need a business case
The business case is the formal rationale for undertaking a project. It evaluates the benefits, costs, and risks of alternatives and provides rationale for specific solutions.
Too many small businesses are overwhelmed by heavy day-to-day operations, Completely abandon the business case.
But without one, you risk wasting valuable resources on projects with little benefit, ignoring project goals, and struggling to properly prioritize.
This is something you don’t want to do with SEO, especially when you’re trying to convince others of its importance.
You need a good business plan to illustrate your situation, which describes the following:
- Chance.
- Problems in the current system.
- solution.
This doesn’t have to be too long. In fact, brevity is often better.
But it does need to clearly describe your vision and goals Search Engine Optimization Strategiesdata to support your argument, and technical tools you need to.
You’ll want to include financial projections about costs and return on investment, preferably monthly for the first year, and information about when you think your SEO project will be cash flow positive.
Build your SEO business case
Below, we’ll walk you through the process and help you develop a case that your boss must sign off on.
Conduct a website audit
Like any good plan, your business case should start with research.this means Comprehensive website auditwhich will provide your team with a performance benchmark.
Start by assessing your current SEO state and strategy (if any).
Determine what is driving traffic to your website.
Do you have common keywords that lead to your website? Which pages do visitors land on most often?
Identify the opportunities your strongest content offers.
Look at on-page factors like keyword density, optimized images, titles, and URL names, as well as off-page factors like backlink quality, site structure, internal links, and 404 errors.
Knowing where you start will help you accurately predict the results your SEO campaign will produce.
Intimidated by the process? do not do that.there are countless Free tools available for on-site audits This will give you the information you need.
Conduct a competitive analysis
SEO is a zero-sum game. The traffic you land on is the traffic your competitors don’t have. vice versa.
With that in mind, it’s absolutely important that you know exactly what they’re doing so you can find out why they’re outranking you and spot opportunities to steal visitor clicks from them.
But be warned – your biggest SEO competitor may not be your biggest industry competitor; they may just be tangentially related companies using similar keywords.
find out your opponent SEO Competitive Analysis. You will want to ask (and answer) the following questions:
- What keywords are competitors ranking for?
- Which keywords are they not using effectively?
- How do they promote their content?
- What is their SEO strategy?
- How is their page content optimized?
- What is the quality of their backlinks?
- Do they use paid advertising? What does it do?
Not sure how to find all this information?
In addition to the always helpful articles you can find on this site, there is also a number of basic tools You can use it to figure out what exactly the competition is doing.
Talk to your target audience based on intent
In the digital world, it’s easy to forget that there are real people on the other side of your campaign, and you’re not just creating content for search engines.
Take some time to identify your target audience persona and research why this hypothetical person is visiting your website. You should identify:
- Who is a typical target?
- What do they want?
- What keywords or phrases are they searching for?
Some people find it helpful to create one or more characters that they can then talk directly to the content.
For example, an online hardware store might have a character named Jim, based on an imaginary customer:
Jim is a middle-aged man from the Midwest. He has a nice job but doesn’t have enough disposable income to hire a professional to do home repairs, so he does things himself. He knows the tools like the back of his hand. He is a family man who enjoys sports, barbecues and watching TV.
By imagining Jim as a real person, some writers find it easier to talk to him directly, using language he feels comfortable with, which in turn leads to better results.
You don’t have to go this far, although the more you Know your target audiencethe better your SEO campaign will perform.
Create a monthly content plan
Now that you know who you’re targeting, it’s time to start planning to reach these people.
Create a month-by-month plan outlining your content.
Decide what you will focus on.this might be a holiday-like themes Or the product you want to push. Not everything needs to be kept on topic, but it’s often easier to plan a month’s worth of content when everything is relevant.
Next, check your calendar to identify key dates such as events, product launches, and affiliate promotions.
Armed with this information, it’s time to create a high-level content plan that presents a big picture of what you’ll be doing this month.
Develop promotions and core content such as blog posts.
Not sure what your priorities should be? we can help.
Want to dig deeper into your year-round SEO strategy?We have a free ebook This is exactly what you need.
List your keywords
In all parts of SEO, Perhaps the most important thing is the keyword.
The foundation of your overall SEO strategy: it tells search engines what your content is and why it’s the perfect solution for their needs.
So how do you find the most useful keywords for your goals? You should be well prepared to recognize them when building your SEO business case.
Have some tools and techniques You should use, starting with brainstorming, a list of topics relevant to your content.
Come up with a list of seed keywords, then use a good keyword research tool to identify other keywords.
Since you have identified user intent, this will help to find long tail keywords.
Again, your previous work investigating the competition will come in handy here, helping you figure out which keywords work for them so you can use them yourself.
Build the workplace relationships you need
Now that you’ve developed a plan for a successful SEO strategy, it’s time to start putting together the resources to put it into action.
You don’t have to hire an SEO expert or hire an outside company to get started (although this can be a very good idea) because your organization probably already has many of the pieces you need.
Marketing, IT and sales should all be included.
While some may be less excited about what they think has more work for them, explain to them that you are all on the same team and working towards the same goal.
Build rapport with them by showing them how their individual contributions will make your SEO career more successful.
Take some time to educate them about the process and make sure to emphasize the importance of each of their roles.
Strengthen your case with facts and figures
At the end of the day, most executives only care about one thing: Does it provide a return on investment?
That’s the beauty of SEO — it provides a wealth of data points that you can use to prove that what you’re doing is not only worthwhile, but that it pays off.
And there’s good evidence why you need an SEO plan.
For example, you would definitely mention that Google is responsible for 92% of web searches, more than 267 million unique visitors Only in the US.or that 56% of web traffic from a mobile device.
If you’re promoting paid components in your overall SEO program, be sure to emphasize that for every dollar a business spends on Google Ads, they get Average income of $2.
Using this data, you can Tell a compelling story It covers more than just the black and red of the balance sheet and encourages buying.
Measure and track your success
SEO is a long game with no immediate rewards. You need to make this clear to stakeholders from the start.
But with a solid strategy and a little old-fashioned elbow grease, you’ll soon start seeing measurable results.
Google excels at supporting you with facts using these key metrics:
- Organic traffic.
- keyword ranking.
- CTR.
- Bounce Rate.
- exchange rate.
- Time spent on the page.
By carefully tracking your performance, you’ll better understand where and how you’re succeeding, and identify areas for improvement.
in conclusion
Search engine optimization is a good investment for any organization, but it requires an up-front investment in time, budget, and resources.
While results aren’t always predictable, SEO is one area where you can get something out of it.
If you cobble together a sloppy plan without thinking, you won’t get the high-quality results you get from a more structured approach.
But by developing a well-thought-out business case for SEO and highlighting its potential, it’s hard for even the most grumpy boss to deny its value.
From growing your customer base to driving new sales, there is no doubt that a quality strategy will help achieve company-wide goals.
Get to work now – you have an SEO business case to build.
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