7 critical communication skills that get SEO recommendations implemented

You’ve probably heard the old saying, “It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it that matters.”

For years I resisted this and emphatically believed that the content of my communication was the only thing that mattered.

Over time my stubbornness softened, and I started altering how I said what I wanted to say and found that I could gain greater acceptance and less resistance to my communications.

This is especially true when working with clients in digital marketing.

When delivering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) recommendations, you, the SEO specialist, often struggle to implement those recommendations client-side.

At first, this seemed strange to me: clients hire a company and pay good money for SEO consulting work and then don’t implement the SEO recommendations.

But I quickly realized that this is for “good reasons”: often, your clients don’t have dedicated employees who have nothing else to do and are standing by waiting for SEO recommendations to execute – it’s more likely those who will execute already have a complete to-do list.

Your recommendations may be “just more stuff on their plate” to get done, and therefore not warmly welcomed. And there are myriad other reasons your recommendations may not get implemented and lead to long-term or even quick SEO wins.

Just a few examples include:

• A full queue client-side (as I just mentioned)
• Internal bureaucracy
• Resistance to change
• Lack of internal team agreement regarding the nature of certain SEO recommendations
• Conflicting or shifting priorities

You could easily add five or ten more examples from your experience.

While it’s true that in most SEO consulting relationships, your client’s team will be responsible for implementing your SEO recommendations, I’d like to suggest that how you communicate your recommendations plays a huge part in whether those recommendations get completed.

In other words, very often, it’s not what you say but how you say it that matters.

So sure – your client is probably responsible for actual recommendation execution. Still, you are responsible for communicating the need and importance of those recommendations in such a way as to make execution more likely.

I want to share with you seven essential communication skills to help you implement your recommendations – and, as a bonus, create a strong rapport with your clients that results in more likely long-term retention.

1. And vs. but

Gauge your internal response to these two statements:
“That hat looks good on you, but….”
“That hat looks good on you, and….”

Didn’t the first one make you feel like maybe some criticism is coming next?

“That hat looks good on you but…” – after hearing that, you’re waiting to hear what’s after the “but,” aren’t you? But what??

You can feel yourself bracing for what comes after the but because “but” is an eraser – it erases everything before it.

Here’s another example:
“I love this new recipe you made, but….”

Don’t you feel yourself tightening up, waiting for what comes after the “but” part?
“I love this new recipe you made, and….”
You don’t tighten up after the “and.”
“And” is a linker, “but” is an eraser.
“And” links the first part with the second part.

“I love this new recipe, but I wonder if you’ll try to improve it next time.”
“I love this new recipe, and I wonder if you’ll try to improve it next time.”

You can see the second example is softer, creating less resistance.

How about with SEO recommendations?
“I realize you don’t have the internal resources to execute these SEO recommendations right now, but they’re critical, so if we can complete them soon, I forecast the following positive results….”

Versus:
“I realize you don’t have the internal resources to execute these SEO recommendations right now, and they’re critical. So if we can complete these soon, I forecast the following positive results….”

That’s just one example – try using “and” instead of “but” to soften your communication and reduce resistance.

Disagreement is, well, disagreeable.

Some people do relish a debate or argument, but it’s agreement that gets work done. If we don’t agree on something, forward movement is halted.
Notice your internal response to these two statements: I don’t agree that resources are tight right now. I agree that resources are tight right now. Like “but vs. and,” agreement reduces resistance.

Here’s the example I used in the previous key skill; notice how it starts with agreement: “I agree that resources are tight right now, and the important question is whether we can really afford to not execute these very soon, because if we don’t, here’s how our organic performance will suffer.”

Another way the agreement frame can be used is when conflicting priorities come into play.

Let’s say you’ve identified a critical set of SEO recommendations that are very high priority, but your client suddenly announces they want to focus on something that’s not really a high priority SEO-wise.

You could say something like this: “I agree that that is an important priority and we need to get to work on that, and I’d like to suggest that we get to that immediately after we fix this other burning priority because this problem is negatively affecting organic performance right now….” Once again, notice the use of “but vs. and.”

Agreement means you’re aligning with your client, not opposing them.
Opposition creates resistance.

Resistance means it’s less likely your recommendations will be completed.
Agreement also builds rapport and helps with long-term client retention.

Working with clients is truly a collaborative effort.
If you ever find yourself feeling like you’re struggling against your client, I invite you to change your thinking from “me and them” to “us.”

That puts you on the same side of the rope as your client, and you’re pulling with them, not against them.

A good way to use We vs. You is when talking about past and future performance. Here are some examples:

• “Last month our numbers were down year over year, but that was because of XYZ. Now our performance is up because we got ABC recommendations implemented so quickly.”
• “Right now, our low-hanging fruit opportunities are….”
• “If we can get XYZ SEO recommendations implemented ASAP, then that’s going to fix the problem causing our ABC performance issues.”
• “We’ve seen decent organic performance increases in XYZ section of our site after the recommendations for that section were completed, and if we can quickly get to optimizing ABC section of our site, then we should see as good or better performance increases there.”

Collaborative words to use are “we, our, us, the team,” and so on.
I’m sure you can easily see how we can improve our communication skills by using “We vs. You” in our client communications, can’t you?

I’ve got a question for you: what’s important to you when it comes to SEO?

• Higher rankings?
• More traffic?
• Increased conversions?
• Better organic click-thru rate?
• Outpacing the competition?
• Fixing a giant technical mess preventing better organic performance?

If you’re an SEO, you probably said all of the above.
But, have you asked your client what’s important to them when it comes to SEO?

If not, you may be focusing on something they don’t see as important.
If you’re focusing on things they see as unimportant, whatever results you do get are likely not going to be met with the uncorking of champagne bottles by your client.

And, your client is also not likely to want to stick with you or your agency since you can’t seem to focus on what’s important to them.

So how do you find out?
Ask them.
Here are some examples for you:

• “What’s important to you when it comes to SEO?”
• “What constitutes SEO success to you?”
• “What are the most important results you want to see from our SEO efforts?”

This is especially useful at the start of an SEO engagement for several reasons.

• You immediately uncover how success will be measured by your client
• If expectations are unreasonable, you’ll know this right up front
• You’ll be able to refer back to what’s important to them as the engagement progresses and tie efforts and results to what they said is important

Knowing how success will be measured if unreasonable expectations exist, and being able to tie efforts and results to what’s important to the client, are both extremely valuable for you during the SEO engagement.

But what if you’re in the middle of an engagement? Is it too late to ask?
Of course not.
Simply put a friendly spin on things.

“Hey, you know, I just realized that I should have asked you this when we first kicked off our SEO engagement together, but…” and then ask the questions.
And if you take over an engagement for another SEO, asking those questions is quite appropriate, and your client will appreciate that you cared enough to ask.

Note: your client might not be able to answer the question. They may have only thought about SEO success in vague, undefined terms, or maybe never really thought about it at all but just know they “need that SEO stuff.”
That’s okay. Give them some suggestions for what you and other clients have seen as important.