Something that never fails to amaze me is how often SEO is underfunded and ignored. SEO is visible everywhere on the web, which might lead you to think that most large organizations see the value and sieze the opportunity that SEO presents. But all too often, this isn’t the case.

At first glance, this problem seems nonsensical. A well executed search campaign is loaded with potential – when done right, it can become an entirely new, long-lasting stream of revenue/leads/clients. So why does it often go ignored or paid only a token amount of attention?

Reason #1 – The safe route usually wins.

When given the choice between allocating budget to a known channel that is likely to generate a mediocre incremental return or devoting it to a new channel, the choice for many decision makers isn’t a difficult one. The safe route often wins, even if it isn’t the best long term option.

Paid search, for instance, generates known returns at a consistent efficiency. It’s easy to start, stop, and measure. SEO is risky by comparison. The returns it will generate are unknown (at first), as is the time it will take to achieve rankings.

Suggestion: Minimize ambiguity, maximize transparency.

• Be clear about the returns an SEO effort could generate. Learn to estimate realistic position and traffic gains, and translate those into a meaningful metric (conversions, revenue, or leads.) Be upfront about accuracy and don’t hesitate to give a wide range, but it’s important to boil down the results of a successful SEO engagement to a real metric that speaks to decision makers.
  
• Report on what matters. Keep your ultimate projections in mind, and regularly report on progress. Rankings are fine, but they miss the most important part of the story – how have actual business metrics changed over the course of your effort? Think conversions and revenue, not just rankings and traffic.

Reason #2 – SEO has a “black box” reputation.

Here’s a conversation many SEOs have probably had at one time or another…

A question like this is a worthy one, but it is impossible to answer accurately. With so many variables at play, tying specific improvements in metrics to changes on your site, before or after the fact, is an inexact science and a road that many SEOs rightly hesitate to venture down.

Suggestion – Stick to a process, establish cause and effect.
SEO isn’t usually about one specific action that moves the needle, it’s about consistency and doing as many things right as possible. That being said, there are things you can do to prove your value and move past the black box label SEO often unfairly is given.

• Stick to a defined process. Marketing software providers like SEOMoz and Hubspot are so successful in part because they have a very clearly defined process at the heart of their respective products. Mirror this approach – explain SEO to decision makers with a road map in hand. Define the key activities that are necessary to move the needle, and keep a list of implementation goals that are tied to specific dates.
• Do your best to establish cause and effect. Graph improvements in rankings and metrics, and annotate your graph with the relative dates when changes were made. While it’s near impossible to accurately correlate specific changes on your site to specific events in rankings and metrics, drawing some general cause and effect lines through the process can be very helpful in proving your value.
  

Reason #3 – SEO requires on-the-ground work within an organization.

Writing a bigger check for paid search or picking up the phone to schedule a media buy are easy ways to spend a marketing budget. SEO, on the other hand, requires a lot of footwork. Doing it right requires cooperation at many levels and in many departments – and orchestrating this cooperation is often the hardest part of the process.

Suggestion: Act as a project manager, not a consultant. Too many SEOs think and act as though their responsibility ends at delivering recommendations. If you want to move the needle, you can’t be afraid to get your hands dirty – whether you are acting as an outside consultant, or are actually making the changes yourself. If you are in an agency  working with one contact at a large client, make yourself indispensable to them. Change the way you define your role if you really want to drive results.