3 Tips for Selling SEO

As far back as I can remember, I've been in sales. My dad had our family working flea markets selling stuff when I was probably 5 years old.
While we were selling all kinds of stuff, it seemed that my dad always had a story about everything. He knew something about everything we sold. It is that knowledge that separates most "salespeople" from successful sales people.
In SEO, it's no different. In order to be successful, you must be able to consultatively sell. You must be able to wrap your head around the really important "pain points" and goals of a prospect, and speak toward that.
On the flip side, it's very challenging to sell to someone who doesn't have a clue about what SEO really is.
Here are a few tips that you might use to help cut through the techno-babble, relate to a prospect, and close some business.

Tip 1: Listen, With Very Big Ears

I was told once that "the person who speaks the most, loses". If you're one of those guys who tries to out-talk the next guy, you probably won't find a lot of success.
You must get a prospect to share with you their experiences:

• What's important in their business (how do they make money)?
• How are they currently staffed?
• What marketing efforts currently exist?
• Do they measure their marketing efforts to an effective cost-per-lead/cost-per-sale?

Then, you can start to ask some SEO questions such as:

• When did they last redesign their site?
• Are they happy with current conversion rates?
• Have they ever hired an SEO firm before and, if so, what did they do and why aren't they still working with them?

Often times, there is so much information that needs to be gathered that I will ask if the prospect has developed an RFP (request for proposal) for the effort, so that the scope can be defined.

Tip 2: Understand Their Business Deeply

Recently, I met with a prospect that spends $19 million per year on marketing, but not a penny on SEO. Then they proceeded to tell me that organic search is their second most important lead generating source, behind direct traffic to the website.
After gaining access to their Google Analytics, I was able to see that they had lost significant traffic, year over year. Part of this was due to the fact that they redesigned their website (wasn't responsive) and had to address this "quickly", so no thought was put into SEO for the newly designed website.
I can clearly see why/where they lost traffic, and I "know" we can get it back. I also know that their conversion rate for organic traffic typically is 3 percent. In our meeting, I was able to get a value that they placed on new leads ($92), and so now I am armed to help to project what I believe the output of an SEO effort can be.
Do some math:
I believe that we're going to be able to recover about 6,500 visitors per month from the "recovery plan" mentioned earlier. I can also see some fundamental elements preventing a presence across a good number of other relevant/highly searched for terms. Put it all together and I have at least an 80 percent confidence level that we can achieve 8,000 quality visits per month for this particular prospect.

8,000 x 3% conversion rate = 240 leads

240 x $92 CPA goal = $22,080 per month in value.

Tip 3: Speak in Terms They Understand

When you can tell a CEO (or a CMO for that matter) that you feel very confident in churning out ROI, and you can share with them the numbers as to why you feel that way, you're making the complicated process of SEO selection much simpler.
Most clients don't understand "robots.txt" or "404s" or any of that stuff. They know "money in, money out". They want to speak in terms of ROI.
You might pull keywords that you know are relevant for their business, and the search volume, and the client's current ranking, so that you can "show them" why you feel justified in asking them to invest $15,000 per month in SEO. Of course, you have to be able to back that up and actually have a project plan in mind that you feel will equate to this success.
Don't be afraid to ask them if they're getting the same type of ROI from television, radio, print, direct mail or other channels. This will get the CEO to thinking, rather than painting SEO as the "black box".
Today's SEO is a very involved effort, requiring hours and hours of research, analysis, and "real work." I would estimate that this prospect is spending at least $8 million on television, and I don't even know if that includes production costs. Yet, for some reason, this isn't a "top lead generator"?

A Strategic Approach for New SEO Clients

Starting a new SEO project, or want to check ongoing projects? Use the following approach, which includes a mix of specific keyword research, testing important assumptions, and growing traffic and rankings with link building and copywriting.

Step 1: A Specific Way to do Keyword Research

Brainstorm

Good keyword research starts with good market knowledge. Keyword research can even serve as additional market research.
I always start keyword research with a brainstorm session together with my customer. During this session we create a map with every topic and subtopic related to their services. We list a couple of keyword examples for each subtopic.
It's important to get client-facing people involved in this process, because companies tend to think in industry specific terminology that their potential clients would never use as keywords.

Search Volumes (Average Monthly Volume)

Reliable keyword data is scarce and Google only gives you rough estimates from the AdWords Keyword Planner. Search volume estimates and their historic trending provide a good enough starting point for strategic SEO choices. You can always get additional keyword ideas from paid tools (like SEMrush), but Google is the only real data source for search volumes and others can only guess.
Start out by creating a huge list of potentially interesting keywords based on your map. The AdWords Keyword Planner has a "Search for new keyword and ad group ideas" function in which you can enter groups of keywords to receive additional related keyword combinations.
Once added to so-called AdWords plans (even if you don't intend to use them for AdWords), you can get search volume estimates for [exact match] combinations. Various paid tools have similar functionality, but the end result should always be the same: A huge list of >500 keyword combinations with their historic monthly search volumes for the localities your client services. You can use Excel for further processing.

