How to Make a Business Case for Enterprise SEO

As an enterprise SEO agency, we know this better than anyone. We work with enterprise companies and see the results that SEO can have on their bottom line. Here’s how we would make a business case for enterprise SEO. With this business case in hand, getting the budget for your SEO should become much easier. 

How to Create an SEO Business Case

Making a business case for enterprise SEO involves outlining what SEO can do. This is tied to quantitative goals backed up by real data. Your business already has this data it’s just a matter of gathering it and presenting it. 

Define Objectives & Business Goals

Start by defining clear SEO objectives that align directly with your overarching business goals. You’ll want to use data analytics to understand user behaviour and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) that closely tie into your business targets like lead generation, sales conversions, or enhancing customer engagement.

Tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console can help you track user flow, goal completions, and conversion paths, providing valuable insights. In an enterprise setting, make sure your SEO goals support broader objectives such as increasing market share, enhancing brand reputation, or driving specific types of conversions, like enterprise sales leads.

Linking these SEO activities with business outcomes is essential to justify the investment and gain executive support.

Conduct a Current State Analysis

You’ll want to perform a detailed SEO audit using tools like Screaming Frog, Google Analytics and Ahrefs. This audit should assess your website’s SEO health in areas like keyword rankings, organic traffic and revenue. Also, evaluate your off-page factors, focusing on backlink profile quality.

Compare these metrics against industry standards and competitor performances. Such an analysis helps pinpoint areas where your site excels or lags, providing details on the possible opportunity gain to convey to decision-makers. 

Identify Opportunities and Challenges

A business case also needs to pinpoint opportunities and address challenges to create a balanced enterprise SEO strategy.

You’ll find that using keyword research tools to discover high-value, underexploited keywords is a good example of showcasing opportunities. A content gap analysis is a great method to expose topics your competitors cover but you don’t—a clear area for content expansion. This can be done with Ahrefs. Likewise, analysing competitor link profiles can reveal valuable link-building openings.

However, you’re also likely facing technical barriers like slow site speed or poor mobile usability, issues you can identify with tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Enterprise sites often struggle with content visibility and keyword optimisation across different business units, highlighting a need for targeted SEO efforts in strategic business areas.

Propose SEO Strategies and Solutions

To create a compelling business case for Enterprise SEO, you’ll need to propose specific strategies and solutions that address both the technical and content-related challenges faced by your organisation.

Start by outlining technical improvements like enhancing site architecture for improved crawlability and implementing structured data to boost visibility in search engines You’ll also want to detail content strategies, including targeting long-tail keywords for niche markets and creating content hubs that improve internal linking and target higher search volume terms.

It’s important to make sure these solutions are scalable, allowing for site-wide technical optimisations and content strategies adaptable across various departments or regions. 

Estimate Costs and Resources

Estimating the costs and resources required for Enterprise SEO is one of the key areas in creating an SEO business case. 

If you’re looking to hire an SEO agency, estimating the cost of SEO is considerably easier. An agency will be able to give a set figure that’s inclusive of personal cost and SEO tools. This figure doesn’t change month to month unless you choose to scale up or down. It also requires less time for onboarding and there’s no personal turnover. 

If you are keeping the SEO in-house, it will take a few more calculations to work out. You’ll require SEO specialists, content creators, and potentially web developers. Remember to factor in the cost of software. 

You’ll also need to calculate the expenses involved in technical SEO enhancements, such as server upgrades or integrating CDN services.

Project the Benefits

To project the benefits you can use historical data and leverage predictive analytics. By drawing on past successes and industry benchmarks, you can predict how similar efforts will affect your organic search traffic and revenue. Your analysis should also try to qualify how it will grow the brand of your enterprise business. 

With Enterprise SEO, you need to justify that the means meet the end. This doesn’t mean that you need to inflate the figures. In our experience, the effects of search engine optimisation compound. The more time invested, the more growth you will see. 

Analyse ROI

You can accurately analyse the ROI of your Enterprise SEO efforts by projecting how enhanced organic search engine rankings will increase revenue and reduce acquisition costs. By considering the effects of SEO over time and adjusting for specific industry conversion rates and average order values, you’ll see a clearer financial impact.

