"I couldn't sell my boss a pen if he was trying to cash a million-dollar check!"

Selling your boss has very little to do with the fact that they're tough or often balk at the idea of adding new expenses. Those are things you tell yourself to help soften the blow when you don't get your way.

To help you change your thinking and sell your boss on SEO, I'll step you through a few of the ways you can break through and make your boss see the light.

Ask Questions and Let Them Talk

One of the easiest ways to sell your boss on SEO is to simply ask questions, let them talk, and listen.

"Seek first to understand, then to be understood."

You've probably heard that phrase, made popular by Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, on more than one occasion. This is essential advice for solving problems, as well as getting what you want in this type of situation.

In order to understand things from your boss's perspective, you have to take yourself completely out of the equation. You have your own preconceived notions of SEO, and those will likely not line up with those of your boss. So instead of just going back and forth, trying to convince him to see things from your point of view, you need to really listen and truly understand your boss's position.

Doing this, you'll likely hear something you'd otherwise block out or forget by the time it's your turn to speak. This will allow you to think more clearly and openly, helping to make your point in a way your boss can understand.

Break it Down into Understandable Terms

When you're trying to explain a highly-technical form of marketing, you can't talk to your boss the same way you would another marketer. You have to break things down so they can understand the terms and comprehend the concepts.

I'd suggest thinking about the key points that matter to your boss and creating talking points with simple explanations. Some that come to mind include:

• What is SEO? - An easy way to explain this is to compare it to advertising, as SEO is the opposite of advertising. Instead of broadcasting a message in the hopes of reaching people that are in search of your products or services, you make it easier for those people to discover your business over your competitors.

• How SEO Works - Once you've got them up to speed with SEO, tell them how and why it's done, and what happens as a result. They need to be able to visualize all of this in order to truly understand it.

• Quantifying Results - Let them know how results will be measured so they'll be able to see for themselves that the business is seeing an ROI. Many business owners are skeptical about SEO because they've been pitched too many products and services that fail to deliver. If they know that they'll have some level of control, it will put their mind more at ease.

Provide Examples of Successful Campaigns

As an automotive SEO company, Wikimotive uses examples from our own campaigns to show prospects examples of the success they can achieve with our services.

This is your best selling tool, especially when the example is one within your own industry. It's not only a relevant example, but it's also a way for your boss to better connect the dots and see the value in SEO.

Don't just jump in and expect the examples to do the work for you, though; take the time to break down everything. Explain what was down, how it was done, and give detailed answers as to why these efforts work and translate into results for the business.

If your boss can see the work in action, grasp the concepts, and see the potential for themselves, you should have no problem getting the green light on SEO.

Don't Bring Up Cost  Until it's Necessary

The cost of complex and labor-heavy services like SEO can derail your hopes of selling your boss unless you wait until your boss is already on board.

"How much did you say?!" is the type of reaction you can expect if you don't think about this before your (or your preferred SEO company's) presentation.

Your entire pitch should be centered around the value of SEO, working up to explaining the price. Whether that means you want to bring on a dedicated SEO professional or hire a company, you have to first make sure your value proposition was heard loud and clear.

Let me be clear: you're not trying to pull one over on your boss; this is simply about the presentation. If the first thing out of your mouth is "Boss, I want to spend $4,000 a month on SEO services," you're setting yourself up to fail. Not because the price is too high, but because you have to properly transition into talking about cost.

At the end of the day, selling your boss on SEO really all depends on your boss. Some may simply not be interested in it at all and others may be open to it with a proper pitch. But be prepared to fail the first time around. Stay on top of the latest happenings in the SEO field so that you can be ready to create another pitch down the road.

Search isn't going anywhere, so if you can be the person who helps your boss get started and succeed you'll gain trust and grow right alongside the company.

Originally Published to the Wikimotive Blog on December 21, 2015

As Google releases more and more updates, the search engine becomes capable of understanding intent behind different search queries at an advanced level. This leads to an increased need for online marketers to review their SEO strategy to ensure it aligns with Google's constant updates.

The most important thing you can do right here and right now, however, is to master search intent yourself to target the right keywords, gain more traffic, and reel in more customers.

