The state of the economy today, particularly in the marketing world, leaves little room for ineffective programming. Marketing budgets that don’t produce the desired result are primed for the slash of the eraser, never to be heard from again.

With a little advanced planning, you can align your SEO strategy with your company’s bottom line and demonstrate how you are moving the dial against that bottom line. And while you’re at it, you can prove the value of your program beyond a shadow of a doubt and lock in that marketing budget.

Set realistic goals

What! What do you mean we aren’t on page one of Google?

Does this question ring any bells? We all know that SEO isn’t simple. A myriad of elements affect position with the search engines, and moving toward those top listings takes time and effort. You understand this, but do your stakeholders? Although SEO is an effective long-term investment, its results are not instantaneous like those of PPC. Setting realistic expectations out of the gate about how search engines work and the types of results you can realistically expect to achieve will do wonders in shaping perception.

Page One rankings rely on elements such as content volume, keyword competitiveness, industry, and link popularity – just to name a few. Is your B2B site’s “marketing software” listing guaranteed a Page One result in the SERPs? Not on your life. Ask your SEO partner to provide detail that you can easily pass on to your stakeholders to help them understand the ins and outs.

You know that you can’t just “move” your organic listing to page one. Make sure the person who approves your budget understands that as well.

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