First things first;
Did you know your SEO improves if you put your ‘focus keyphrase’ in the first paragraph of your post. Like this; SEO, SEO, I love SEO. See? We’re learning already. In all seriousness – this article will give you a couple of tips for making your SEO more tolerable, but before we do, let’s talk some home truths.
If you’re in the marketing game, you’ll be somewhat familiar with this thing called the internet – it’s quite integral to what we do. Gone are the days where you can put up an ad in the local newspaper and wait for the inquiries to come flooding in. Nowadays, you’ve got to blend creative longings for crazy ad campaigns and pursuits of the perfect persona with “data”, “proof”, “making money”, blah blah blah.
Instead, you’ve got to sit at computers and find clientele. In the tundra that is the interweb, you’ve been tasked with connecting with customers, making it possible for them to come to you.
Listen, we’re all friends here. We can admit SEO is boring.
Considering you’ve chosen to read this article, you’ll likely be aware that SEO is really rather dull. There are no instant results. Nothing is qualitative. The bar charts aren’t nearly colourful enough. Your puny human emotions are useless here.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. No one is going to pretend your SEO work is an utter joy – and if anyone ever does, you can safely assume they’d be terrible dinner conversation. Let’s set our expectations a little lower. For now; let’s just try and make SEO tolerable.
Step One: Remember What SEO Is For
Search Engine Optimisation. Wow. Such fancy words. What do they all mean?
It means “make your stuff easy to find online”. Yes, there’s a load of other things your analytics will do for you – but that’s the crux of it.
The internet is a very big place, and as such, it can be quite hard to be seen and heard. No matter what you’re providing – be it a service, product, whatever; there’s someone trying to find it as quickly and easily as possible. So make their day easier and get yourself nice and clear on your keywords and search area. People are trying to find you, so help them out a little.
“Quick” fix – get your Google Analytics house in order.
Step Two: Make Your SEO About People
SEO is still marketing – and marketing is about people. There’s a person behind each click you’re looking at, so keep those characters at the centre of the story. Consider your messaging and tone as the narrative your characters are following – and tailor it as such. The better the story you’re telling, the better the customer’s experience, and the better their experience is – the more likely they are to leave you the fantastic feedback you’re due.
Always remember that feedback and reviews are one of the most valuable resources at your online disposal. First of all, because it shows both the search engine overlords and your customers that you’re real. But secondly, because it fits this narrative; you get to see the human behind that click. Those people are giving you something to act on, ways to genuinely improve your SEO.
“Quick” fix – get yourself some online reviews.
Step Three: Show Your Work The Respect It Deserves
Remember the other day when you worked really bloody hard on a content strategy, then spent your valuable time crafting said content, and were really proud of it? Why is no one reading it? Why don’t people connect with your stuff?
Your content could be the best thing since sliced bread – but if your SEO isn’t up to snuff, no one’s going to see it. There’s only so many times your mum can comment “great job honey!” on your LinkedIn posts before you begin to question if it was even worth it.
You work hard. Show your work the respect it deserves, and don’t let it go to waste.
“Quick” fix – Share your stuff. Share your stuff. SHARE YOUR STUFF.
Step Four: Keep Learning
It can seem so cliche, but when you’re playing a long game (and when it comes to SEO, you don’t really have a choice), remember you have room to play around. Whether your keywords have been working just fine forever or are completely failing; there’s no such thing as perfect. Use your imagination and try something new alongside your old-faithfuls.
It’s not revolutionary, but the fact of the matter is Google changes its algorithm somewhere between 500-600 times a year. You being on top today doesn’t mean much I’m afraid. Your SEO has to roll with the punches, so stay creative in your approach. If I had no soul I’d say something like “think outside the box” – but I won’t do that to you.
“Quick” tip – keep an eye out for fresh tips, like these ones.
So go put the kettle on. That SEO won’t sort itself. May the analytics dashboard be ever in your favour. And if you’re not quite ready to return to your analytics dashboard, you can always take a look around some of our other content here. And if you’re really sick of SEO, you could always drop us a line to see how we can help out; take a look at our SEO case study from late last month right here.