One of the most difficult aspects of marketing a business online is convincing upper-level management of the need to concentrate marketing efforts on SEO.  Managers who have never heard of SEO may not be convinced that it will make any difference in the bottom line, and those who have heard of it may dismiss it as “gimmicky.”  This means that, for the internet marketer, the actual act of convincing management of the need for SEO may be more difficult that the actual SEO itself. 

Educating management about the need for SEO:

 ·         Remember that SEO may sound threatening.  You know that SEO works, but all your management hears is that they’ll have to give up that fancy Flash page they paid so much for, they’ll have to hire a content writer to beef up the copy on the page, the entire navigation will have to be reworked, and the JavaScript has to go.  You see a brave new world. They see a disaster. Have a little empathy.

Four sound reasons for undertaking the SEO task:

 ·         Increased human engagement.  Search engines reward websites that engage human visitors.  SEO involves making multiple changes that will aid search engines in the indexing process, and these changes will also make the website more navigable and engaging for human visitors. Flash may look pretty, but visitors want helpful content and a site that’s easy to get around on.

·         Budget-free.  Your management may love the results they get from paid advertisements, and that’s great. But organic SEO is completely free.

·         It gets easier.  The initial time and effort investment in organic SEO is admittedly high.  And it may be frustrating at times, too.  But once the initial effort is complete, maintaining high search engine rankings is much less painful than getting them in the first place.

·         A whole new market.  Folks who click on the paid advertisements on search engine results pages and different from the folks who click on the organic results.  By increasing your organic search engine rankings, you’re reaching a whole new group of people who may have never even heard of you before.  In addition, these are people who are typically in the research phase of their investment, not yet ready to purchase a product or service.  If you can catch their attention early and build a relationship with them, you’re much more likely to turn them into customers later.  

In summary, while it may be difficult to sell SEO to upper management, it is in the best interest of your company to give it your best effort.  Be sympathetic to their concerns about reworking a website in which they have already invested a great deal of time and effort, but still be clear about the importance of organic search engine rankings in the success of the business. Demonstrate how a website that is valued by search engines is also one that will attract and maintain a loyal customer base.  Finally, consider hiring an SEO professional to show upper management the cost of not using SEO tactics.