How to prove to client SEO is worth it?

Convince them that you can get them results and dont talk about the technical aspect of things. Show them that without good placement on SE that they are missing out on potential customers. Show them statistics about which results get the most clicks on page 1.

I think the best thing would be to show a real case study - that should help close a sale!

Dina

Rank one site of yours, prove it, and see what happens. Sometimes people are so dumb they think you're screwing them... and don't believe in what you just did.

True story.

Show them which of their keywords are converting into sales. Conversions, in all likelihood, is what they are most interested in.

Hmmm.. first thing you should do is see if it indeed would be worth it to them. Not every business can benefit from SEO compared to other methods of marketing.

I would start with explaining the concept of why targeted search engine traffic is so powerful. Show some stats on how buyer keywords convert. Just whip out Google keyword tool and show them how many potential customers are looking for keywords they can get ranked for, and turn that into money. Calculate a possible conversion rate, multiply it by a % of searches per month, and multiply that by their sales profit, and SHOW them what they could be earning in concrete numbers in front of them.

Is it a dentist?

Point to the top 3 spots on Google and Ask "are they a better dentist than you?" Dr.NotSureAboutSEO "No" - .. "well.. everyone searching for your services assumes they are, they get all of the new clients, we are talking hundreds of thousands of searches monthly"

Ryan

I NEVER sell SEO. Sell benefits, not features. Sell more customers.
Sell more profits - IF you can really produce them.

Hugh

If you plan on explaining web design and SEO to them then assume you will walk out the door with nothing.

Hugh is spot on. Sell them on the benefits of being on page one. Show them the percentage of people who click on each position and convert that to numbers for each search term. Ask them how often THEY ever go to page two on a search.

If you want to educate people on what you do then be a teacher. If you want to sell then better help them understand the benefits of what you do.

The client saw an immediate spike in business and web hits. They saw it themselves and knew it was real. How else would you do it?

What I do is try to get them to understand how the search engines work on a very basic level because the theories business owners have about how a site gets on the first page on Google are insane - many have no clue how it works.

Once they kind of understand (and some never get it) it is fairly easy to get them to understand how SEO/ranking works. Most, if not all business owners have been sold SEO so much there is no real need to sell them on the need for it.

Another thing is make sure you feel confident you can get their site to rank well for the keywords they want to target, you don't want to set yourself up for failure. Also make sure it will generate some traffic and that it is useful traffic to their site.

In my opinions you shouldnt have to convience someone to get SEO, after you discuss how it works and how it can benefit their business they should already be convienced if you did a good job presenting it.... Worry about selling solutions on how to get them clients and online visibility and you wont have to worry about being pushy and trying to convience them...

SEO is a service where (offline) many of the customers will need education. You don't need to educate about the need for office cleaning or bookkeeping. You probably (these days) don't need to educate about websites eitehr. But SEO is like, well, what is it?

So, to me (and this is an opinion, not experience, so take it for what that's worth)....if I were selling SEO I wouldn't get on the phone and say, "hey do you want some SEO? We have SEO's on sale this month, and we are throwing in steak knives if you say yes right now".

I'd think to myself: who needs SEO? Okay, these people. Then I'd want to educate them in some way. That could be a report, face to face presentation, whatever works. Maybe you could go around offering website audits that show them where they're at. Maybe you could run a seminar.
The aim would be to educate them on exactly what SEO is, and (more importantly) what SEO will do for them. I wouldn't be shy on telling them how to do it either. Run a seminar on "how to build your online presence through search engine optimisation".....sell the benefits, show them how. Get them thinking, "yeah, this is good and could put me ahead of my competition".
Now you have pain-free done-for-you services at however much per month.

If you already have a current customer list (it sounds like you do), you already know who to contact. Now you just have to work out how to best approach the education side.

You need to prove them how SEO help them not in term of search result and traffics only. You need to show how many times of traffic they able to get compare to them now and make them believe that traffics equal to sale.
Show him that he missing how much traffics for those keywords due to unable to rank well.
And show him your previous customer with success .
Give them some special offer like try for the 1st keyword with cheaper price then only look for more keywords.

If you client need some explanation about what you are doing, then state some important tactics that you are doing and assure him that your strategies are effective Just be firm and confident.

Kanniganj had a post about this in the telemarketing forum. If the business can benefit from SEO, look at the best key words for them and show them how many searches there are for that keyword for month (ex. Sunnyvale Mexican Restaurant has 6000 searches), then show them their competition ranked on page one, and let them know their competition is getting most of the business from these 6000 searches because of their page one ranking. Now show them how they aren't benefitting from those 6000 searches because of their low ranking on page 5 (most people don't look beyond page 2).The prospect will begin to think.

Using your prospect's competitors as a tool, in this way, is a very effective method. No business owner wants the competition to have an edge.

Making your prospect think in this way will also make them sell/close themselves, these are the best kind of sales because their is usually no buyers remorse.

First, I don't think you want to go in proving that SEO is worth it. It's not about selling or proving the worth of SEO, it's about selling benefits - increased sales and profits - to the owner.

Many are clueless about "SEO" but understand the importance of being on page one. I ask the prospect to type in a search for the product or service they offer to the local market. When they don't come up above the fold on page 1, I ask who their potential customer will most likely click on and call.

It's just highlighting and magnifying a pain point they have.

I then heal the wound by telling them how our SEO services will have them at the top of the SERPs so that prospects click on their link.

A couple people mentioned above that many businesses won't really get a lot of benefit, which is an excellent point. I have the greatest success when I focus on giving marketing strategies that will generate the greatest returns and results.

SEO is often a component but as far as the greatest ROI to a client, strategies that incorporate improving closing ratios cross-selling, up-selling, CRM, increasing the frequency of purchase (lifetime customer value) and generating referrals are far more powerful.

The best way to prove it to them. Is by showing them the results you have gotten from seo or the results you got your clients from giving them seo services.

YOu may have to work free at first to help a client gain top rankings to use as proof.