Conversion Rates (Conversion Probability)

Adding estimates for conversion rate and value makes the search volumes a lot more usable for strategic choices. If there is no existing data to base your assumptions on, a guess on a 1 to 5 scale on "how relevant is the keyword to our services" is a good start.
You can always tweak this data once you've had more experience with similar keyword combinations. Having grouped or tagged your keywords during this first stage makes that a lot easier.

Search Engine Basic Concepts

The Basic Three Search Engine Concepts

Relevance

This is the basic first question that a search engine has to deal with when looking at any web page. What's it about? Search engines want to know this because it helps them respond to user search queries with pages that are relevant to that query.
There are many signals that can be used to determine the relevance of a given page. Some of these include:

1. The title tag of the web page. As you would expect, the title for any document should be a leading indicator its contents.
2. Semantic analysis of the content. This is not tied as much as it used to be to specific keyword phrases, but the general relevance of a page is analyzed based on the words and phrases used.
3. Anchor text used in links to the page. The text you click on in a link also acts as a label for what you would expect to find once you get to that page.
4. Topic matter of third party web pages containing links to the page. If lots of pages about automobile topics link to your page selling a used Ford Mustang, that's a good thing.
5. Topic matter of the site on which the page resides. Your page about selling a used Ford Mustang will do better on a site about used cars then it will on a site about water parks.
6. How users respond to the content in the search engine results pages (SERPs). If everyone that clicks on a link immediately jumps back to the SERPs and clicks on something else, that could be a bad sign.

There are other potential signals that you can think up without too much trouble, but by now, you should get the idea.
Impact of Relevance
You simply can't rank on given search terms if you don't have a page relevant to that search query.
Learn what types of search queries are used by people who are looking for products or services like yours. Make sure you have pages for each major variant of these, but don't over do it. You can read more about how to think about that in 3 Golden Rules of Title Tags.
In addition, make sure the content on those pages in consistent with the title tag and create strong content to support it.

PR Newswire Press Release Guidelines Target Search Engine Spam

PR Newswire will be evaluating press releases and other content submitted for distribution via the company's wire distribution network, under new guidelines to help ensure content quality. These guidelines are designed to reduce the distribution of low-quality content over PR Newswire's distribution network and the exploitation of press releases on its website to artificially manipulate search rankings.
PR Newswire has also taken steps recently to identify and remove low-quality content from its website.
These efforts supplement the company's existing press release acceptance guidelines, including the verification of sources, authentication of the sender's identity and attribution to the source, among other requirements that all messages must meet before distribution by PR Newswire.

In a press release, Ninan Chacko, PR Newswire's chief executive (CEO), said, "By reviewing each piece of content to ensure message quality, and deleting releases we find to be of low quality, we will increase the value of our content and website for our audiences, and limit the exploitation of content distribution for questionable SEO tactics."
Recommended press release content quality factors
Under the new copy quality guidelines, PR Newswire editorial staff will review press releases for a number of message elements, including:
• Inclusion of insightful analysis and original content (e.g. research, reporting or other interesting and useful information);
• Use of varied release formats, guarding against repeated use of templated copy (except boilerplate);
• Assessing release length, guarding against issue of very short, unsubstantial messages that are mere vehicles for links;
• And overuse of keywords and/or links within the message.
Identification and deletion of low quality content on PRNewswire.com

11 Hot SEO Tools Every Publisher Should Use

Search engine optimization is a crucial part of any brand's online marketing strategy. Without a cleverly crafted and well-executed SEO strategy, it's likely that your website and/or business will miss out on valuable impressions, clicks, and sales.
However, despite the fact that SEO plays an inarguably important role in the success of my business, many online publishers continue to neglect their SEO strategy, usually due to a lack of experience or a lack of resources. But in order to compete with larger brands and other publishers in your niche, SEO is an area of that you must invest in, and you must get the most out of.
The good news is that there are a number of ways that you could go about your search engine optimization efforts. Many larger brands tend to utilize SEO specialists or firms to help them guarantee their front-page spot in various search engines. But for smaller publishers and businesses, this may not be a financially viable option and they are forced to look elsewhere for solutions.
Developing and implementing a successful SEO strategy is no easy task though, especially within the ever-growing competition online. But armed with the right tools and a little bit of information, you can give your site's SEO a much needed boost and ultimately drive more business. Here are the 11 hottest SEO tools out there that are guaranteed to improve your site's search engine ranking and help you be more competitive in your niche and bring in more revenue to your business. Note that some of them compete with each other and do similar things but I still recommend all of them!
AdWords Keyword Planner

