As a search marketer, sometimes explaining what we do is actually more difficult than doing what we do.

That’s not to say that search marketing is overly complex or hard to understand. There are some very obvious things that you need to do when building a web site, writing copy or promoting it to give you the best chance possible to rank well in search results. Of course, there are still other parts of search marketing that aren’t quite as obvious, and its those elements that separate the very good from the very bad in the profession.

Recently, I was asked about how I go about explaining SEO to someone who doesn’t know anything (or very little) about it. The premise of the question was that this hypothetical person knows only that their web site is not ranking for a phrase that they think people are using online, and that this is a bad thing.

I had an immediate response to this question because it is something I’ve had to personally deal with in just about every job I’ve had over the past 12 years. Whether working on the client side or agency side of the house, being able to explain why search is important, and how it works, is critical. Why? From my experience, most CEO’s or even marketing VP’s won’t support what they don’t understand – and by support I really mean, fund.

So how do you do it? How can you explain SEO to your boss or client in a way that they will not only understand it, but support it?

First, I would start by evaluating the competition. Show your client (which I will use to also include boss for the purposes of this article) where their site stands in the search landscape. You don’t need to get technical at this point, just do some web searches and take some screenshots. If your client really loves Excel, make them a spreadsheet. Run some search queries through Google, and see who comes up first, second and third. Jot all of this down in the aforementioned spreadsheet.

Where does their company show up? Are they in the top 3? What about the top 10 (the first page)? If not, its almost like your web site doesn’t exist. People rarely go past the first page of search results to find something they are looking for.

Now, there are any number reasons for why their site isn’t showing up for searches. It could be that their site isn’t optimized. It could be that its a new site and there hasn’t been enough time to index it and allow its search rankings to grow organically. The site might not have very many links to it, and therefore seem less important to Google. Maybe there is a technical reason why the site isn’t being listed, such as a problem with the site’s code.

Because there are going to be plenty of questions, you need to find the answers. If you are a search marketer yourself, then you’ll probably be experienced enough to know where to start. If not, and you are interested in justifying the necessity of paying someone else to find the answers, you may need to explain some basics to your client in order to get them on board.

Good search engine optimization comes down to a few key things:

• Content
• On-page optimization
• Links
• Technical considerations

You will be defined by the content you keep

To truly appreciate the importance of having quality, relevant content on your site you must first understand how Google and other search engines make money. Ready for it? They sell ads. Lots and lots of ads. But, rarely do actual people go to a search engine to click on ads. In fact, I’d guess this never happens. Actual people go to search engines to find relevant results for their searches — an answer to a question.

Do you have that answer? Are you the best resource out there? How do you prove it?

Having killer content is the starting point for all of your future success on the web. It will drive not only high rankings on search engines but also highly converting web sites. Maybe you want people to request information from your site, or you want to sell them something. By being the authority in your profession, and by having well written, well researched and highly relevant content, you will be judged (over time) favorably by Google and others.

Since search engines can pick any page on your site that it deems the most relevant for a users search, you technically have many different potential entry points to your site. Why not write lots and lots of content to expand those entry points? Why not have more bait in the water to catch fish with?

You need to know how search engines see the web

Writing something that is relevant and researched is the first and probably most important first step. But you also need to know how Google will see your page, and understand how people look for things online. That’s where on-page optimization comes in. I won’t get into all of that here, after all, I have written a guide to basic search engine optimization that you’d be crazy not to read. However, by making sure the title’s of your pages include the most relevant keywords for the subject of that page, along with a bunch of other really easily observed best practices, you will soon have a web page that Google can easily digest and make sense of.

Link building, that important thing no one wants to do, or pay for

I can’t tell you how many clients I’ve worked with that didn’t understand and didn’t want to pay for link building. It is a shame, because unfortunately you can write great content and optimize it, but if people don’t link to it then you will have a much harder road to great search rankings.

Links are like votes for your web site. I can’t take credit for the analogy, though, that one came from my former colleague and all around awesome digital marketer, Chris Sietsema. How many votes (links) does your site have? How many do your competitors have? Unlike voting in a political election, though, not all votes are created equal. A vote from an influential web site is going to weigh much heavier in your favor than one from a site with a few readers.

Now, some people will tell you to go out and buy votes. Don’t do it. Just like in the real world, buying votes is unethical. It is punishable by prison time (being blacklisted by Google).

So how do you get votes for your site (again, we’re talking about links not hanging chads). You contact people who own and operate other web sites and ask for them. Sometimes you can just ask them. “Hey, would you mind linking to me?” Most of the time, though, you will be ignored. Much better to become a part of the readership of a site you want to vote for you. Or, to write about them on your own site and link to them. Maybe, follow them on Twitter and comment on stuff they put out, if you find it worthy. Eventually, you will make friends with people, and those friendships will lead to votes. But this takes a long, long time to do. It doesn’t need to be expensive, but it’s difficult nonetheless.

The technical stuff that goes over their head

There are going to be things that you just aren’t going to be able to easily put in layman’s terms for your client. Things like file size, web page loading speed, externally linked to script files. They are all super important factors to search engine optimization. For this, unless your client is technically savvy or at least willing to humor you, they need to just trust you. Yeah, you can explain that the longer it takes for Google to read through your site, the more likely it is to pass you up entirely. If your site takes too long to load, then it isn’t providing a good experience to users. People use Google to find answers to questions quickly. If you aren’t quick, Google has no use for you.

A lot of the technical stuff comes down to this: There are right ways, and wrong ways, to code your web site. You want to believe that the people you hired to build it for you did it the right way, but that isn’t always the case, especially if you didn’t bring in someone with SEO knowledge from the outset. It sucks, but sometimes you need to go back and fix things that weren’t accounted for.

It’s like building a house, and then planting a bunch of bushes and trees in the front yard. Google comes by and they can’t see your house, or they see it but have to hack through a bunch of stuff to get to the front door. It isn’t worth their time, you’re just one of a billion pages it needs to visit today.

What have we learned?

Like any business or brand, success often comes down to having a great product. In the case of search on the web, you’re going to have to generate some content about your product in order for it to be shown in search. So, shouldn’t you also have great content? And, shouldn’t you have lots of it knowing that each page can match a different search term?

Understanding how Google sees your content is important, because it lets you tailor it (in a good way) to rank as highly as possible. For example, knowing that Google highly values keywords being placed in the TITLE of a web page is something to take advantage of for every page on your site. If you need to know all of the various on page optimization best practices, review my helpful SEO guide.

Links are like votes. The popular kid in class has a much easier road to becoming King of the Prom than the loner who ate in the library during lunch (e.g. me in high school). But buying your influence online, while effective can be dangerous. Don’t be the guy who recommended buying links only to have your client thrown in Google jail. Don’t do it!

Finally, you should have built your web site with the consultation of a search marketer from the outset. But let’s be honest, who does that? It’s like Chris Rock says, “Yeah you can drive with your feet but that doesn’t mean its a good idea.” But, its not too late to have someone look at your site and make the necessary corrections to ensure that search engines can index your content. Beyond the search implications, many of these technical fixes will improve the overall load time and experience for your users. It’s just worth doing.

Take these tips and use them the next time you need to explain SEO to your boss or client. Let me know how they work out for you!