Your C-Suite executives want to invest in SEO. In fact, they want to allocate budget for every marketing channel capable of effectively driving leads and sales. But you need to give them reasons to do so. If you can prove to them, based on evidence and data, that SEO is an effective channel, they'll likely go all in.

SEO alone can drive millions of monthly visits to any business, almost regardless of the industry the brand operates in. It's a marketing channel that clearly drives ROI — otherwise, SEO wouldn't be the $80 billion industry it is today.

But many C-level execs still don't think it is important enough to be a priority in their marketing budgets. So you're tasked with convincing them that it's worth making the investment. Their approval determines whether or not you're able to get all the resources needed to execute your SEO strategy.

For example, you may need to hire an agency or increase your spending to ramp up your SEO efforts — but you won't get to that step if your execs don't think SEO should be prioritized among the range of available marketing channels.

Here's how to change that and convince your C-Suite executives that SEO belongs in their A-list of marketing channels.

1. First, you need to convince yourself

You need to arm yourself with data-backed examples of the value of SEO before pitching it to anyone else. Find studies, real-life stories, and research that, beyond the shadow of any doubt, prove to you SEO drives bottom-line results for businesses like your organization — because that's what your C-Suite will care about.

If they're going to shell out thousands of dollars on SEO or provide you with any other additional resources you need, they want to be sure it's a channel that genuinely drives results for their type of business.

Your confidence that SEO drives ROI will significantly aid your pitch. A simple Google search for "SEO case study" will get you thousands of success stories you can read, and cite as examples. Whether you're trying to convince your execs or clients SEO is worth their money, these stories will help sell you on the benefits of SEO to others.

2. Reveal why they need SEO right now

Every exec — from your CEO to CFO, VPs to Managers — has their own different questions about the impact of SEO. They're likely to ask questions based on their role in the organization:

To get a "yes" from each role within your executive leadership, tell them about key benefits that appeal to each of them first, and spend less time explaining the tactics you use to drive those benefits. Show them why you're rooting for SEO.

Convincing the CEO

Tell them how you've found — from your research or experience — that, executed properly, SEO can drive measurable ROI for their business. Show them examples. Preferably, look for studies that show how SEO drives results for businesses like theirs.

So if you're in the drone industry, show them how a drone business is driving mouth-watering ROI every month through SEO. You'll need visuals here. Get screenshots of Google Analytics showing how similar brands are driving specific amounts of traffic that leads to conversions and sales every month.

Also, if possible, show them that SEO is one of the three biggest traffic drivers for businesses like theirs. This is what your execs are looking for. More than you telling them how important SEO is, they want to see visuals that prove to them that SEO actually works.

Convincing the CMO

Your CMO doesn't only want to see the results — even though those are important — they want to see how you achieve them, or at least a high-level overview of how you want to get the results you're promising.

Besides showing them examples of results that businesses like their organization get monthly through SEO, tell them about the tactical aspect of your SEO strategy, like how you're going to be:

While other execs outside your marketing department might not be so concerned with the operational aspect of SEO, your CMO — since they understand and are experienced with marketing — wants to see how you're hoping to drive results through SEO.

Convincing the CFO

It's all (or largely) about the money for your CFO. Their job is to make the best use of the company's financial resources. When your finance manager sees that Google is the biggest traffic driver for a similar company, they will know SEO is worth prioritizing in their budget.

You can also convince them it is a more cost-effective and higher-performing channel than another channel they're currently investing in. For instance, in the marketing arm of most organizations, there's usually at least one underperforming marketing channel that's yielding less-than-par results for the money invested in it. You can advise your C-Suite that SEO is a better channel to fund than that other underperforming channel.

3. Don't avoid the "how long" bit

Your C-Suite execs, besides the CMO, might not want to go into all the details of doing SEO, but they want to know when they're getting ROI — or at least when they should be expecting it. They've probably run Facebook, Instagram or Google Ads and seen how quickly results can add up, so they are accustomed to seeing fast results from their marketing spend.

SEO results usually take months to show up. While you might get a few hits in a few weeks after implementing your strategy, significant results don't happen until months later. So you have the option to avoid the "How long do results take to show up?" question, but that's a faulty move — especially because your bosses will surely pop the question.

Give them a range

Tell them results typically come in 4–12 months. Frankly, it depends on how you present it to them. Don't just tell them it takes that number of months to start seeing results, tell them why. Break down what happens in each of those months. You don't have to go in-depth into all the SEO technicalities; executives don't need it. Instead, highlight the main task of every month and why each of them is important. For example:

This way, you present what will be happening every month and why they're all important. If you can get visuals, that's even better; it will help make your case more persuasive. When you show them what keyword research looks like on a spreadsheet, they see what thousands of their target customers are searching every month — a screenshot like that opens their minds to the value of search and how it can drive results.

4. Help them see SEO's long-term benefits vs other channels

There's almost no way your execs won't be comparing SEO to other channels, in terms of how quickly results show up. Especially if they've previously funded Facebook, Twitter or Google Ad campaigns, they'll have a good idea of how fast results come from paid media.

So you have to do your homework on SEO vs other marketing channel comparisons. Don't just tell, show them some successful campaigns you or someone else in your organization have run on Facebook, Display Ads, or some other channel. Get screenshots of past advertising campaigns on any platform and put their focus on the short lifespan of the results of those campaigns. Remember to remain objective — tell them other channels have their place, then objectively conclude that SEO provides better results because it keeps driving results for years.

Introduce SEO as a better match

Look for a company like yours that has been maintaining a position in search results for a highly competitive keyword for months or even years. Show your execs a screenshot of that and how much customer attention and traffic that particular company has been getting through SEO.

SEMrush comes in handy here. Enter a successful competitor's URL and go to the Overview tab — the first data you'll see is the traffic from organic search vs. paid search. Then click the Organic Research tab to show all the keywords they're ranking on Google alongside how many searches those terms fetch per month.

Armed with a visual like this, you'll be selling your execs the exact ROI they look for in every marketing channel they invest in: numbers. They care about the potential number of relevant visitors and conversions they can get from a channel. Also, don't — in a bid to prove the value of SEO — speak ill of other channels. Instead, tell your execs other channels have their place, then objectively conclude that SEO provides better results because it keeps driving results for years.

Now, go crush your pitch!

With the key points above, you should be able to convince anyone about the value of SEO for their business. Remember that your C-Suite executives are open to investing in any marketing channel, but first, they need you to prove that channel worthy of their money. Focus on helping them — from the CEO to the business development VP — understand the value of SEO.