Every SEO campaign begins with keyword research, and Google's AdWords Keyword Planner Tool is one of the easiest and most effective tools out there when it comes to finding keywords that your audience is searching for. Keep in mind that the numbers presented by AdWords aren't always spot on, but you will easily be able to find the terms that your potential customers are searching most often.
Once you're able to identify the terms that your audience is searching for, you can more effectively target those terms in your content and on your pages to help boost your site's relevance on those specific terms. Using a keyword research tool is one of the quickest, easiest, and most effective ways to hone in on relevant terms and begin to rank specifically for the things your audience is looking for.
SEO Book

SEO Book offers a handful of different SEO tools on their site, and as long as you create a free account with them you will receive unlimited access to a variety of tools including a keyword suggestion tool, link suggestion tool, and spider test tool, among others.
SEO Book is a great place for you to analyze your current SEO strategy and practices and try to improve them through their various tools. When it comes to actually looking at the success of your SEO endeavors, SEO Book's suite of free tools can act as a one-stop shop to help you give your strategy the boost that you're looking for.
Moz's Open Site Explorer

Moz's Open Site Explorer is a great tool for helping you find potential back link opportunities to help your site's link building strategy. Open Site Explorer enables you to research your competitors' backlink profiles by simply analyzing their domains.
After you input a competitor's URL, Open Site Explorer will provide you with detailed information on things like link anchor text, page authority, and domain authority to give you a better idea of how to strengthen your own backlink profile.
SEMrush

If you're in the paid search space, chances are your interests are in the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, as well as the CPC for those specific keywords. This is what SEMrush specializes in.
Users with a free account can run a report that shows ten different keywords by simply entering a domain and clicking on the "Full Report" link. There, SEMrush will show you the domain's approximate organic ranking, along with information about its search volume, CPC, URL, percentage of traffic generated, ad competition, number of total search results, and more.
Moz Local

For many businesses, especially those with brick and mortar locations, local SEO is of paramount importance. Moz Local is a tool that helps strengthen your local search ranking by focusing on your specific location information and pushing it to search engines to ensure that customers searching near your location are able to find your store.
This tool is especially helpful for retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and other types of businesses that may need a physical storefront for their products or services.
Internet Marketing Ninjas SEO Tools
The Internet Marketing Ninjas have established an industry-wide reputation for being some of the best online marketers around, and they're giving you access to their suite of SEO tools for the convenient price of free. Inside of their package of SEO tools you'll find an on-page optimization tool, a site crawl tool, an image and link analyzer tool, and much more. If you're looking for a top-notch batch of tools, this is for you, and if you need help or want to hire an SEO specialist, the Internet Marketing Ninjas are ready and willing to help you with all of your SEO needs.
Search Metrics

Search Metrics has a host of tools and a track record of success when it comes to boosting their clients' SERP rankings. Plus, Search Metrics also has a social analytics tool that allows you to track the activity and success of social media campaigns on networks including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and more.
Infocc
One of the most effective ways to climb the ranks of the SERPs is to increase your on-site user engagement, which is what Infocc was built for. With the most recent batch of algorithm updates, Google has placed a heavy emphasis on "user engagement" metrics such as time on page, social sharing, comments and targets your readers to deliver those results.
By simply installing a one-line snippet of JavaScript on your site, Infocc will deliver a host of user engagement benefits, making sure that your audience stays on your site longer, and takes more action. They also has a built in SEO maximize feature, which helps you create a user experience that benefits your search ranking, too. An additional feature of Infocc is the ability to automatically link keywords to pages to improve interlinking.
Majestic SEO

Over the years, Majestic has developed a reputation as one of the best SEO services on the web, partially due to their technology, and partially due to their unrivaled expertise. Majestic SEO offers some great technology, specifically in terms of crawling, backlink and keyword research, and more. Majestic offers several free options for users, as well as an SEO API, which offers much of its backlink data for free.
Optimizely
A/B testing is an important part of virtually every facet of online marketing and SEO is no different. In order to get the best results from your SEO efforts, you need to constantly be analyzing what's working and what isn't, and swapping things out until you've achieved the results that you want. In order to help you A/B test various aspects of your SEO strategy, Optimizely has created an easy and effective A/B testing tool for conversation rate optimization that will help you really hone in your search strategy.
SEO Engine

When it comes to tracking search visibility and performing competitive intelligence, SEO Engine offers some of the best insights you can find. From domain analysis with SEO and paid visibility to competitive analysis and keyword distribution, SEO Engine has a host of tools and a track record of success when it comes to boosting their clients' SERP rankings. Plus, SEO Engine will show you exactly where you are and how far away from your competitors you rank. They also give you the exact data along with insights on how to get to be number one. Note: I'm invested in their company after becoming a customer, that's how amazing I think they are.
If SEO is something that you have to do on your own, be sure to find the right tools for you and use them to the best of your ability. After all, these 11 tools offer free or freemium services and will only help you improve your site's search ranking, which will ultimately translate to more sales and revenue for your business.
What other SEO tools have you found that work well?