And relate is the key word here – if you’re discussing new ideas then you need to find an existing concept for people to relate the new idea to. When I discuss SEO to small business owners they usually know that they need it but they’re not always sure why they need it. So I relate it to them like this:
You open a new store on a busy street. On that busy street is a sidewalk with significant affluent foot traffic. Do you have a large clean window on the side of the building facing the foot traffic? Of course because it shows off your merchandise. If you didn’t have it then people would walk right by not realizing what you’ve got for sale.
No business owner I’ve ever met has not understood this concept. I then change the “busy street” with “the internet”, “sidewalk” with Google and the window is SEO. You don’t need to know the mechanics of how a window is made, hung, and cleaned, but you do know what the outcome should be.