These days, we can find the answer to almost everything on Google. You can see these relevant results because of (SEO) Search Engine Optimization.
It may sound like it is not for the faint of heart, but anyone can do SEO if they understand the fundamentals. We are also aware that not everyone understands SEO, especially people at the executive level, like CEOs and CFOs. They are the ones who often have plenty of basic questions and want to understand the ROI of SEO.
Often, I’ll find a CEO thinking that SEO is both magical and confusing. It isn’t either if you understand the basics. Here are a few talking points, you can use to educate CEOs and CFOs on what SEO is and what it can do for the business.
Search with the CEO
One of my favorite ways to explain the importance of SEO to a CEO is to ask them to search for some products they want to buy. Sit with them as they do a few searches and help them understand what’s happening. What are paid versus organic searches? Why did company A show up on top versus company B?
This gives you the chance to point out why specific organic sites popped up versus others. You can illustrate the relevance of your company’s SEOs by letting them see how their search habits were influenced by factors that can be controlled and exploited.
Explaining SEO to someone in an executive position can be daunting. It helps explain something complicated like SEO when the CEO can learn from searching for something relevant and personal. By the way, if your manager is a bit “old school”, he or she might appreciate your doing this type of tutorial for them so they better understand SEO.
Results and Timing Expectations
SEO doesn’t provide instant gratification like paid search. Most CEOs make the mistake of expecting to gain short-term revenues with SEO. However, SEO is a long-term tactic rather than instant gratification.
If you’re aiming for competitive keywords, hard work and time must be invested in moving higher up in the search rankings. That’s why SEO algorithms and competitor updates are always moving targeting that takes a lot of patience and discipline.
Algorithm Variables and Machine Learning
There’s often an algorithm that determines how a site will rank on search engines. But focusing on specific variables and pursuing some formula as a strategy slowly faded over the last few years.
Ever since Google rolled out machine learning in its algorithm, the rules of engagement have changed. That’s because machine learning creates various scales depending on multiple factors. This includes your browsing history, your search intent, and the available content on your website.
Producing Quality Content
Producing quality content means that every blog, image, web page, or video can provide users with higher engagement rates.
Quality content lets you boost clicks, shares, and social media mentions online.
In the same way, it also encourages others to spend more time on the page and become loyal users in the long run. This allows you to improve your site’s rankings. A CEO needs to ensure that creating quality content should always be a top priority for crafting your brand’s SEO campaign. Quality content helps you gain credibility and attention from Google’s algorithms. The more valuable the content is to a searcher, the higher the ranking.
Dynamic SEO
Knowing when to adapt to change is one of the best ways to survive SEO’s ever-changing world. This is the reason why every CEO needs to understand SEO itself is constantly evolving. Keeping up with the rules and shifts in the SEO universe can help raise the value of your content to the audience you want to reach.
The hard work of an SEO expert is to adapt to a wide range of ever-changing techniques and practices. Because even if your website ranks #1 today, an algorithm update can cause your ranking to plummet. That’s why it also helps that you work closely with a reputable digital marketing company that provides local SEO services in your area.
Inter-department Collaboration
SEO isn’t just in the online world. It also needs contributions from other departments. Often, many CEOs fail to realize that their SEO team or department also must collaborate with other departments:
- SEO strategies need public relations/content teams/communications teams to produce premium content.
- SEO also needs to work with the marketing department to create ads.
- SEO also must work with designers to create stunning images that one can use as marketing content.
- SEO can leverage great presentation content used by sales to answer recurring business questions.
Indexing
Indexing issues can negatively impact your SEO efforts. One of the main reasons indexing can be an issue is if a search engine can’t crawl your site. The automated process of finding content will lead to that content being indexed.
An SEO expert can make sure that search engines can access your content correctly. Access is crucial for SEO. That said, you should be wary of the hierarchy and relevance of every page on your website and how you build your content. Like building a house, there is logic to sequencing what you do first, like starting with the foundation before dealing with wallpaper.
And if you don’t believe me, Google it.
This guest post on The Marketing Sage Blog is from Gia Keasler who writes about marketing issues including stories on attracting investors for startups. and how to teach SEO to CEOs.
You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Watch a short video about working with me.
Photo by Marten Newhall on Unsplash
