WHY YOU

STRUGGLE TO
SELL SEO
 1 | Why you Struggle to Sell SEO

While most modern clients know a digital

footprint is necessary to get ahead, many don’t
know that SEO is the proverbial Bigfoot that
makes it.

Successfully selling SEO requires knowing a bit

about the industry, as well as a potential client’s
pain points.
 2 | Why you Struggle to Sell SEO

Who buys SEO?

While SEO can provide valuable results for almost any industry, there are a few corners
of the market that buy it more frequently than others.

Businesses who buy SEO:

• Spend 60% more time per week on marketing activities
• Have far more marketing experience than the average SMB
• Are more likely to come from retail and healthcare industries
• 47% buy Google Adwords, spending $43,836 per year on it
• 2x likely to be franchise businesses

Compared to other SMBs, those who buy SEO are:

• 2x likely to have $3 million more in gross revenue
• Far more likely to buy classified ads, content marketing,
print ads, outdoor advertising, and other types of media

How is selling SEO different than selling other

digital marketing products?
At its core, SEO is a solution sale. You’re not just promoting an existing product; instead,
you’re actively trying to remedy a client’s pain points with the product itself.

A great solution sales pitch will include how SEO will:

1. Make their site the most relevant answer to search engines.

2. Ensure their site is the most trusted answer.
3. Encourage growth as they reach page one of Google.
 3 | Why you Struggle to Sell SEO

A proposed client is struggling to know the why of

SEO. How can I convince them it’s the right option?
Ensuring clients know the value of SEO is key to closing a sale. Here are a few reasons
why a client might be hesitant to commit to an SEO campaign and what you can do to
assuage those worries.

Reason 1: Your client’s timeline is off.

While other digital marketing strategies—like social media content or a mobile-friendly website—may
raise customer engagement fairly quickly, SEO takes much longer. You know this, but your client may
not. And without a firm understanding of the months-long process a successful campaign requires, it
may be difficult to close the sale.

Here’s what you can do to ensure both you and the client know what to
expect.

1. Outline the process, step by step.

Show your client why each step of the campaign is crucial, and why each particular stage requires a
certain amount of time to be completed successfully.

2. Explain how the digital landscape changes often. For example:

• You can’t “build it and leave it.”

Simply identifying keywords and building a few backlinks
won’t cut it. SEO has to be a consistent effort over an estab-
lished period of time in order for Google to properly analyze
a website’s presence and provide authority for it.

• Google’s algorithm changes often.

These changes always require new strategies, which means
that any SEO campaign has to be adjusted when Google
implements an update.
• There will always be competition, and it gets bigger
all the time.
SEO effectively targets competing businesses, but that
number constantly grows, which means SEO efforts must be consistent and long-term in order to provide
stable results.
 4 | Why you Struggle to Sell SEO

Reason 2: Your client wants to DIY their SEO.

While many businesses are unaware of SEO or its benefits, a few digitally-savvy ones will know the basic
rundown. But this can often lead to a false sense of confidence, where clients can’t see the value in
outsourcing their SEO efforts to a group of experts.

Here’s what you can say to demonstrate why hiring an SEO firm to do
the job is the best option.

1. It provides more consistent staffing.

SEO resellers typically have a larger staff, with specialized employ-
ees for each individual task, ensuring every step of the process
gets done the right way.

2. It’s more affordable.

In the long term, outsourcing SEO can save you money. Forming
a new team requires several steps: 1) training staff, 2) buying
appropriate tools, and 3) paying staff and offering benefits.

All of this adds up, especially if you want to hire experienced

professionals. High turnover can also exacerbate costs if you have
to constantly train new people. Hiring an SEO reseller, however, only requires that you pay for services
rendered. They handle all the heavy lifting with the employees and the SEO tasks performed for your
clients.
3. It helps clients stay on top of industry changes.
Keeping up with the rapid pace of technology can strain a small
team’s resources. However, a core part of an SEO firm’s business
model focuses on keeping track of marketing news. With more
employees, SEO resellers designate personnel to optimizing
processes and strategies. This approach can boost overall quality
and efficiency.

4. It gives clients access to comprehensive reporting and data.

Less than 37% of B2B marketers bother to document their content
strategies, but an SEO firm is different. They have already invested
in the technology and labor needed to create reports, thereby
saving clients the trouble of doing it themselves, while also provid-
ing accurate data necessary to determine a campaign’s success.
 5 | Why you Struggle to Sell SEO

5. It offers unparalleled industry connections.

Digital marketing is about more than written content. An effective strategy incorporates several services:
1) analytics, 2) web design, and 3) branding.

A SEO reseller likely has industry contacts who provide these. An SEO firm can either provide additional
services or connect clients with other firms in order to support SEO campaigns with better websites,
social media strategies, and branding.

Reason 3: Your client doesn’t know the difference between PPC and SEO.
Most clients interested in boosting their online presence know about PPC campaigns, and because they
tend to have a clear (and fast) ROI, they may be more inclined to go that route. But lots of clients fail to
understand the major caveat that comes with these cam-
paigns—they only generate revenue so long as you run them.

Here’s what you can do to effectively

demonstrate why SEO should be their primary
focus (and how to supplement it with a PPC
campaign).

1. Rely on analytics
Conversion is the most important result customers may use to
judge their return on invest-
ment. By setting up mile-
stones in Google Analytics based on website traffic and conver-
sion rates, you can better show them how you gradually take
them from Point A to Point B.

2. Identify the conversion rate

After you understand how the conversion takes place, you will
need to identify how many leads it takes to create one conver-
sion. You can help with conversion rates by taking a look at the
landing page. Does the website load quickly? Does the contact
form ask for more information than customers want to give? What
can you do to improve it?
 6 | Why you Struggle to Sell SEO

3. Understand what customers value

Not all customers value ROI the same. Determine if the client is
looking for more sales, to rank better against competitors, or
higher revenue lead opportunities (or a combination, or some-
thing entirely different!).

4. Provide the paid versus organic rate

Considering the immediacy of PPC results, it is only natural that a
client may continue to urge their SEO reseller to focus efforts
there instead of organic results. However, a quick comparison may
help them to see things differently. Use a plugin like Keywords
Everywhere to show your client how much it would cost in PPC ads
to achieve the organic results you bring in for less.

What’s next?
While SEO rarely has measurable ROI, it does have an unmistakable impact on engagement. Using the
strategies outlined in this document can help you close the sale with clients of all sizes and from a
wide variety of industries.

Need a little help?

Even for good sales reps, sometimes closing the sale can be tough, which is why having a sales
support team is crucial. If you’re struggling to close the deal, loop in a sales support team
member, since they’re qualified to walk a client through the process and answer any additional
questions they may have about their investment.

About
Boostability is the global leader in white label SEO services, partnering with the top agencies, publishers, and internet companies in the
world. It serves in multiple languages across countries, and continents, and provides full-service SEO with fulfillment, product, sales,
customer service and marketing departments. Boostability has one of the largest small business SEO databases, and have served SEO to
more small businesses than any other company in the world. Established in 2009, Boostability focuses on helping their partners and
small business clients succeed online by getting ranked at the top of search engines. It services 30,000+ active clients and has 500
employees in its three offices: two located in the Silicon Slopes of Utah, and its European headquarters in Berlin, Germany.

For more information, visit www.boostability.com/partner