How to get C-Level buy-in for SEO

If you’ve ever sat in a board room in front of the your senior leadership team, you’ll know that nothing is an easy sell, especially something that straddles several teams and disciplines like SEO. Unlike paid ads or social campaigns, SEO doesn’t deliver instant results, but it touches on content, technical and marketing and – when done properly – is one of the most cost-effective growth channels your business can invest in.

So how do you get your C-suite on board with your SEO efforts? Here’s our crib sheet of what they actually care about, and how to translate SEO into their language.

Use KPIs, not Keywords

The C-suite doesn’t care about the minutiae of SEO, like what a title tag is or the difference between a follow and a no-follow link. If you’re a CEO or a CFO, you just want simple metrics to understand how SEO supports overall business goals, what returns can be expected in what timescale (and at what cost) and how this channel compares to other marketing investments.

This means that if you’re presenting on SEO you need to talk in terms of:

• Market share
• Share of search / share of voice
• Cost of customer acquisition
• Revenue growth
• Margin delivered

If you can find out what KPIs other departments are presenting and then talk in those terms, your C-suite will be able to compare SEO with more familiar channels and see how it supports them and stacks up against them.

Highlight the ROI of Organic Search

SEO isn’t free even if it’s handled in-house, but it should be one of the highest ROI marketing channels, especially over the long term. Paid media for example stops the moment you stop spending on ads, and even ATL channels like TV have a diminishing halo effect over time. When it’s done right, SEO continues delivering traffic and leads month after month.

If you can highlight this long-term ROI you can really show that it’s a channel worth investing in. Some stats to focus on might be:

• How much of your web traffic comes from SEO, and where you want to get this metric to
• The conversion rate of organic traffic vs other traffic channels
• How much revenue your organic rankings have generated for the company, at essentially no cost except the effort to set them up
• A projection over time of how much revenue they’ll continue to generate assuming nothing changes

Show What Competitors Are Doing

One of the best ways to really get the attention of senior executives is to show them cool things that the competition is doing. People don’t like to be left behind, so if you can show that your top competitors are better than you when it comes to SEO, it’s a strong argument for your company to up their game.

SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs can help you to benchmark the competition, so not only can you get to the nitty-gritty of what they’re ranking for and what their backlink strategy might be, you can show some graphs, facts and figures in your senior meetings to illustrate the story.

Demonstrate the Impact of SEO on the Buyer Journey

SEO supports the consumer at every stage of the journey, whether they’re just learning about a product or they’re looking for the best price and delivery time in order to make a purchase. Having the right content at the right point lets you own each part of this journey, and supports general marketing when it comes to putting your brand front and centre.

If you can demonstrate this, it supports the argument for investing more into SEO-friendly content, and aligns with wider brand and marketing goals.

Use a Pilot Project to Prove Value

If your leadership are still hesitant about investing in SEO, suggest a short-term SEO campaign focused on a specific product, service, or market. A great way to do this is if you have an upcoming product launch to work with. Set clear KPIs like traffic, lead volume, or page rankings, and report back on progress regularly.

A successful test campaign can unlock future budget, especially if you show:

• Reduced reliance on paid search
• Increased inbound lead quality
• Performance gains from technical SEO (e.g. site speed, UX)

Proving value in a small, controlled setting is often the best way to earn wider buy-in.

Be Up-Front About Timeframes

When you’re under pressure in a senior meeting, its tempting to agree to tricky deadlines and give yourself a mountain to climb. Lets be honest though, SEO pays off over the long-term and you really need months to see the full impact of your work. Its important to set realistic expectations with your senior team so that you have the time and space to do your job.

Final Thoughts

Need help putting together a compelling SEO business case for your leadership team? Let’s talk — we can help you build a plan that gets buy-in and delivers results.