I loved this post from Laura at High Rankings yesterday. Brilliant stuff:
How to talk SEO to a CEO
Talk numbers, money, traffic. Show pretty graphs. Steer clear of tech talk.
Attire: suit
Say: “Looking at last years’ numbers, if we implement SEO to this subsection of the site, we can drive traffic up at least 15%, which means a possible $8,000 a day more than 2005.”How to talk SEO to a Project/Product Manager
Tell them how much easier life will be with SEO:
Attire: business casual
Say: “If we implement SEO into the production process, there will be less SEO-checklists to check at the beginning of every project and there will be less time spent after every project checking how (and if) our SEO efforts were done."
I think she's right on the money with these (there's a total of 5). To her list, I'd add:
How to talk SEO with a Small/Mid-Size Business Owner
Talk ROI, engage them about their specific business, don't use industry buzzwords (like SERPs) and focus as specifically as possible on their industry and their business
Attire: Suit, no tie
Say: "Your firm is currently offering the best products and services in this niche sector and SEO will allow you to reach customers who want exactly what you sell."
Any others. I'm still trying to figure out how to explain SEO to family members and friends at parties. It always starts with - "Ever use Google?"
When people ask what I do, I simply reply: "Internet stuff".
That alone is enough to kill the topic discussion. :)
God job, too - once I start talking on the subject, it's hard not to stop. :)
SEM is a subset of marketing SEO is a subset of webdevelopment
SEM and SEO is not the same, it is two very different things.
Sorvoja - OK, but if you do both, which do you say you do?
LOL the last time I had to explain people what I do it started with Google but ended with "there are 1024 bytes in a Kilobyte..." :-)
WeRA - Yeah! Saw it via Donna's post. That's a brilliant one. Kat and I were just giggling over it. Nice work!
I've been saying "Internet marketing" and qualifying it with something like the following: "Basically, we help make business webpages more visible to their customers online." People usually get that.
Rand, not sure if you saw this or not but figured you'd enjoy it.
https://www.seorefugee.com/s...
here's my solution for explaining what i do to non-industry people:
everyone: "what do you do for a living?" me: "marketing" everyone: "oh." /conversation.
it usually works! :D