In this post, we'll go over the fine details of search intent and provide examples to help you identify and capitalize on more opportunities in your niche.

What is Search Intent?

Every search query has an intent behind it. Whether you're looking for information out of curiosity or want to buy something, there's an intent that drives you to search a specific query.

Google understands (and is constantly getting better) at understanding the intent behind a searcher's query. This allows the search engine to supply results best suited for the user, instead of just relying on signals like keywords and links.

To provide better results for our businesses and clients, it's extremely important to understanding the exact intent behind queries and keywords we'd like to target. Without this information, you may be left wondering why your bounce rates are high and people simply aren't converting. (Hint: Google wants to serve the best results, but if you're aren't matching the intent it won't be able to help you.)

Search intent boils down to the purpose of someone's search. If I look up someone's name, I'm likely looking for information about them. But if I add another word at the end of my search, such as "age," "twitter," "book," a deeper intent is revealed.

The two most important intents to distinguish are "informational" and "transactional." In business, these make a huge difference when trying to convert search traffic into leads or purchases because knowing the difference in intent allows you to make changes to your site that help you rank for and convert more traffic from transactional-based search queries.

Informational vs. Transactional Keywords

It might seem simple to distinguish between someone looking for information and someone trying to buy something, but keywords can sometimes be deceiving. Here's an example:

Let's say I'm in the market for a used car, but I don't know exactly which car I want. I turn to Google and search "Best Used Cars." I'm not looking to buy just yet, so landing on a list of cars for sale wouldn't do me much good. What I'm looking for is information on recommended used cars from a high-authority in the automotive industry.

So if you're a car dealer trying to focus on improving your search visibility for used cars, "Best Used Cars" is not the type of keyword to target. Again, this is because the search intent is not aligned with the content you're providing.

In this situation, it'd be more advantageous for you to target keywords like "Used Cars for Sale" or "Used Cars in [City, State]." These keywords show that the intent is to find cars for sale and cars in a specific city. Those users aren't looking for information; they're looking to buy.

Stop thinking about SEO and keyword targeting in these situations and put yourself in the mind of a search user. When you look at a keyword, think about what the results you'd like to see if you were performing that search. Is your site providing the right information, or are you just trying to optimize for more traffic?

Aligning Intent with Content

Now that you know the basics of search intent and how to identify keywords that fit your site and content, how do you go about creating new content with all of that in mind?

First off, you don't write a single word until you've completely identified the intent you want to target and have a list of keyword that match it. The next step is to outline your content from start to finish to ensure you stick to that intent without deviating.

This means that if your intent is to get someone to buy from you, don't regurgitate information found on your product information pages. You can briefly mention facts, but keep in mind that if someone made it to a product page or another type of lead-gen page, they've likely done their research. Now is the time to take off your "informing" hat and put on your "converting" hat.

And it's the exact same for informational content. If you're giving advice or providing facts, don't use that as a platform to try and sell. This is the biggest problem most businesses have when it comes to SEO content. If users search for information, that's what they want to find. By mixing in transactional content, you're taking value away from the information you've already provided.

You'll find that it's less likely Google will rank this content highly and that building links will be move difficult because the information isn't genuine. Google wants to provide people with genuine information that's not motivated by profit and people want to link to information that can be trusted.

"So what's the point in creating this content?" you're probably asking.

Well, not all SEO content is meant to convert customers. Informational content should link to transactional content, but it's typically the informational content that gets traffic, links, and helps boost the ranking of your transactional content.

You need to start thinking about the buying process in two different ways: research mode and purchase mode. Your informational content is targeted at prospective customers who are still in research mode. They're not ready to buy; they just want to see what's out there and get advice.

Once they enter purchase mode, however, they'll find their way to your transactional content and will be more likely to convert because you've properly separated the content.

Learning from Results or Lack of Results

At the end of the day, each of our situations are different; don't rely on what you see here as the only way to strategize. Instead, experiment as often as possible and learn from the results or lack of results you see.

You won't find a single person in SEO tell you that they haven't learned anything knew because they've seen it all. This field is constantly changing and evolving; the only way to see continuous progress is to take notes, make changes, and keep going.

Good luck!

Wikimotive just dropped their newest promo vid for car dealers. Let us know what you think!