Difficult Boss: Does anyone know of a SEO quick reference?

[UnderRugSwept]

I am dealing with a boss who does not understand all the aspects of SEO and its value. He thinks if I just plaster keywords on a page, we'll rank. He thinks I'm wasting my time blogging, link-building, ect.

I'm wondering if anyone knows of an article or blog post that has been published that BRIEFLY explains the value of these things.

What I am looking for is NOT an article about the basics of SEO. I don't need something that is written for a beginner SEO just starting out who wants to learn how to do it. I need something that is written for a business owner who isn't technically-minded, so he can understand why and how each aspects helps rankings.

Does any such reference exist?

[Copstead]

There's the SEOmoz SEO Beginners Guide: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo

or the SEO Cheatsheet: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-web-developers-seo-cheat-sheet

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Sorry to hear about Your boss here is something I am positive it will shed some light

I would use the links below obviously you know your boss better than I do so use what you feel is appropriate.

This is something that touches on a lot of things and is very easy to follow

http://www.hubspot.com/products/inbound-marketing/

In addition I would run your website to this for him http://marketing.grader.com/

here is SEOmoz search engine ranking factors

http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors

in addition I believe you can get a lot out of this

http://www.hubspot.com/customer-case-studies/

then when it says which idea would you like to learn more about show them what is listed.

http://learning.hubspot.com/

I hope I was of some help. If you need additional help for whatever reason or a professional to tell your boss you are doing the right thing (at no cost course) please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Thomas Zickell

QuiZick Internet marketing

tzickell@quizick.com

[friendlymachine]

Marisa, I'm not sure this is really what you're looking for, but I recently wrote a blog post that targeted this type of client:

http://redpointhq.com/blog/2012/calculating-the-value-of-seo/

It doesn't break it down the way you specified (great idea for another post, actually), but maybe if you combine it with other stuff you find, perhaps something that breaks down the SEO process, it could help.

[UnderRugSwept]

John,

It's not exactly what I'm looking for, but it's a nice post nonetheless.

Thanks!

[UnderRugSwept]

Brent,

Thanks, but the SEOmoz stuff isn't what I'm looking for. It's too long and technical. One thing I should have mentioned is that my boss' attention span is about 16.27 seconds.

[UnderRugSwept]

Thanks, Thomas.

I'd say http://www.hubspot.com/products/inbound-marketing/ is the closest thing so far out of all the suggestions. Now if I could just find one that only breaks down SEO and how each aspect affects ranking, and in VERY simple terms like that page does, I'll be golden! But the page's format is exactly what I'm looking for--perfect for his attention span.

[UnderRugSwept]

Hubspot's grader could work too. I've used it before but I never thought of showing our results to my boss. It's good because if you're not doing something it tells you why you should, and if you are doing something it commends you and tells you why you should keep doing it.

[KeriMorgret]

I'd love to know of this type of resource. I can only think of a couple of examples in lay terms to help explain specific points.

To help illustrate that what happens off the page does have an impact, ask your boss to search for "click here" and "click here to exit" to show the power of anchor text.

If you need to work on URL structure and have to fight for time with devs to get proper canonicalization, say that Google isn't as smart as the post office. The post office can figure out that "123 Main Street South" "123 Main St S" "123 Main St" etc are all the same place, but Google thinks each of those are a different place and splits up authority among those different places.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Marisa,

I was just going through YouTube and thinking that to explain to a person who is no knowledge of how a search engine works maybe a video?

I hope this is of help if not I would be happy to put together a list very easy to read with photos and everything.

Sincerely,

Thomas

5mVU84nsMTs

[BlueprintMarketing]

I think HubSpot greater is a fantastic tool I should tell you they've changed it to http://marketing.grader.com that URL is up above as well. I hope the video is of help

[Steven_Macdonald]

Hi Marisa,

I was in the same boat as you.

What I was able to do, was put a value, an ROI on my activity. In fact, I just blogged about my success over at YouMoz although it's pending right now. Not sure if you can see this blog post here but:... http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/four-seo-basics-that-helped-double-organic-traffic-and-sales-overnight

Basically, we took organic web traffic from 2,000 visits per week to 6,500 per week and organic weekly sales increased by 450%. Once I associated actual $$ from my efforts, I got full support.

Best of luck!

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Marisa,

I think I have found what might work. Start on page 8 for the slider or use this PDF page 6

http://www.hubspot.com/Portals/53/docs/how-to-get-found-by-google-with-hubspot-software.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/how-to-get-found-on-google-using-the-hubspot-software

Here is the main page with a very long video however if he has more questions it could be useful

http://www.hubspot.com/how-to-get-found-on-google-using-hubspot-archive

Sincerely,

Thomas

[Mcarle]

Write up a new blopg post?

Just kidding.

I totally feel you, SEO is so complicated and changes so fast that it take too much effort for most people to grok.

Show your boss the money, show him the increased traffic, the new clients...

Show him the results.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Marissa,

if you go to this page it has an easy-to-follow intro then at the bottom you can choose from on page Seo or off page you get results like this.

Off-Page SEO Factors

The full potential of SEO is realized only when all apects of SEO are performed. Both On-Page SEO and Off-Page SEO are critical to effectively produce search engine results. Off-Page SEO is defined by optimizing items external to your site. Some of which you can control, other aspects that you cannot. Off-page factors help raise visibility and provide valuable assistance to the on-page SEO tactics and techniques. Off-Page SEO strategies include:

• Site Links
• Social Media Marketing
• Social Media Bookmarking
• Article Marketing
• Blogging
• Press Releases
• RSS Feeds Syndication
• Video Marketing
• Directory Listing
• Domain Age History

http://www.go2itgroup.com/search-engine-marketing/index.htm#.T42ebuhYtcQ

I hope your boss can follow this and there's on page of page and much more but only 6 total

all the best,

Thomas

[UnderRugSwept]

No, that doesn't work, but I look forward to seeing it when it goes live.

[UnderRugSwept]

I thought of that briefly, but if he doesn't want me to spend time blogging, he's sure not going to want me to spend time blogging about blogging.

[Mcarle]

At some point you have to tell clients.

"This is where you trust me because you hired me, because I'm the expert"

"Your job is to deal with YOUR clients, My job is to get you those clients using SEO & your website, so trust me & let me do my job so you can have more clients for yours"

I have had to tell clients many time that they hired me for a reason, they now need to just let go & let me guide them & everything will be roses.

[AmazingUniverse56]

If your still looking for resources, I downloaded this great ebook from Boostability.  It's got a lot of basic stuff, but is also a great tool to reference.