Executives and Product Managers

The decision makers in your organization have a lot on their minds these days: shrinking budgets, expanding competition, and out-of-control expenses could keep anyone awake at night. Why should they be open to your big ideas about SEO? Even if SEO was the boss’s idea in the first place—or if you’re your own boss—you still need to know, in a down-to-the-brass-tacks kind of way, what it’s going to take.

Of course, you want to approach your corporate decision makers with a clear vision, a plan, and a lot of cold, hard facts. But there’s a catch-22 here: how can you know exactly what Your SEO Plan will cost and what it will accomplish until you have spent some time researching those very questions? Executives aren’t big fans of laying out cash for an unknown outcome. So we recommend that you start the process by seeking approval for an initial, investigatory month. That’s roughly 20 hours of labor at one hour per day, and it’s all laid out for you in the next chapter. You’ll spend your Prep Month figuring out what kind of performance your SEO campaign can expect and be able to come back to the executives with a much more complete plan on ha....