Present SEO to your CEO — Tom Critchlow // SEO MBA

Tom Critchlow, Founder of SEO MBA, discusses how to present SEO to your CEO. As SEOs, we have a tendency to obsess over the technical and complicated nature of SEO. But, getting buy-in, resources, and budget from the executive team requires that we’re able to communicate our SEO strategies in a clear, straightforward way that makes it more digestible for them. Today, Tom talks about presenting SEO to your CEO.
About the speaker

Tom Critchlow

SEO MBA

- SEO MBA

Tom is the Founder of SEO MBA

Show Notes

  • 03:32
    Making SEO more understandable for CEOs
    Executives will not invest in initiatives they don't understand. To get buy-in, resources, and budget, its important that SEOs are able to communicate to executives how their initiatives connect to what the business cares about.
  • 06:10
    Recommendations for conveying impact estimates of SEO initiatives to executives
    When an SEO creates a forecast or a business case, it doesnt have to model the future as accurately as possible. It should be clear and the CEO should be able to understand how you arrived at the numbers used.
  • 11:01
    Using metrics the CEO is familiar with
    Use metrics and KPIs that the executive team looks at on a daily basis. When talking about impact and revenue opportunities, its best to talk about yearly impact as SEO is a slower moving initiative.
  • 15:00
    Ongoing communication that should happen within SEO
    When reporting on the progress of an SEO initiative to executives, communicate the progress that is being made including milestones passed. Educate executives on how algorithm updates work, how often they happen, and potential impacts.
  • 20:07
    How to present bad news to an executive
    Communicate project delays before the executive asks whats happening. Also, let them know about algorithm updates, what your plans are to remedy the situation, and the updated potential forecast for the future.
  • 25:16
    Handling executive rejection of an SEO strategy
    Rather than getting stuck advocating for big projects, find smaller projects to do that provide evidence that the big project is worthwhile. This could involve writing content in a different way or testing a different layout on a product page.

Quotes

  • "A lot of SEOs obsess about the technical nature of SEO. But, it's our job as SEO professionals to translate that into something digestible for the executive team." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "Creating a forecast, business case, or a business model is an exercise in making decisions. It is not an exercise in trying to model the future as accurately as possible." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "When you go to a CEO and say, I made a model that forecasts, 10% or 20% growth, that model has to be understandable. You need the CEO to understand how you arrived at these numbers." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "Every executive team has some kind of operating, reporting, and dashboards. They're used to seeing pitches from other teams that talk about metrics and you have to use the same metrics." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "You have to position the initiative not as, we're going to look at these keywords that have 200 searches a month, but we're going to look at these things that have this search volume over 12 months." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "Using language and metrics that are familiar to the executive team positions you as more plugged into the business, and it allows them to have more confidence that what they're investing in is worthwhile." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "Educating executives on how algorithm updates work, how often they happen, and the projected potential impacts is crucially important for anyone working in the your money your life niche." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "Traffic swings. And, if you're not communicating with the executive that this is possible before it happens, you're going to have a much harder time explaining that after it happens." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "SEO isnt a magic wand that we wave over the business. Something has to happen for the results to appear. And, we need to make that link clear for the executives so they understand how it works." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "If a project is delayed, you should be communicating about it before somebody asks what's going on. If an algorithm update happens, let them know as soon as it happens or let them know it's coming." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

  • "A good strategy is trying to find pilot projects and smaller things that you can do that show evidence that the big project is worthwhile." -Tom Critchlow, Founder, SEO MBA

About the speaker

Tom Critchlow

SEO MBA

- SEO MBA

Tom is the Founder of SEO MBA

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