It may seem like an exaggeration to call SEO an art form, but the deeper you delve into it, the more of its creative aspects you see. There are elements of artistry in the way you present your data, aromas of magic in the way the algorithms work, and a poetic flair in the way you need to communicate with clients.
From data studio dashboard secrets to quality backlinking, here are five of the best insider tips from top digital marketing agencies:
1. Take advantage of templates
Though we’ve all heard the old adage about not judging books by their covers, it seems humans will always be hardwired to do so. Nowhere is this more true than in the world of SEO. When sharing results with clients, you will always get a better reaction if your data is presented in an impressive format. However, if you dedicate your precious time to developing stunning data visualizations from scratch, you’ll have less of it to spend on the work that really counts. To combat this dilemma, it’s worth taking advantage of the many templates available, each one designed to suit a different market segment.
2. Focus on quality content
Fancy graphics and beautiful images are all well and good, but search engines still need words to grasp onto and get a feel for what a site is all about. This means you need to take advantage of every opportunity you can get to add valuable written content to your clients’ web pages.
Though you are doing this for SEO purposes, keep in mind that it’s ultimately the human eyes you want on your clients’ sites. With this in mind, make sure your content has all the keywords and formatting features needed to keep the bots happy but is also packed full of information that will keep your potential customers coming back for more.
3. Don’t forget the details
If you’re already working with clients, then you’re aware of the need for keyword research in driving your SEO strategy. Where many newer SEO specialists fall short is with the finer details of search engine optimization. Though these aspects may be a bit more time consuming, ensuring you have perfectly optimized meta titles, meta descriptions, and alt-text on images will make a surprisingly big difference. The same goes for blunders you need to avoid like keyword stuffing or using copyrighted images without permission.
4. Even the URLs matter
If you needed more proof that SEO truly is an art form, this point should do the trick. The search engine bots are so finicky that even URLs need to be optimized to keep them happy. You want them to be precise and relevant to the page’s content, and for the love of the algorithms, don’t stuff them with any click-bait, gimmicky words, or meaningless characters. It’s also important to do regular sweeps for broken links as these are basically digital dead weight, which you want to avoid.
5. Backlinks are not made equal
Thinking that any backlink is a good backlink has been at the heart of many an SEO failure. Backlinks from questionable domains or those embedded in articles with unreadable grammar can do massive damage to a website. A good backlink profile should contain a mix of “do follow” and “no follow” links. Business directories are fine, so long as you also have a good balance of links coming from high-authority pages with quality content.
As you can see, SEO truly is an art form. Respect it as such, work the above tips into your strategy, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming an SEO master.