Remember, quantifying SEO ROI means taking into account improved conversion rates and lower customer acquisition costs. Advanced modelling will help to handle the complexities of attribution across different channels and assess the long-term value of incremental improvements in SEO.

This approach guarantees you’re not just guessing but providing a concrete, data-driven basis for your SEO investment decisions.

Develop a Timeline

It’s important to outline a clear timeline for implementing these strategies effectively. You’ll need a method of visualising each stage, from the initial audits to the ongoing optimisation.

Start by scheduling the technical audits and strategy formulation, followed by the phased rollout of content creation. Remember, the pace in large organisations is slower, so set realistic milestones for technical fixes and content deployment. Include regular review points to adjust strategies as needed.

This careful planning will help manage expectations across stakeholders and ensure your SEO efforts are well-aligned with other marketing and IT departments. Keeping everyone on the same page is essential for the smooth integration of your SEO strategy.

Prepare Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategies

Begin by identifying potential risks such as algorithm changes or technical errors that could impact your SEO outcomes. These disruptions can influence your search rankings. You’ll need to plan proactively to handle these risks effectively.

Consider implementing regular backups of your website before making substantial updates, which guarantees you can restore previous versions if something goes wrong. Additionally, incorporate A/B testing for changes affecting user experience. These SEO practices help you understand potential impacts before they become widespread issues.

Risk management is important for enterprise companies where modifications can have extensive repercussions. Always assess how technical implementations and algorithm updates might impact your search engine rankings, and prepare accordingly to mitigate these risks efficiently.

Create a Monitoring and Reporting Plan

You’ll need to use advanced analytics and SEO monitoring tools to measure your enterprise websites performance.

By setting up automated dashboards in Google Looker Studio or similar platforms, you can gain real-time insights into vital SEO metrics, such as keyword rankings, backlink growth, and trends in organic traffic. This ongoing assessment enables you to pinpoint both issues and opportunities quickly. A reporting system is critical for tracking performance across different segments of your organisation.

Present the Enterprise SEO Business Case

To effectively present your Enterprise SEO business case, start by outlining the projected ROI and key performance metrics using clear data visualisations. When addressing senior executives, it’s important to translate the technical aspects of SEO into tangible business benefits.

Use charts and graphs to demonstrate how enhancements in SEO can directly impact your company’s bottom line. Highlight how strategic SEO efforts align with broader business objectives and can offer a competitive edge in the market.

Make sure your presentation isn’t only data-driven but also tells a convincing story that connects SEO initiatives to key business outcomes. This approach will help stakeholders see the value and urgency of investing in Enterprise SEO.

What are the Unique Challenges for Enterprise Companies?

Enterprise companies often struggle with the challenging task of managing thousands of pages across their expansive websites. This sheer volume makes site architecture and internal linking hard to manage and optimise. You’ll find that ensuring each page is properly indexed and contributes to your site’s overall SEO performance becomes a significant task.

The scalability of content production presents another hurdle, especially for eCommerce businesses. Keeping your content fresh and fully optimised can seem like a never-ending battle as your product lines expand and evolve. 

You might also face resistance when trying to gain internal team support for implementing effective SEO changes. Due to the size and complexity of your organisation, aligning various departments and securing their cooperation for SEO initiatives often proves challenging. They may not immediately see the direct benefits, making your job even tougher.

There are also technical challenges posed by legacy systems and technical debt. These can severely hamper your SEO efforts, requiring you to conduct proactive audits and consider migrating to more modern platforms to enhance performance. 

Want to Know More About Enterprise SEO?

We’ve worked with enterprise clients in Australia and internationally for the last decade. Send our team a message and we can show what we’ve done and what enterprise SEO can do for your business. This knowledge will only strengthen your business case for enterprise SEO. 

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Create a Business Case for SEO Investment?

You’ll need to forecast traffic growth and revenue to create a business case for SEO investment. Show how SEO aligns with company goals and detail potential cost savings and return on investment.

How to Do Enterprise Seo?

To do enterprise SEO, you’ll need to focus on scaling your strategies, using advanced tools, and forming specialised teams to handle large-scale optimisations and content management.

What Is an Example of Enterprise Seo?

HubSpot is a prime example managing over 10,000 pages and ranking for about 4.7 million keywords.