SEOs fall into four basic roles:
- In-house
- Agency
- Consultant
- Entrepreneur
The fourth role here, entrepreneurs, can stop reading – you run your own show and don’t have to justify your work to anybody (unless you’ve been neutered by VC).
For the rest of us demonstrating the value of our work, even when we think it should be obvious, is a fact of life.
If the question makes you nervous you’re probably unprepared to answer it. Either that or you pretty sure your has generated zero value – in which case you might want to reevaluate your strategies (and maybe your skills while you’re at it). Thankless situation either way.
From the client/manager standpoint there’s a pressure-driven need for proof that their marketing budget has gone to an investment, not a cost.
Your job isn’t just to make it happen; you have to be ready to tell the story.
And like most stories, it starts at the beginning.
Don’t move forward without clear goals
This is the biggest potential misstep, and it can bring massive fallout down the line.
Success is always defined by specific business goals. “Increased traffic,” “higher search rankings” – these are fuzzy web metrics limp SEOs use as a cushion. They’re vague enough to leave plenty of room for excuses and backpedaling.
That’s not to say you should make guarantees. The only guarantees that hold up in SEO are the easy ones to nail – because they hold no competitive water. But arriving at goals that are mutually-understood between you and your client/manager sets things off right.
- Specific goals set a bar to aim for
- They frame every strategy and tactic by forcing the question, “how will this achieve our goal?” – which lends later to the answer, “we did this because…”
- Goals let you know where you stand at the end of the day which gives you solid ground to speak from should the inquisition come knocking
If you move forward without any idea of what success will look like you won’t know it if you get there. And if it remains an open question you may find yourself on the defensive with little ground to hold.
Establish a baseline
Goals are always relative to the status quo.
Our goal is to double our sign-ups by the 2nd quarter…
So obviously we’ve got a starting point here. Measure it. With precision. Consider all the metrics that relate to this goal, and take a steady, reliable data sample for a long enough time period. This is your starting point which, it turns out, is pretty important for measuring how far you’ve come down the line.
If analytics aren’t tracking the metrics you need (such as conversions) get them set up – and let them harvest data for a while. There’s no rule of thumb for how much, but a few days is way too short. 30 days may be too short as well. It’ll depend on traffic levels and the pressure you’re under to get rolling. Fight the good fight and gather as much relevant data as possible.
Create reasonable expectations
You can’t predict the future, but you can make an educated guess. And you can count on being asked to.
You might think that shaping your client’s expectations isn’t part of your job – but if you want to keep it, think again.
We can reasonably estimate:
- Keyword demand (search volume)
- Keyword competition
- Traffic potential
- Seasonal keyword/traffic trends
- A website’s current authority (in terms of inbound links and other off-site metrics)
The data is limited here, but this isn’t a precision game. There’s a difference between refusing to make precise forecasts and shirking the task of estimating a project’s potential. Identify opportunities, size them up and outline the predictable ebbs and flows as best you can before they happen.
If you’re operating in a vertical saturated with powerful competitors the goal of ranking first for the highest-traffic head keyword is a tall order. Time, resources and foresight are limited – if your client or manager is expecting a miracle but thinks it’s a cinch be ready for the boil.
The aim is to achieve reasonable expectations for results, and then work like hell to exceed them.
Keep solid work records
I don’t care if you have a memory like a steel trap; failing to keep good work records is asking for trouble.
Forgetting the “cover your ass” bit for minute, a detailed work record helps tell the story of your progress.
Track the following:
- What you did
- Why you did it (reference project goals)
- When you did it
- How it went (take notes on process, difficulties, uncertainties, etc)
Not only will this give you solid ground should your productivity and methodology come into question. More importantly, it forms the overall narrative of your campaign.
To suggest direct causation in SEO is always shaky ground – there’s rarely ample time to change one variable at a time and track its results. Even then search isn’t a controlled environment (at least not by you). There are variables well outside your control and knowledge that can effect results.
But having a narrative record of your work and justifications for it allows you to better tell the story when it comes time to report to your client or manager.
Set an appropriate reporting schedule
SEO takes time.
How much time depends on quite a bit.
Consider these two basic project descriptions:
- A website overhaul to correct on-page technical issues and improve keyword targeting
- A link building / linkbait campaign to increase the overall authority of the website
These both fall under the umbrella of SEO, but they’re different projects with unique workflows. And they’ll generate results on different time lines. The results of most on-page updates are measurable in the short-term (sometimes within a week). A link building campaign has longer-term goals in mind, and traction is usually farther down the line.
Your report schedule, then, needs to match the results time line (as best you can predict it).
As with establishing a baseline you need ample data to make judgment calls on results. Too much data is rarely a problem. Too little can lead to false assumptions – which never serve as a solid base for action.
Create a narrative report
The report format itself is somewhat arbitrary. There’s no golden standard other than this one: tell a story.
Your report should, as clearly as possible, show the people you work for:
- What the goals for the project were
- Where you were starting
- What you were aiming for
- The strategy you employed (and the theory behind it)
- What has happened since
- What this tells you about the future
You won’t always hit it out of the park. That’s the nature of marketing. But as long as you take clear steps with specific goals in mind, track those steps along the way and report the results with clarity you’ll find yourself better appreciated and sleeping soundly.
For us, I find that it’s important to call and connect with clients to review the campaign progress. How often is enough – once a month or once a week?
I’d say keeping an active line of communication with your client/manager is crucial.
I haven’t found a right answer for “how often is enough” – it’s something I feel out per client and per project.
All great points Mike. You could almost re-title the post “Communication”, and replace the copy with ”
Step 1) Communicate early and often with your stakeholders
Step 2) See Step 1
Good stuff. Posts like this are why your blog has moved into the “always read before marking read” folder of my RSS feedreader.
Communicating early and often is definitely part of it, but the other points are quite important.
You flatter me. ;)
Good stuff here Mike. I saw another post recently categorizing SEO’s into roughly the same 4 groups – maybe SEOBook? I’d argue that 2 and 3 are essentially the same… Both agencies and consultants work with clients. The differences I suppose are that agencies are generally multiple people as opposed to one, and agencies typically do some of the implementation whereas consultants more advise as to what should be done. That said, both terms are so generic that they are almost interchangeable. At the end of the day though certainly both of those groups have to demonstrate their value to clients. As a small agency owner for the past 7+ years, I can tell you that communicating with clients and showing them the results you achieved is in fact far more important the actually achieving the results. Anyhow, all the best!